Izan Guevara decimated the competition in the German Moto3 encounter at the Sachsenring to claim his second straight victory by nearly five seconds over Dennis Foggia.
The GasGas rider made a good start from pole to hold station in the opening laps, the Mallorcan immediately doing his best top try and stretch the group behind in order to escape.
His hard work soon paid off as the lead group shrunk to just six after only just over half-a-dozen tours, Guevara then breaking the slipstream to the chasing Foggia as he crossed the line over a second clear just after a third of the way through the contest.
From this point onwards Guevara continued to pull away, at one point crafting a lead as high as 5.3 seconds over the rest before eventually taking the chequered flag in dominant style by 4.8 seconds over the close fight for the runners-up spot between Foggia and the other GasGas entry of Sergio Garcia.
With the scorching-hot pace breaking up the lead group across the closing circulations, the duo fought over second between them as Ayumu Sasaki dropped away from the podium battle in the final two laps – Garcia stalking Foggia as he looked to limit the damage to his points lead.
The Spaniard waited until the final bend to finally have a crack at the Leopard rider, firing down the inside at the last second.
Garcia asked a little too much of his KTM though as he ran slightly wide, while a momentary loss of rear traction afforded Foggia the momentum to fly back past on the run to the line to secure second, with Garcia forced to settle for the final rostrum spot.
Sasaki ended up claiming fourth ahead of Tatsuki Suzuki and Daniel Holgado, the trio all ending up by themselves after losing touch with the leaders in the final stanza.
Deniz Oncu recovered from an early long-lap penalty for jumping the start to take seventh ahead of Adrian Fernandez, with rookie David Munoz and Ivan Ortola rounding off the top ten.
Jaume Masia made good progress early on and climbed as high as seventh before being shuffled back over the final few laps, the Ajo racer eventually crossing the line 12th just behind Snipers pilot Andrea Migno.
John McPhee saw his chances of points dashed after being forced into the gravel at Turn 1 by an out-of-control Carlos Tatay, who also rammed into the rear of Riccardo Rossi and thus forced both into retirement – McPhee continuing to take 19th in the end.
Scott Ogden and Matteo Bertelle saw possible top ten runs also cut short after the former high-sided heavily at Turn 7 early on, the latter left nowhere to go as both hit the gravel hard – Bertelle being taken the medical centre as a precaution.
Joel Kelso looked good to challenge for his best ever Moto3 result in the early goings, though the Aussie pushed a little too hard while trying to stay with the lead group and lost the front of his CIP machine at Turn 3 while running eighth.
Garcia’s series lead has now been reduced to just seven over Guevara heading to Assen for the Dutch TT next weekend, with Foggia now 35 from the top of the title tree.
Keyword: Guevara dominates German Moto3 encounter to close on series lead