Sergio Garcia snatched victory in the Austrian Moto3 contest with a penultimate corner move on Deniz Oncu to narrow Pedro Acosta’s points advantage.
Garcia was one of half-a-dozen riders to remain fixed within the lead group throughout the entirety of the 23-lap encounter, continuously battling with championship rival Acosta as well as the likes of Oncu and pole-man Romano Fenati.
He managed to place himself in the perfect position on the final tour to take advantage of a slowed Acosta as the Ajo man was baulked by Tech 3’s Oncu as the Turkish pilot switched back to re-pass him after the former made a move on the entry to Turn 3.
Garcia managed to dive through on the inside at Turn 4, Acosta running slightly wide as a result and jumping out of the seat due to minor wheelspin, leaving him to try and hold off Dennis Foggia for third while Garcia and Oncu disputed the leadership.
GasGas rider Garcia managed to carry good speed through the fast esses towards the end of the lap and put himself in position to send a move down the inside into the penultimate bend, a pass he judged to perfection before taking a defensive line into the final turn.
Oncu ultimately found himself unable to get back ahead to score his first Moto3 success despite getting marginally better drive from the corner, Garcia streaking across the line to claim victory by just 0.027s ahead of Oncu.
Acosta meanwhile had his hands full with Foggia, the Leopard Racing man getting a far superior exit from the esses just fractions after the leaders had negotiated the section to pull an identical pass on the Spaniard, leaving him unable to snap back before the chequered flag to leave Foggia to complete the rostrum and Acosta fourth.
Fenati found himself shuffled back over the final couple of tours, rendering his significant pace benefit through the second-to-last corner-where he had driven under most of his rivals throughout the race such was his speed advantage through the bend-useless, the MAX Racing rider holding off the other KTM Ajo of Jaume Masia.
Petronas SRT had a rather up-and-down morning as Darryn Binder and John McPhee worked well together to bridge the gap to the leading six to join the battle for the lead as the race entered its climactic stages, though a mixture of mistakes and scrapping saw them drop back again into the clutches of charging rookie Izan Guevara.
McPhee brought his Honda home seventh in the end though Binder couldn’t hold off the reigning Red Bull Rookie’s champion, the South African having to make do with ninth behind Guevara.
Kaito Toba completed the top ten as he held of Tatsuki Suzuki, the duo running together but unable to follow the flying Guevara onto the back of the pack ahead to end up a distant four second behind.
Gabriel Rodrigo suffered a lonely race after picking up a pit-lane start and long-lap penalty for his part in a crash between himself and Ryusei Yamanaka in practice that saw the Japanese rider break his humerus, the Argentinean ace ending up 21st.
Andrea Migno’s race ended early after contact with Sniper’s team-mate David Salvador, while Ayumu Sasaki’s strong run in the lead group was ended after being collected by Binder at the final bend-though the latter escaped penalty for the incident.
Acosta’s points lead has now been narrowed from 53 points to 41 as a result of Garcia’s win heading to Silverstone for the British round of the series in two weeks time.
