David Alonso takes his seventh win of the season and consolidates his lead in the world championship

The Colombian of Spanish origin David Alonso (CFMoto) has achieved his seventh victory of the season by winning the Moto3 Austrian Grand Prix, The eleventh qualifying round of the world motorcycle championship was held at the Red Bull Ring circuit in Spielberg, which allowed him to consolidate his lead in the provisional world championship standings.

Alonso has a total of 224 points, no less than 61 points ahead of his closest pursuer, who continues to be the Spaniard Iván Ortolá (KTM), who had a spectacular comeback from last place to ninth.

The first surprise came with the author of the ‘pole position’, the Spaniard Iván Ortolá (KTM), who on the warm-up lap had a problem with the bike and was forced to leave from the workshop lane and, in addition, he did so when the traffic light was still red, which was a reason penalty insurancealthough it was later discovered that the error was not the driver’s, but rather the traffic light situation, which should have been green, so there was no possibility of the driver being penalized.

Meanwhile, on track, Australian Joel Kelso (KTM) was the fastest at the start and was pushing hard to try to break the group from the first opportunity, followed by Spaniards David Muñoz (KTM), Daniel Holgado (Gas Gas), the Colombian of Spanish origin and world leader, David Alonso (CFMoto), Ángel Piqueras (Honda), José Antonio Rueda (KTM) and the Dutchman Collin Veijer (Husqvarna).

Already in the second round, both David Alonso and Ángel Piqueras served their suspension. ‘long lap’ for riding slowly during practice, which made them lose many positions, although without completely losing contact with the leading group, which they were in at the back of the field.

Ortolá, from the last positions, began to climb with the same pace as the leaders (1:40.4) eleven seconds behind them, where teammates Joel Kelso and David Muñoz, marked exactly the same record to the thousandth of a secondfighting for the lead of the race, which the Australian held.

In just three laps the leading group broke up, with a trio ahead made up of Joel Kelso, David Muñoz and Daniel Holgado, with José Antonio Rueda eight-tenths of a second behind, leading the chasing group, which already included David Alonso and Ángel Piqueras, as well as Adrián Fernández and Iván Ortolá in twentieth place.

On lap eight, Daniel Holgado took action and took the lead of the race, overtaking Kelso, while behind them were joined by Collin Veijer and José Antonio Rueda, with the group headed by world championship leader David Alonso, nine-tenths of a second behind and Iván Ortolá in sixteenth place.

Lap after lap, David Alonso’s group got closer to the leading drivers, where David Muñoz decided attacking his teammate Joel Kelso to follow in the footsteps of Daniel Holgado.

It was on the tenth lap when the entire leading group, made up of up to seven riders, came together, with Adrián Fernández fighting to reach them by riding alone a few meters below. behind the septet.

Dutchman Collin Veijer took the lead one lap later, on the eleventh, in which Adrián Fernández had already managed to make contact with them and Joel Kelso had a ‘contact’ with a rival that made him fall to the back of that pack.

Veijer’s lead didn’t last long, as Daniel Holgado took the lead again on the next lap, although for a short timeas Veijer, Piqueras and Muñoz overtook him at the first opportunity they had, while Alonso was gradually climbing positions in that group.

At that stage of the race, many riders had already used up all their warnings for exceeding the circuit limits, which meant a ‘long lap’ penalty for the next mistake they made, and the first to be penalised was the Italian Nicola Carraro, followed by the Spaniard Xabi Zurutuza (KTM), the Japanese Taiyo Furusato (Honda) and the Spaniard Joel Esteban (CFMoto), among others.

In just five laps, Iván Ortolá, from behind, had recovered five seconds from the leading group and was twelfth, although also with the warnings of exceeding the limits of the track already fulfilled.s, shortly after he had already risen to ninth placebut with just over four seconds left it seemed impossible for him to catch up with the leading group.

With five laps to go, David Alonso had already taken the lead of the race, followed by David Muñoz, Ángel Piqueras and Daniel Holgado, trying to use his pace to break up the leading group of eight drivers again.

This is how Alonso, Muñoz and Holgado gained a few metres of advantage over Veijer and Piqueras, and a little more over Rueda, Fernández and Kelso, but when entering the last lap they were all grouped together again.

Muñoz tried to take the lead at the end of the straight braking, but he slipped and had to give up several positions, returning fourth to the race, while David Alonso closed the gap. Perfection all the gaps to Daniel Holgado and Angel Piqueraswith David Muñoz once again glued to them.

Alonso perfectly fulfilled his objective and claimed his seventh victory of the season ahead of David Muñoz, who beat Daniel Holgado by just five thousandths of a second, although in doing so he exceeded the limits of the circuit on the last lap, which could represent a last-minute sanction.

EFE