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Cheste (Spain), Nov 26 (EFE).- The Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna), Moto3 world runner-up, closed the season with his first although unsuccessful victory in the Valencian Community Moto3 Grand Prix, which was held in the ‘Ricardo Tormo’ circuit in Cheste.
Sasaki, who even competed in Qatar for the world title, achieved what he was looking for throughout the season, the victory, which eluded him until this moment, in a race in which the already world champion Jaume Masiá (Honda), who finished Thirteenth, he took practically no risks, thinking more about the subsequent celebration than anything else.
The first news of the Sunday day, and not the most satisfactory, was the fall on the formation lap of the author of the ‘pole position’, the Dutchman Collin Veijer, who was able to get to the ‘grid’ with the Husqvarna so that his pilots repaired the damage while he changed his badly damaged helmet and leather jumpsuit.
Once the red light went out, Veijer and his teammate, the Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna), took control of the race, followed by the Turkish Deniz Öncü (KTM), while, behind them, they went the Brazilian Diogo Moreira (KTM) and the Spanish Vicente Pérez (KTM) on the ground, without the possibility of returning to the track and in which Daniel Holgado (KTM) was also involved, who was able to avoid the fallen by leaving the track to return in twenty-fourth place.
But in reality the ‘culprit’ of the massive crash was another rider, the Spanish Xavier Artigas (CFMoto), who for his action was penalized with two ‘long laps’ sanction.
At the end of the initial lap Ayumu Sasaki was in charge of setting the pace for a very large group that included all the favorites, including the 2023 world champion, the Spanish Jaume Masiá (Honda), who before the race went to the turn two of the ‘Ricardo Tormo’ circuit, which from this moment on will bear his name.
In just three laps there was a cut of nine riders ahead, led by Collin Veijer in that turn and Jaume Masiá closing, and which also included Deniz Öncü, Joel Kelso (CFMoto), David Alonso (Gas Gas), Iván Ortolá (KTM), José Antonio Rueda (KTM) and David Muñoz (KTM).
The nine at the top managed to open a gap of more than two seconds in just those three laps with respect to a much larger chasing group led by Adrián Fernández (Honda).
As the laps went by, Jaume Masiá and David Muñoz, at the back of the leading group, fell somewhat behind the rest, until the current world champion took the lead and began to push hard to try to recover all the lost ground, while in that septet the Australian Joel Kelso and the Spanish José Antonio Rueda both lost ground and recovered it.
But what ended up happening was that the chasing group ended up neutralizing Masiá and Muñoz, and all of them with more than five seconds lost compared to the head of the race, where almost all the time it was the Husqvarna riders, Veijer and Sasaki, the who imposed the best rhythm.
In that chasing group, Daniel Holgado ended up in the lead, damaged in the initial lap by the ‘strike’ of Xavier Artigas, who rose from twenty-fourth place to eighth in the twelfth of the twenty laps for which the Moto3 test was scheduled. .
Six laps from the end the ‘attack’ of David Alonso began, who after studying his rivals methodically, overtook Ayumu Sasaki and left in the wake of Collin Veijer, although the Japanese did not give up.
In the last five laps, overtaking became a constant among the four drivers who had gained a certain advantage over the rest, Ayumu Sasaki, Iván Ortolá, David Alonso and Collin Veijer.
Deniz Öncü lost some pace, but managed to overcome it in the final laps to get into the fight for victory.
Sasaki led the first meters of the last lap, in which all his rivals got on an ‘attack’ bike with David Alonso hooked on to him and also Ortolá, who seemed to have the best chance in the fight for victory.
But the Japanese driver knew how to close all the gaps for his rivals, at the points where he expected they might try to overtake and, in the end, he achieved his goal to get the first victory of the year, ahead of David Alonso and Iván Ortolá.
Behind them, the Dutchman Collin Veijer, the Turkish Deniz Öncü, the Spanish José Antonio Rueda, the Australian Joel Kelso and the also Spanish Daniel Holgado and David Muñoz, with the Japanese Ryusei Yamanaka (Gas Gas) in tenth position.
Juan Antonio Lladós
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