Moto3 Sachsenring: Guevara gaps rivals for victory in Germany

Izan Guevara lead from the front and pulled away again to win back-to-back races at the Moto3 German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.

Lisa Lewis

19 Jun 2022

Izan Guevara, Moto3 race, German MotoGP, 19 June

Polesitter and Catalan race winner Izan Guevara collected his third win of the year in style as he gapped the rest of the field to ease over the line solo in the Moto3 German Grand Prix, round ten of the championship.

The GASGAS Aspar Team rider had dominated the entire weekend, topping every session he took part in except FP2, showing dominant solo pace.

That translated into a huge gap in race trim, as his breakaway style continues to change the way Moto3 races now play out.

At it’s most the gap was over five seconds back to the battle for second, crossing the line a final 4.853s ahead at the chequered flag for a third win in five races, and a sixth podium appearance this season.

Championship challenger Dennis Foggia got his title run back on track with second after collecting no points over the last two rounds.

The Leopard Honda rider could not match the pace of Guevara, but had the second Aspar bike, with championship leader Sergio Garcia on board, for company as he climbed up from eighth on the grid.

The duo broke several riders off the back of the chasing group as the laps ticked down, but the Italian could not lose Garcia.

Their positions were decided after the #11 tried a lunge up the inside at the final corner on the last lap, moving up the inside Garcia took the position but his bucking bike wobbled and he sensibly rolled back out, allowing Foggia to pass again for second.

Ayumu Sasaki iced his shoulder after riding through the pain barrier as he made his return from injury to finish fourth after missing the last two rounds.

In the mix until the penultimate lap as the pace picked up, a brave performance saw the Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max racing rider just one second behind the podium finishers in fourth.

Tatsuki Suzuki and Daniel Holgado were the first riders to be lost as the pace picked up, Suzuki brought the second Leopard home in fifth while rookie Holgado collected his best finish to date in sixth for Red Bull KTM Ajo.

Deniz Oncu powers through the pack

Red Bull KTM Tech 3 rider Deniz Oncu was permanently on the limit as, after running wide in qualifying he was demoted from first in Q1 to not continuing to Q2 and 24th on the grid.

Oncu then made a strong start to hit the top ten - but it was too good, moving on the start line saw him awarded a double long lap penalty, along with Kaito Toba.

With all the work to do again, Oncu was lucky not to crash after an error saw him swing into Ryusei Yamanaka. Undeterred, the Turkish rider kept fighting all the way back to seventh, with the gap to those that had formed the lead group too much to catch up.

Adrian Fernandez was passed by his team-mate to leave the Spaniard eighth, still his best result of the season.

David Munoz got off to a flying start and was in the top five in the early stages but the hot pace up front was too much for the inexperienced BOE Motorsports rider, fading back to ninth in just his third championship start.

The top ten was completed by Ivan Ortola who rose from 26th on the grid for the Angeluss MTA Team in the opening laps then held firm.

Andrea Migno never got the chance to get into gear after avoiding one of the early crashes, he claimed a solid elevnth in the circumstances for Rivacold Snipers, just ahead of Jaume Masia in twelfth for Red Bull KTM Ajo.

The final points places were hotly contested with Xavier Artigas finishing at the front of that group for CFMOTO Racing PruestelGP, kepping both Elia Bartolini (QJMotor Avintia Racing Team) and Stefano Nepa (Angeluss MTA Team) at bay.

Diogo Moreira just missed out in 16th for MT Helmets MSI.

A race filled with crashes

John McPhee saw his race decided for him at turn one when he, along with Riccardo Rossi, was on the reciecing end of Carlos Tatay’s rash lunge to make up the places he lost from a poor start. McPhee remounted for 19th as losing over 30 seconds made the points places a stretch too far. Tatay visited the riders to apologise after the race.

Scott Ogden finished his day sore and frustrated as, when Oncu made a move, catching Yamanaka, Ogden highsided behind after seeing the gap ahead, with Matteo Bertelle collected too.

Ryusei Yamanaka had along lap penalty to serve for the accident he caused at the last round. Starting from fourth, he got that out of the way early but that move ended his hopes.

Joshua Whatley retired to the pits, completing a day to forget for the VisionTrack Team, as did Mario Aji, though he later rejoined.

Joel Kelso also failed to see the end of the race falling from eighth at turn three afte 18 laps.

Where does that leave the championship table?

His move for second didn’t pay off but Garcia still leads the overall standings - now by just seven points from his race winning team-mate, on a total of 166.

Foggia holding second gave him the most points he could hope for in the circumstances as the GASGAS Aspar riders continue to dominate. The Italian is now 51 points adrift.