David Alonso snatched victory away from Daniel Holgado on the final corner of the Qatar Mmoto3 Grand Prix to secure the first lightweight class honors of 2024.
The CFMoto rider maintained his position as one of the leading riders throughout the 16-lap contest, the Colombian disputing the lead with Tech 3’s Daniel Holgado on several occasions.
His win bid looked to be in tatters as the field started the final lap though as he was muscled back to sixth by several pilots as the leading group tried to organize itself. Helped by a late crash involving Leopard’s Adrian Fernandez and Vicente Perez, he soon got himself back into the rostrum positions.
Passing Honda Team Asia’s Taiyo Furusato with just a handful of bends remaining in the race, he quickly set his sights on leader Holgado. Electing to save his attack for the final possible moment, Alonso fired his machine down the inside of the Spaniard at the final corner.
He expertly pulled off the overtake and managed to get a good enough exit to take the chequered flag just 0.041s ahead of Holgado, while Furusato rounded off the rostrum places.
Ricardo Rossi enjoyed a strong first outing of the year for the CIP Green Power squad to claim fourth ahead of Husqvarna’s Collin Veijer, while Stefano Nepa was sixth. Tatsuki Suzuki was the last man who held onto the lead group, the Japanese pilot securing seventh in the final reckoning.
Joel Kelso ran with the leaders for a while, though seemingly ran into tire trouble in the latter stages and fell around eight seconds off the front pack. He nearly fell into the clutches of a charging Ivan Ortola, who secured a stunning ninth despite having crashed at the opening bend after being taken out by Jose Antonio Rueda.
The KTM Ajo man lost the rear of his bike mid-corner and high-sided, taking out Ortola in the process. He set an amazing pace having remounted though, and crossed the line just ten seconds from victory. Aussie rookie Jacob Roulstone rounded out the top ten on the sister Tech 3 entry.
David Munoz missed out on points after having to start from pitlane, the BOE Motorsports pilot stalling his bike on the grid. Ryusei Yamanaka also missed out on a strong top ten run after going down at Turn 3 with just a few laps left, the MT Helmets-MSI man dropping a rear wheel off the side of the exit curb and high-siding.
