Dennis Foggia dominated proceedings in the Moto3 Indonesian Grand Prix at the Mandalika International Circuit, the Italian heading Izan Guevara by 2.6 seconds after leading all but three laps.
The Italian managed to jump up from sixth on the grid to third off the start before scrapping with the likes of GasGas duo Guevara and Sergio Garcia as well as Qatar victor Andrea Migno in the opening laps.
He managed to build up a head of steam a few laps into the encounter as he moved past Migno for second before later swallowing up Guevara’s slender lead, the Leopard Racing man snatching soon away the leadership.
From there on Foggia pushed hard to try and break the slipstream out front, though Migno was keen to remain on the rear wheel of the leader having passed Guevara.
A crucial error from the Snipers pilot at the final bend just under half-a-dozen laps into the contest proved pivotal for the race though as he nearly lost the front of his machine, dropping to fourth and leaving Foggia with a 1.5 second advantage.
Now well clear of slipstream threat, Foggia then put the hammer down and started to disappear out in front at a rate of around six tenths-of-a-second per lap, allowing him to craft a 5.5 second lead in short order before backing off and managing his lead across the rest of the race.
He would ultimately cruise home to his first win of the campaign by 2.6 over Guevara, who managed to escape from the cut-throat battle for third with just a few tours remaining to secure second having run within the top three pretty much the entire way.
Carlos Tatay put in an impressive performance meanwhile to complete the rostrum positions for the first time in his career after suffering a tough race from his first pole, the Spaniard picking up a long-lap punishment for track limits -dropping all the way to 14th at the time – as well as making several out-braking mistakes throughout.
He managed to regroup in the closing laps to become a part of the battle for third when it mattered though, enjoying a close battle with Garcia on the final circulation as they swapped positions on several occasions to beat out the GasGas man to secure the place, with Garcia left to settle for fourth ahead of Deniz Oncu.
Xavier Artigas managed to grab sixth on the second Prustel GP machine in what was an ultra-successful day for the German squad, with Jaume Masia dropping from third in the closing laps to seventh.
Ella Bartolini was eighth ahead of Daniel Holgado, while the top ten was completed by Tatsuki Suzuki on the sister Leopard Racing Honda.
Scott Ogden meanwhile managed to score his and the new Visiontrack Honda outfit’s first points in 13th just ahead of home hero Mario Aji, who struggled to maintain his speed in race conditions after starting on the front row.
Disaster struck for Migno and Ayumu Sasaki on the final tour as they collided and crashed out while running well in the top ten, the same fate going the way of Stefano Nepa and Joel Kelso as they went down together into the gravel at the final corner on the final circulation while dicing over 11th.
Rapid Brazillian rookie Diogo Moreira never even got the opportunity to battle for a maiden rostrum from the front row after suffering technical issues with his KTM before the start, forcing him first of all to start from the rear before later running into difficulties once again later on, leaving him heading to Argentina in two weeks time empty handed.
