Jaume Masia secured the 2023 Moto3 world title with a round to spare in Qatar as Ayumu Sasaki could only manage sixth after being roughed up in the closing stages.
The Spaniard quickly recovered from tenth on the grid to fight for the lead of the encounter in the opening laps, the Leopard Racing man taking the opportunity to force title rival Sasaki wide on a couple of occasions before being given a conduct warning.
From that point on he tussled with Sasaki, GasGas’ David Alonso, and Deniz Oncu for up front, though Sasaki was pushed back as the race approached its climax by Masia’s team-mate Adrian Fernandez, the Spaniard on two occasions forcing him wide.
The Japanese ace lost several seconds to the front-runners as a result and was forced to try and recover the time across the final couple of tours.
Masia meanwhile rode well out in front to keep a slender gap over Alonso and Oncu, the latter having recovered from a double long-lap penalty for a jump start which dropped him as low as 25th, as they battled.
The duo’s frenetic scrap ultimately allowed Masia to hold them off to the line to secure victory, while Sasaki posted the fastest lap as he desperately tried to get back to the fourth-place result needed to keep his title hopes alive until next weekend’s finale in Valencia.
A huge moment in the final sector while running fifth made this impossible though, Sasaki in the end taking the chequered flag sixth – which gave Masia the 28-point lead he needed to secure the championship.
Alonso got the better of Oncu to secure second, while the Turkish pilot completed the rostrum ahead of Sic58’s Ricardo Rossi.
BOE Motorsports Vicente Perez took profit from Sasaki’s moment to round off the top five, while Matteo Bertelle claimed seventh just behind the Husqvarna rider.
Kaito Toba was eighth ahead of Tech 3’s Daniel Holgado, the Spaniard dropping back in the closing stages having led the early laps from pole, while Collin Veijer finished off the top ten.
