David Alonso demonstrated experience beyond his years to win out in a tight tussle with Jaume Masia and Jose Antonio Rueda for victory in the Catalunya Moto3.

A second win of the season for the Colombian rookie, Alonso maintained his forward momentum as the going got physical towards the closing stages to win in the sprint to the finish line by just +0.076secs over Masia.

An absorbing encounter, victory was disputed by a lead pack as large as 14 riders deep into the race before a break away gaggle of 11 riders pushed on in the dash to the flag, just +1.304secs blanketing them.

- 2023 Moto3 World Championship Standings -

Indeed, with the ebb and flow among such a swarm serving to keep things unpredictable right up to the closing stages, it would ultimately take a dramatic Turn 10 fold for championship leader Daniel Holgado in the closing stages to shake things up at the front for the final push.

From the jostling emerged a battling Alonso, Masia, David Munoz coming three-abreast through the final fast right-hander leading onto the home straight. Despite having only a small gap to squeeze through, Alonso held his form to get the run to the flag, edging out Masia, while Munoz found himself biffed out of the podium spots by an over-eager Oncu.

With Oncu rebuked with a penalty for causing an avoidable incident - dropping him to 12th - it elevated Rueda up onto the podium, the rookie collecting the first podium of his burgeoning Grand Prix career.

Despite having to work his way to through the pack, Ayumu Sasaki on the sole remaining Husqvarna IntactGP - after Colin Veijer failed to make the start due to injury - extended his run of top four finishes to nine consecutive races, while Stefano Nepa secured his best result of the season in fifth on the best of the Angeluss MTA Team Hondas.

Little more than half-a-second from victory, SIC58 Squadra Corse pairing Riccardo Rossi and Kaito Toba brought it home for sixth and seventh, Tatsuki Suzuki and Ryusei Yamanaka making a trio of Japanese in eighth and ninth.

Pole man Ivan Ortola found himself shuffled down to tenth after an on-track moment, but at least makes some headway in the championship battle thanks to Holgado’s failure to score.

The Spaniard maintains an advantage at the head of the standings despite the zero, though Sasaki has now whittled the margin down to 13 points heading to Misano, with Masia, Oncu and Ortola 32, 33 and 37 points adrift respectively.

Scott Ogden just missed out on a points' paying finish in 16th place, while Josh Whatley came across the line in 23rd.