Moto3: Foggia goes back-to-back as Fenati squanders major chance

Andrea Migno started on pole position for round 14 of the 2021 Moto3 World Championship. This weekend, the World Championship is in Misano at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli for the Grand Prix of San Marino and of the Rimini Riviera. 

In qualifying, a crash for Alberto Surra was judged by the FIM MotoGP Stewards to have been caused by Yuki Kunii cruising on the racing line. Surra’s crash was through the fastest section of the Misano World Circuit, at the flat-out turn 11, where he made contact with Kunii’s Honda Team Asia NSF250R. It was the second time in three races that Kunii had been involved in an incident where he had been riding slowly in qualifying. Back in Silverstone he crashed with Kaito Toba in a similar incident, albeit in a much slower corner than in this Misano case. The penalty for Kunii was disqualification from the Misano race, although a judgement on an appeal by Honda Team Asia was not concluded on until morning warm up was already underway on Sunday. In any case, the appeal was dismissed, and Kunii was forced to sit out. 

Also sitting out this weekend was Gabriel Rodrigo, who was discovered to have broken his humerus in his Aragon crash last weekend. After the race an X-ray showed no fractures, and Rodrigo thought he might be suffering from tendonitis. However, another X-ray on Friday after free practice for the Argentinian highlighted the fracture in his humerus, and he was ruled out of action. 

Finally, Deniz Oncu crashed in FP3 on Saturday morning. It was a nasty high side on the exit of the final corner, and the Turkish rider said that he woke up half an hour later, and reported memory loss. Despite these apparent indications of a concussion, he was passed fit to ride by both the circuit medical team, and the medical team supplied by a sponsor of the Championship. It seemed like a risk.

Romano Fenati made the holeshot at the start, ahead of Niccolo Antonelli, Andrea Migno and Dennis Foggia. An all-Italian front four to start, but it did not last.

By lap 14 Fenati was on his way to a three-second lead over the group behind, but he crashed at turn 15 and cost himself a second win of the season. It looked certain, but motorcycle racing is not that.

Foggia led as a result of Fenati’s mistake, and by lap 20 was on his way to repeating the performance of his compatriot. Unlike Fenati, Foggia made no mistakes, and he sealed, with relative comfort, his second successive win. The championship momentum continues to move in his direction. With this win, Foggia moved to second in the championship, ahead of Garcia on race wins, and to within 50 points of points leader Acosta. In fact, Foggia’s margin is 42 points with four races left. 

Niccolo Antonelli took second place from Andrea Migno on the penultimate lap, and went unchallenged on the final tour. A second podium in three races for the Italian means he is in good form at the right time with respect to being Celestino Vietti’s teammate in VR46’s Moto2 squad next year. 

That shouldn’t take anything away from Andrea Migno, however. The #16 was looking strong for a podium in Silverstone before his mechanical problem, so the third palace he secured in Misano acts as a kind of redemption from three weeks ago, if you like. 

Additionally, Migno’s third place makes it a second all-Italian podium in three races, and all of those podium finishers have been somewhat unfavoured. Fenati still races with the shadow of his error in Misano 2018 following him; Foggia had fallen out with his Leopard Racing team a month or so ago (although he has now re-signed for them for 2022); Antonelli broke his wrist before Silverstone and wasn’t due to return until this weekend; and Migno has had bad luck follow him throughout 2021, the Silverstone retirement a prime example. 

Outside of the Italian domination, Sergio Garcia finished a close fourth. He might have had some more trouble from Jaume Masia on the final lap, but some minor contact in turn one sent the #5 wide and consigned him to fifth. As for Foggia, it was a big points day for Garcia, whose 13 points move him to 42 back of Acosta. 

Darryn Binder climbed from his lowly grid position to eighth place by the end of the first lap, but his usual late race struggles meant he could do no better than sixth. Still, it was a decent turnaround after his high side on Friday, and he might have a MotoGP contract, so not a disaster. 

It certainly could have been a disaster for Pedro Acosta. This Misano race was probably the most underwhelming he has been all season, simply not having the pace to go with the leaders, despite conditions being normal and him having decent knowledge of the track. But, on a day when Acosta could have finished outside the top 10, he in fact finished seventh, and beat riders who were probably faster than him. Unlike Aragon when he made a critical error to the considerable cost of Xavi Artigas (who retired from today’s race, presumably due to the injury he sustained in the crash with Acosta last week), in Misano Acosta rode intelligently and with relative calm. In the end, seventh was a good damage limitation effort.

Behind Acosta was Carlos Tatay, who had strong pace towards the end, and he finished ahead of Stefano Nepa and Ayumu Sasaki – earlier today confirmed to be moving to the MAX Racing Team’s Husqvarna setup – who completed the top 10. 

Riccardo Rossi finished 11th, ahead of a quiet Izan Guevara. About the #28, it is hard not to wonder whether the disappointment he caused his Aspar team in Aragon for fighting with his title-hopeful teammate had a similar effect to the disappointment caused by Garrett Gerloff towards Yamaha when he crashed into Toprak Razgatlioglu in the Assen WorldSBK race. Since then, Gerloff has been slow and timid, compared to before when he was fast and aggressive. It is notable that Guevara went from fighting for the podium in both Silverstone and Aragon (finishing fourth both times), to finishing a distant 12th today.

On his return to Moto3, John McPhee finished 13th, ahead of Kaito Toba and Tatsuki Suzuki who completed the points at his team’s home race. 

Jeremy Alcoba’s difficult period continues as he finished 16th, ahead of wildcard Matteo Bertelle, Ryusei Yamanaka, Loreno Fellon and Adrian Fernandez who completed the top 20.

Deniz Oncu received a long lap penalty for track limits. He didn’t crash, but was significantly off the pace. Whether that was down to his head not feeling right, or his body, is of course unclear and likely we won’t find out. But it is good that he got to the end of the race without further incident.

Behind him was Maximilian Kofler in 22nd, and the Austrian was ahead of Alberto Surra and Andi Izdihar, who was the final classified finisher in 24th.