Leopard’s Dennis Foggia took charge on Saturday morning as the final Moto3 practice for the Dutch GP witnessed a dramatic clash at Assen’s infamous last chicane.
The Italian held court with a 1’41.734, set on his fifth lap of FP3, from Romano Fenati, Sergio Garcia and John McPhee with Tatsuki Suzuki and Darryn Binder maintaining their control in the combined times.
Saturday’s final practice began with teammates Fenati and Adrian Fernandez both issued double long lap penalties for Sunday’s 22-lap race after being deemed to be ‘riding in an irresponsible manner and, after arriving at the pit box, displaying aggressive behaviour with another rider’ in FP1. Takuma Matsuyama also received a single long lap for ‘riding slowly and disturbing another rider’ - namely Izan Guevara at turn nine during Friday’s FP2.
Despite the infraction, Fenati concentrated on the job at hand as FP3 fired up, the Max Racing rider celebrating his boss, Max Biaggi’s, 50th birthday by leading the session in the opening laps.
There was offering fortunes for Jaume Masia as the KTM rider suffered his third big crash of the weekend, at turn nine with Suzuki also suffering another big off, at turn seven, moments later.
Foggia took charge of the action after 10-minutes on track, Fenati, Ricardo Rossi and Ryusei Yamanaka following him in the session standings, with the leader sitting third, Rossi 14th, in the combined times due to their Saturday morning pace. Darryn Binder and McPhee joined the front mid-session, with the Petronas pair finding third and fifth respectively, as Matsuyama too advanced to sixth. Kaito Toba sat seventh from Gabriel Rodrigo, Pedro Acosta and Suzuki as Yamanaka dropped to 11th.
The halfway stages saw further improvements as Acosta entered the top-three and Yamanaka advanced to sixth, closely followed by Guevara and Fernandez. An impressive performance from replacement rider Elia Bartolini saw the VR46 protégé hit second before he was promptly demoted by Garcia, his Avintia teammate slotting alongside in fourth on the next lap.
Masia recovered from his earlier fall by entering the top-10 as Andi Farid Izdihar became the latest casualty, sliding out at turn 16 and Binder hit the gravel at turn seven as the final quarter of an hour began.
Eight of the overall top-14 had improved their times by the closing 10-minutes, with McPhee dropped out of contention as the field prepared for another frenetic climax to proceedings. While Alberto Surra seemed to suffer a technical issue on his newly-acquired Snipers machine, as the dejected Italian pushed his beleaguered Honda back to the pits.
Fenati was fired up as he navigated the 4.5km track alone in the final five minutes, repeatedly improving his pace to sit second in the session, fourth overall, despite losing momentum in the final sector.
There was a tense build up to the final action as the majority of riders remained in the pits with just over two-minutes to go. The pack dramatically peeling out of pitlane with just 1’50 on the clock, 1’41.737 the fastest lap recorded so far this morning. Only a few riders able to make the line before the chequered flag with Rodrigo crashing out at turn two, seconds later.
McPhee, one of the minority to make the final lap count, took fourth as a dramatic last corner collision with Yamanaka took out Acosta, Nepa and Rossi. The latter Italian down on the deck for a while before recovering to his feet much to the relief of the awaiting paddock and crowd.
The session completed with Foggia leading Fenati, Garcia, McPhee and Deniz Oncu, Bartolini, Antonelli, Jeremy Alcoba, Toba and Rodrigo in the top-10. Masia, the first of the fastest riders not to be inside the overall top-14 misses out on direct promotion to Q2 with Acosta, Binder, Andrea Migno and Suzuki progressing due to their Friday efforts.
