Austin Moto3: Guevara declared winner after double red flag
Izan Guevara had lead off the re-started grid of the Moto3 Americas Grand Prix of Austin, round fifteen of the championship, after being out in front on lap seven when the race was initially brought to a halt by a red flag for Filip Salac, who highsided from his Honda with just seven laps completed.
A second crash brought a halt to proceedings again and gave the rookie his first win since arriving in Moto3.
His Solunion GasGas Aspar had broken down during the five lap dash that followed, causing him to be shown kicking his bike stand and hitting the chair in the garage.
A second red flag came after that shortened five lap race saw a multiple rider crash. Deniz Oncu's overtake on Jeremy Alcoba as they battled for fifth saw him hit his front wheel. The flying Alcoba and his bike collected both Andrea Migno and championship leader Pedro Acosta in a horrific crash. Both riders amazingly walked away, lucky to have been missed by all the riders behind, with Acosta just skimming the barrier.
Austin’s motto of ‘keep it weird’ truly applied to the race result with the five lap dash ignored and the result taken from the placing at he original red flag, not the second grid positions which went back to lap seven.
Dennis Foggia claimed second after shining in all parts of the race, the Leopard Honda rider took another twelve points out of Acosta’s championship lead, with him picking up the points himself for eighth after much deliberation on what should happen after his crash.
Third went to John McPhee, who had pushed himself into the mix, showing his pace after topping warm-up earlier in the day. The Petronas Sprinta Racing rider had been leading the abandoned five lap second race, but had been running well enough earlier to still secure a podium.
Jaume Masia became polesitter after following his team-mate Acosta in Saturday’s action. Second on the last visit to COTA back in 2019 (to Aron Canet who is now in Moto2) he has a good track record at the track and was in fourth at the first red flag.
The visibly upset Oncu was saved from having to go back out on the Red Bull KTM Tech 3 and placed in fifth. Jeremy Alcoba was awarded sixth for Gresini.
Darryn Binder (Petronas Sprinta Racing) was seventh at the time after making progress in the first few laps with Pedro Acosta back in eighth before his fall on the second Red Bull KTM Ajo entry.
Tatsuki Suzuki was ninth at the time the result was rolled back to, with Andrea Migno still in the top ten before his crash.
Stefano Nepa was in eleventh at the time for BOE Owlride, with Romano Fenati (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) twelfth.
Ayumu Sasaki took 13th for Red Bull KTM Ajo Tech 3.
Xavier Artigas was rewarded with his best qualifying performance after helping Leopard team-mate Foggia to the original front row. His elevated grid position was eroded by the restart where he joined the grid in 14th , where he finished at the flag.
The final points were allocated to Niccolo Antonelli, who was able to rejoin the five lap dash despite falling a turn one just before the first red flag was announced.
Salac needed treatment on the striped rumble strips as the first red flag waved, but was reported to be conscious and taken for further checks and late rtransferred to hospital for a CT scan on his thorax and abdomen. All the riders involved in the second crash were able to walk away.
Sergio Garcia was absent following bruising to his kidneys being discovered after his FP1 crash. Gabriel Rodrigo also sits out the Texas round to recover from his arm injury.
