Moto3: Garcia victorious in wet French GP as Acosta extends points lead despite crash

Round five of the 2021 Moto3 World Championship took place at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, France. Andrea Migno started from pole position, while championship leader Pedro Acosta had to start from row seven in what were very sketchy, cold, damp conditions.

It was Migno who led into turns one and two, but he ran wide at turn three, cut turn four and dropped through the pack. 

Migno’s error left Jaume Masia at the front, but that only lasted until the exit of turn seven, where Niccolo Antonelli took the lead. 

But it was Filip Salac who led the first lap, as Antonelli crashed on the exit of the final corner on lap one. Even Salac, though, could not hold onto the lead for long, as Sergio Garcia went to the front at turn nine on the second tour.

Garcia went on to establish himself an advantage over Salac, who was able to latch onto the Spaniard and drag himself away from those behind. 

Aspar GASGAS’ Garcia and Snipers Honda’s Salac both distinguished themselves above the rest over the course of the race, and the victory battle would be played between them. 

A mistake on lap 13 at turn eight from Garcia gave Salac an opportunity to lead, but Garcia’s speed was simply superior to the #12’s, and the Spaniard was back through at the start of the 14th lap.

From there, Garcia pulled away and, while Salac was able to keep him honest for the remainder of the race, on the final lap the Czech threw in the towel – understandably considering the conditions – and backed the pace of to secure his first podium with second place. 

Garcia, meanwhile, was able to take his second grand prix victory with an almost perfect ride from lights to flag. Quite simply, the #11 was the best rider on the day, with consistency and feel only matched by Salac, and speed matched by no one at the moments when the conditions were at their most unforgiving.

Joining Garcia and Salac on the podium was Riccardo Rossi. The #54 had spent almost the entire race in third place, where he qualified, and was able to establish a space for himself, in that third place, throughout the race. At its largest, Rossi’s gap to his pursuers was around two-to-three seconds, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t pressure at the end for the young Italian. John McPhee was able to take fourth place from Ayumu Sasaki with a few laps to go, and was able to then lap faster than Rossi and close him down. Onto the final lap, McPhee was just over one second behind the #54, but Rossi protected his maiden World Championship podium in the best way possible – by setting the fastest lap of the race on the final lap. It was a fantastic performance from the Italian, and another deserved podium finisher in this tricky lightweight class French Grand Prix. 

A mistake from McPhee at turn eight with three laps to go probably cost him his first podium of the season, but he did at least score his first points of 2021 with fourth place. Finishing just behind him was Ayumu Sasaki in fifth, before a long gap back to Adrian Fernandez who beat Xavi Artigas in their private battle for sixth place. 

Behind Artigas in seventh was Pedro Acosta, who came from 21st on the grid to sixth, crashed, remounted back outside the top 20 and then recovered once more to finish eighth. Despite missing the podium for the first time this season, it was a good points day for Acosta, whose championship rivals all either crashed out or finished behind him. The possibility of a rookie World Champion continues to grow, as has Acosta’s lead atop the points standings – 54 is now his advantage, over Garcia.

In ninth place was Deniz Oncu, who was mostly the fastest rider on track in the second half of the race when the track dried. He recovered from fighting for the top 20 to finishing inside the top 10, so a good fight back from the #53, but clearly his confidence early in the the race was not good enough, otherwise a podium could have been on the cards, at least.

Rounding out the top 10 was Romano Fenati, ahead of Andrea Migno in 11th. Then came Ryusei Yamanaka, Jason Dupasquier, Izan Guevara and Andi Izdihar who took the final point in 15th. 

Maximilian Kofler was 16th, ahead of Stefano Nepa, Dennis Foggia, Lorenzo Fellon, Darryn Binder, who crashed at turn three fairly early on, Kaito Toba, who crashed at turn six, and Jeremy Alcoba, who crashed at turn seven and was the final finisher. 

After Niccolo Antonelli crashed out on the first lap, Tatsuki Suzuki went down at turn six on lap two, before Jaume Masia repeated Antonelli’s accident a lap after the Italian. Gabriel Rodrigo then went down on the exit of turn eight, before Honda Team Asia (in Junior Talent Team colours) wildcard, Takuma Matsuyama, went down on the exit of the final corner, and Carlos Tatay pulled into the pits with eight laps to go.