Pedro Acosta streaked to his fourth Moto3 victory of 2021 in the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring as title rival Sergio Garcia finished only sixth.
Series leader Acosta recovered well from an average qualifying position of 13th in the early laps of the contest, moving into the lead for the first only a quarter of the way through the 27-lap race before remaining solidly within the lead group across the rest of the distance.
Leopard Racing’s Dennis Foggia and Garcia were the main consistent challengers to Acosta throughout, the former leading the majority of the encounter as he tried on multiple occasions to make a break from his pursuers.
The Italian found himself unable to do so, although the lead pack steadily reduced in size until only the first nine riders were in contention for victory in the first German GP for two years.
Acosta managed to muscle his way past Foggia as the final lap began at the first bend, though Foggia looked to strike back as he dived past at the fast Turn 9, though he was unable to carry enough momentum through and swiftly dropped back behind the Spaniard.
His loss of pace also allowed Jeremy Alcoba and Kaito Toba to mug him too, Alcoba though having received instruction to drop a position after overtaking Garcia outside of track limits a lap prior, a move that pushed the latter from a top three position to towards the back of the leading train.
Toba-keen to add a second career lightweight class win to his tally-demoted Alcoba to third at the penultimate turn as he looked to challenge Acosta, though he ultimately found himself unable to mount a final lap attack and had to settle for his first rostrum of the year in second as Acosta took the chequered flag to extend his points advantage.
Alcoba crossed the line third but was dropped to fourth due to his penalty, leaving Foggia to complete the podium positions.
Andrea Migno completed the top five ahead of Niccollo Antonelli, while Garcia ended up seventh after being docked a position for track limits after initially recovering to sixth-Tatsuki Suzuki given the same punishment as he dropped from seventh to eighth after the flag.
Xavier Artigas came home ninth on the second Leopard machine, while Izan Guevara completed the top ten.
John McPhee was a disappointing 11th after being forced out wide at Turn 1 as a result of Romano Fenati taking out Deniz Oncu and Lorenzo Fellon in the closing laps, the Scot dropping well out of contention due to the incident while the other involved parties also dropped back.
Jaume Masia was also a victim of Turn 1 after being collected in a mess caused by Ryusei Yamanaka, the Prustel GP rider collecting an innocent Stefano Nepa as he crashed on his own which in turn caused Masia and Fenati to be caught up in addition.
Fenati also received a long-lap punishment for his part in the earlier crash-limiting him to a 13th place result-whole Darryn Binder was 15th after having to serve an earlier ride-through for an incident in practice.
Acosta’s fourth win of the year sees his points lead balloon from 39 to 55 over Garcia, while Masia remains third but a further 18 adrift of his rookie team-mate.
