Moto3: Garcia takes Barcelona glory as tactics turn chaotic

The seventh round of the 2021 Moto3 World Championship too kplace in Barcelona, as Gabriel Rodrigo started from pole position, and Pedro Acosta looked to extend his 52-point championship lead from 25th on the grid.

It was a good start from Rodrigo, who made the holeshot ahead of Niccolo Antonelli, who was able to get ahead of Jeremy Alcoba into turn one. 

Rodrigo led the first lap, and the group that he led slowly began to break away. It was a 18-strong leading pack for the first part of the race, but a lap 10 crash from John McPhee that took out Tatsuki Suzuki and Andrea Migno allowed the group to split into a leading seven and a trailing group of eight, although the chasers quickly managed to close their deficit.

The racing that followed in the second half of the race was quite ridiculous. The 15 that led the race were all tied together, and the slipstream in the main straight was huge. That led to weaving, particularly from Gabriel Rodrigo which was over the limit on at least two occasions: first, when Rodrigo swept sharply from the far inside of the track to the middle, coming within inches of taking out Pedro Acosta’s front wheel in the middle of the straight; and secondly, when he darted out from the far inside to the middle of the track while leading, expecting Sergio Garcia and the train behind to follow, and then darted back to the inside where that train still was. Both actions required evasive riding from, firstly, Acosta and, secondly, Garcia, and that there was no hint of an investigation into Rodrigo’s riding was surprising. 

It then came to the penultimate lap. Up to this point, whenever Jeremy Alcoba had been leading into turn 12, he had run wide through the first of the last three sweeping rights to avoid leading down the start-finish straight. This was sensible, in that Alcoba is tall and the slipstream effect he will offer those behind is large. What was not sensible was that he did it two or three times in the middle of the race, showing his cards to his competitors. This meant that, come the penultimate lap when Pedro Acosta was behind him coming into the final sector, Alcoba was found out. The #52 backed out and ran wide, but Acosta, too, backed out, and so did everyone else. So Alcoba tried again, at turn 13, and what happened was the most farcical display of racing tactics you are likely to see. 

Jorge Martin had done something similar in Phillip Island in 2018, and the result there was glorified because on the last lap the top 15 were separated by almost nothing, and the clip is now used as a marketing tool for Moto3. 

In the case with Alcoba in Barcelona, the riders in front slowed up, but those behind had no idea that was going on. That no one was hit by a rider going at racing speed – which is what you are generally supposed to do in a race – while everyone else was cruising – illegal in practice but apparently fine in the race – was somewhat miraculous. 

On its own, the racing behaviour of some of the riders today in Barcelona was over the limit, clearly dangerous, and ridiculous. However, just one week on from the events of Mugello, and in the race where all the riders are with #50, and “Ja50n” stickers on their leathers, bikes and helmets, it was an embarrassing display. 

Those who said in the aftermath of the Italian Grand Prix weekend anything about “racing for Jason” or the unfortunate reality of motorcycle racing being inherently dangerous, and then rode with that kind of disregard for the safety of those around them should be genuinely embarrassed – they undermined everything they said in the Catalan race. 

But this should not be a surprise. Sport, mostly, is a selfish pursuit, and motorcycle racing in particular. Sure, it’s “a team sport”, but what we really care about is the riders, the Riders’ Championship. We care about riders changing teams, not teams changing riders. We order our priorities in this way because we hold onto the distinguishing factor of motorcycle racing, which is that the pilot makes the difference. When the points are on the line, what’s gone before loses its meaning, certainly that’s how it seemed in the Catalan Moto3 race. 

In the end, it was a race won by Sergio Garcia, but even the results of the race were a mess. There was a crash on the last lap with Ayumu Sasaki, Xavi Artigas and Dennis Foggia involved. This brought out the red flags but not until the leaders had crossed the finish line, which was half a lap after the crash. This meant that the results for the leaders were based on the final lap, and for those who hadn’t crossed the line by the time the red flag was thrown the results were based on the penultimate lap. Which seems quite nonsensical, since the riders at the back were unknowingly competing in a race which was one lap shorter than the race those at the front were competing in – as though they’d been lapped, except they hadn’t. 

So, Garcia crossed the line first, and was declared the winner for the second time in 2021, meaning this is the first year he has won more than one Grand Prix. It also meant that the Spaniard resumed his position in second in the championship behind Pedro Acosta, who missed the podium once more having been on the wrong end of the penultimate lap chaos.

Jeremy Alcoba finished second, despite the dangerous situation he caused, and Jaume Masia crossed the line third. But Masia touched the green on the exit of turn three on the last lap, which as we know from last week is an instant drop of one position after the flag. It seems rather ridiculous that, for the dangerous situation caused by Alcoba’s cruising, the #52 received no penalty and was allowed to stand on the podium, but for going outside of track limits by about the thickness of a sheet of A4, Masia was dumped from third to fourth.

Masia’s loss was Deniz Oncu’s gain, as he took to a World Championship podium for the first time in his career, which is representative of the step forward the Turkish rider has taken in 2021. 

Darryn Binder completed the top five in the race, ahead of Gabriel Rodrigo and Pedro Acosta. Niccolo Antonelli was eighth, ahead off Kaito Toba and Stefano Nepa who completed the top 10. 

Romano Fenati, who was visibly unhappy with the riding standards on the penultimate lap, finished 11th, ahead of Yuki Kunii on his return to action; while Dani Holgado was 12th on his grand prix debut in place of the injured Maximilian Kofler. Elia Bartolini, riding this weekend in place of the injured Carlos Tatay, took his first World Championship points in 14th, ahead of Ryusei Yamanaka in 15th. 

Lorenzo Fellon was 16th, ahead of Andi Izdihar and Takuma Matsuyama, who finished last in his second wildcard appearance of the season.

There were plenty of retirements. Ayumu Sasaki was of most concern, and suffered a head trauma. But he was conscious when he was taken to hospital. The other crashers were Riccardo Rossi, who didn’t make it to the end of the first lap; the aforementioned Suzuki, Migno and McPhee; Adrian Fernandez, Filip Salac, Xavi Artigas, Dennis Foggia and Izan Guevara, who crashed on the last lap while fighting with his teammate, Garcia, for the win.