The dramatic Moto3 British Grand Prix was dominated by Foggia. Both world championship contenders failed to finish after uncaused crashes!

The World Road Motorcycle Championship is back in action after a six-week summer break. The Silverstone circuit hosted the twelfth round of the Moto3 series, which has consistently witnessed ultra-even racing. The British Grand Prix was understandably no exception. Spectators saw some great battles for the win, but also some crashes late in the race, including crashes for both championship contenders. The race was eventually won by a quarter of a second by Italian Dennis Foggia.

Saturday’s qualifying was dominated by Diogo Moreira for the first time in his life. He not only became the first Brazilian in the history of the lowest category of the World Championship, but also ended a 17-year wait for another pole position for a Brazilian since 2005, when Alex Barros conquered the top spot at the start of the most prestigious MotoGP category.

Moreira retained the top spot after the start, but Japan’s Yamanaka made his way past the Brazilian on the Hangar equation. Öncü produced a superb manoeuvre on the outside of the Abbey corner to take the lead from Guevara on the charge into the second lap. However, the Spaniard immediately passed him and immediately built up a small lead over his pursuers.

Meanwhile, pole position holder Moreira dropped back to sixth. Guevara continued to hold on to the top spot. Suzuki tried to pass the Spaniard on the inside into Turn 13, but could not capitalise.

On lap five, Foggia moved into first position. Guevara took advantage of his bike’s immense power to momentarily get by Foggia, but he wasn’t strong enough on the brakes and ultimately didn’t take the grand prix lead.

Instead, Guevara quickly found himself in sixth place. Sasaki made a respectable manoeuvre into Stowe corner and passed perhaps four riders at once, but was longer and dropped to second behind Öncü.

Over the next few laps things went back to the way they were, at least by Moto3 standards. No one held onto the lead for too long, with left-right overtakes at just about every corner.

The top twenty riders were riding almost together, but Foggia managed to break away from the pack of predatory riders trying to impress that they were the future stars of motorcycling.

Leopard’s Foggia and Suzuki riders built up a slight lead going into lap 11. But any long-time Moto3 fan knew that it meant nothing and would all be decided in the final corners of the race anyway.

With three laps to go, it came as a shock when Sasaki and Garcia collided. The Japanese failed to brake into a slow right-hander and took out one of the contenders for this year’s championship. García briefly lost the lead in the World Championship standings to his biggest rival Guevara.

Although nobody crashed for almost the entire race, the last lap was full of crashes. Ortolá, like Sasaki, failed to negotiate a corner entry and took Guevara with him, who had been enjoying his role as Moto3 championship leader for just two laps. Suzuki and Muñoz also crashed on the last lap. But Foggia held his nerve in the final metres of the race to take the win ahead of Masia and Öncü.

Results of the Moto3 GP of Great Britain::

1.dennis Foggia (Ita., Leopard Racing) 37::30.120

2. Jaume Masià (Span., Red Bull KTM Ajo) +0.252

3. Deniz Öncü (Tur., Red Bull KTM Tech3) +0.297

4. Kaito Toba (Jap., CIP Green Power) +0.738

5. Stefano Nepa (Ita., Angeluss MTA Team) +0.762

Moto3 World Championship standings after the British GP (race 12/20)::

1. Sergio García (Span., GASGAS Aspar Team) 182

2. Izan Guevara (Sp., GASGAS Aspar Team) 179

3. Dennis Foggia (Ita., Leopard Racing) 140

4. Jaume Masià (Span., Red Bull KTM Ajo) 127

5. Deniz Öncü (Tur., Red Bull KTM Tech3) 114

Source: Moto3