Moto3 Portimao: Back-to-Back Wins for Awesome Acosta

Pedro Acosta left it to the final lap to make his move and take his second consecutive win in just his third world championship start in the Moto3 Portimao Grand Prix.

The Red Bull KTM rookie, who matches Daijiro Kato’s world championship start record with the result, had followed Dennis Foggia around, watching his lines lap after lap.

The sixteen year old made a huge lunge at his final time around turn thirteen, didn’t run wide, survived a wobble from the track surface and kept ahead all the way to the line for his third podium in three races, with the last two both visits to the top spot on the rostrum.

Acosta remains the championship leader - now with an extended points lead of 31 and a total of 70.

Foggia had looked to have the better straight line speed, holding over the line time and again. On the last lap he was too close to Acosta after his wobble and found himself without a slipstream. It is Foggia’s first points finish of the season for Leopard Racing Honda and matches his Portimao performace of last season where he won the battle to the line for second with Jeremy Alcoba.

The final podium place went to Andrea Migno who started on pole. The Rivacold Snipers rider had a hectic final lap, with contact with Sergio Garcia as they battled it out for third. 

Ayumu Sasaki took advantage of the chaos around him to climb to fourth, his best result of the season so far for Red Bull KTM Tech 3.

Gabriel Rodrigo staged a comeback after his run into the back of Xavier Artigas lead to his third consecutive race out of the points. The Gresini rider was handed a long lap penalty which dropped him from fourth to fifteenth. The Argentine rider then set about reducing the defecit and worked his way back into the lead group with a shot at victory on the cards until late in the race. Rodrigo was an eventual fifth.

Niccolo Antonelli spent much of the race in tenth place but too benefited from the late scuffles to climb to sixth for Avintia Esponsorama - a great result considering bike issues caused him to qualify 17th .

Romano Fenati was elevated to tenth on the grid following the penalties handed out after he was swamped by slower bikes in qualifying. The Sterilgarda Max Racing Team Husqvarna rider climbed to seventh by the chequered flag.

Garcia survived being hit by Migno to bring his Apsar GasGas machine home eighth.

Jaume Masia was fighting in the lead group before a fall on the final lap. The gaps between the riders gave him the opportunity to remount and still cross the line in ninth, completing a day of great, determined performances by Red Bull KTM Ajo riders.

Ryusei Yamanaka had his second consecutive top ten finish as he chased the recovering Spaniard over the line for the CarXpert PruestelGP team.

Stefano Nepa (BOE Owlride) and Jason Dupasquier on the second CarXpert entry were not far behind the pair, finishing eleventh and twelfth respectively.

Filip Salac was in the same group and ended his race in 13th on the second Rivacold Snipers bike.

Jeremy Alcoba served his penalty for his part in the Doha fight with John McPhee, his qualifying performance was good enough for third before he was moved to the pit lane with an extra five second delay added.

His pace helped him to have Salac in his sights as he hit the finish line for Gresini, taking two points in 14th. McPhee, who had a ten second delay to contend with, finished 23rd.

Deniz Oncu and Darryn Binder were the only riders penalised for riding slowly at the end of qualfying. Binder was moved to the pit, as was Oncu, but with an additional five second wait. The Red Bull KTM Tech 3 rider worked with Alcoba to collect the final point on offer in 15th. Binder completed a bad day at the office for the Petronas team in 20th.

Lap eight saw Kaito Toba chase down Antonelli, who was running a different line to most of the field. This threw the Japanese rider, who had to take action not to run into the back of him, the resulting crash caught an unlucky Izan Guevara.

An ambitious move from Adrian Fernandez saw him collect Tatsuki Suzuki as they battled for seventh with six laps remaining.