Sergio Garcia snatched victory away from Dennis Foggia at the final corner of the Argentina Moto3 encounter, while Ayumu Sasaki managed a rostrum despite a long-lap punishment.
Having looked good to pull away from the rest of the field alongside team-mate Izan Guevara in the early stages, the GasGas rider was forced to dice for his first win of the campaign after being caught by the pack behind once again just prior to mid-distance.
His KTM machine looked hooked up though as he managed to hang on in the lead as the laps continued to wind down, though Foggia looked poised to make his customary late-race charge in the closing stages with assistance from Leopard Racing team-mate Tatsuki Suzuki.
The Italian struck into the penultimate bend with just over a tour remaining, though Garcia remained ingrained into his wheel-tracks as the field headed down the long back-straight for the final time, Suzuki making his move to take second away from Garcia.
With Foggia beginning to open up a couple of bike lengths across the second half of the lap, Garcia chose his moment to strike as he sliced past Suzuki at Turn 9 before drafting up behind Foggia as they approached the final two bends, Garcia firing his bike down the inside with the two making contact as a result.
Still rubbing all the way through to the corner exit, Garcia managed to slip ahead into the final bend to cross the line just 0.146s clear of Foggia to move into the championship lead with his third straight top five finish in 2022.
Sasaki meanwhile staged a brilliant comeback after an early long-lap penalty applied for irresponsible riding two weeks ago in Indonesia to bag third at the death, the Japanese rider diving past countryman Suzuki into the penultimate bend to secure the position having dropped all the way to 14th after his sanction.
Riccardo Rossi managed to hang onto complete the top five for SIC58 ahead of Brazilian rookie Diogo Moreira, while Daniel Holgado was seventh for the KTM Ajo squad.
Carlos Tatay made his way through the field to grab eighth ahead of CIP Green Power men Kaito Toba and Joel Kelso, the duo rounding off the top ten.
Deniz Oncu could manage only 14th after picking up a long-lap penalty for cutting Turn 9 early in the race, team-mate Adrian Fernandez ending up just ahead in 13th having fallen foul of the same punishment.
Guevara meanwhile suffered a heartbreaking demise as his KTM ground to a halt exiting Turn 3 at the half-way mark, the Spaniard at times looking like he had the potential to break away from the rest before the failure.
Andrea Migno and Jaume Masia meanwhile saw their victory chances go up in smoke after colliding at the penultimate bend, the former charging into the turn with a little too much speed and running into the side of Masia – the two going down as a result into early retirement while running within the top five.
