Foggia Scores Stunning Last-Gasp Podium
Red Bull Ring - SpielbergDennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) scored a stunning podium result in today’s Austrian Moto3 race, his fourth top three in the last six races, including victories at Mugello and Assen.
The 20-year-old Italian spent much of the 23 laps at the back of the six-man leading pack, then timed his push towards the podium to perfection. With two laps remaining he moved into third place, only to lose positions in the last lap and a half. His final move was a superb out-braking manoeuvre into the penultimate corner on the last lap, when he regained third place from World Championship leader Pedro Acosta.
Foggia now stands fourth overall, just five points behind Romano Fenati, who finished fifth today.
Close behind Foggia at the chequered flag were team-mates John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta Racing Honda NSF250RW) and Darryn Binder (Petronas Sprinta Racing Honda NSF250RW) who rode incredibly hard to get themselves into contention with the lead group ahead of them.
Halfway through the race the 27-year-old Briton and 23-year-old South African were lapping as fast as the leaders but the pair didn’t quite have the pace to get themselves into the battle for the podium. At the finish McPhee was seventh, less than a second behind Foggia, and Binder ninth.
Tatsuki Suzuki (Sic58 Squadra Corse Honda NSF250RW) had great hopes of achieving his best race result of the year after qualifying second fastest yesterday. However, the race didn’t go the same way and the 23-year-old from Chiba had to be content with 11th place.
There was joy for Andi Farid Izdihar (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) who completed the first lap way down in 21st before steadily moving forward to play a starring role in a multi-rider battle for the final World Championship points.
The 23-year-old Indonesian, who had qualified 25th yesterday, showed excellent speed and race craft to take 15th and the last point on the final lap.
Team-mate Yuki Kunii (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF50RW) was involved in that same fight and the 18-year-old from Setagaya may well have finished in the points once again, but he ended the race in 18th place, missing out on a World Championship point by just 0.222 seconds.
Next appointment for the Moto3 grid is the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on 29th August.
This third position is like a victory because this is not our track, and the others always have some advantage here. I also wanted to be in front of Acosta because lately he’s always managed to finish in front of me! I’m very happy with this result – we’ll keep trying in two weeks!
Honestly, I feel this is my first real point, where I've done my best from the first lap. On the warm-up, I lost the feeling with the bike, maybe because last night it rained a lot and it wasn't gripping. I was confused, but I tried to do my best during the race after analysing the data. I tried to make a good start fighting from the beginning. We catch the group who played for points, and finally, I took one! That's my best race so far.
During the weekend, I had confidence with the bike. I've done a good start, but I've been in the middle of some chaotic situations with other riders during the first lap, going wide and losing many positions. I tried to recover lap by lap. When I arrived at the points zone, I tried to manage the group, but at the fight on the last corner, I've lost all my options. It could be better; I feel I've been unlucky this weekend.
