With a dominant performance in Mandalika, Dennis Foggia takes the world championship lead in Moto3 – Izan Guevara and Carlos Tatay complete the podium
Honda rider Dennis Foggia celebrates his first win of the 2022 season at the Indonesian Grand Prix. The Spaniard dominated the Moto3 race in hot Mandalika and left the competition no chance. In the battle for the remaining podium places, Izan Guevara (GasGas) and Carlos Tatay (CFMoto) prevailed.
The first incident occurred before the race: Rookie Diogo Moreira (KTM) had a technical problem with his bike, which meant that he was unable to take his place on the front row of the grid and had to start from the very back.
Tatay took pole position for the first time. Second position remained empty, with Mario Aji (Honda), the local hero, in third place. Row two saw Xavier Artigas (CFMoto) ahead of Andrea Migno (Honda) and Foggia.
Foggia: Once in the lead up and away
The start of the 23 race laps was initially decided by Tatay. But he was still out-accelerated onto the straight by Sergio Garcia (GasGas), who turned into the first corner in the lead. Only a few corners later, Migno then took command, followed by Garcia, Foggia and Guevara.
At the beginning of the second lap there were the first crashes: First Alberto Surra (Honda) went down, shortly afterwards Ivan Ortola (KTM) was caught as well.
Guevara took the lead at the front. Behind, it was back and forth between Migno, Garcia and Foggia until the latter took the lead for the first time on lap 4 and immediately opened up a gap. After just a few laps with a clear run, Foggia was already two seconds ahead.
The chasing pack, which stretched to ninth place, continued to fight hard. Poleman Tatay, however, lost the connection after a long-lap penalty. He had been penalised for shortcutting into turn 9 and dropped back to 14th.
Tough battle for second and third place
After ten laps, Foggia’s lead had grown to over four seconds. The Honda rider was the only one in the field who was still able to set times under 1:41 minutes at this stage. Among the chasers, Guevara was setting the pace, but was unable to pull away and was attacked again and again by Garcia.
Migno, Deniz Öncü, Jaume Masia, Daniel Holgado (all KTM) and Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) were chasing them, all of whom still thought they had a chance of a podium finish. The final phase was correspondingly unsettled. Tatay was also in the mix, he had caught up again.
But not all of the chasing pack saw the chequered flag: Qatar winner Migno was shot down by Sasaki on the last lap and lost his World Championship lead to Foggia, who rode to an unchallenged win.
The voices of the top 3 riders in Mandalika
“I have no words at all!” said Foggia after the race. “Yesterday I was unlucky when I crashed in qualifying. I had to start sixth but was actually faster. Today it was extremely hot. In the last five laps I could hardly breathe. That was the most exhausting race of my life!”
Behind him, Guevara maintained second place while Tatay held on in a close battle for the final podium spot. Garcia missed the podium by just 0.120 seconds in the end and finished fourth. Öncü completed the top five.
“I’m really happy about my first podium this year,” Guevara said happily. “The race was really tough in this heat. In the last two laps I attacked again and second place came out of that.”
Tatay was also happy with third place: “After the long lap I just kept giving one hundred per cent. I really wanted to get on the podium. That worked out. I am very satisfied. Foggia was in a different league today. Congratulations to him! We will try again next time.”
Artigas, Masia, Elia Bartolini (KTM), Holgado and Tatsuki Suzuki (Honda) finished sixth to tenth. The remaining points went to Ryusei Yamanaka, Kaito Toba (both KTM), Scott Ogden (Honda), Aji and Matteo Bertelle (KTM).
A total of 21 riders finished. Among those who fell were Stefano Nepa and Joel Kelso (both KTM), who collided shortly before the finish. Kelso still finished eighteenth.
