MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

A sunny Sunday in Misano set the scene for the lightweight class battle, followed by a pretty impressive unicycle demo from David Alonso. Unhappy with his rivals’ antics two weeks ago, the world championship leader responded by extending his advantage with an eighth victory of the season, beating Angel Piqueras to the line. Collin Veijer joined them on the podium courtesy of a post-race penalty for Dani Holgado, who exceeded track limits on the final lap.

Poleman Taiyo Furusato got some brief time in the limelight as he led the way off the line, with Alonso and Ivan Ortola in tow, while Piqueras made a modest start but soon recovered to 4^th position ahead of Veijer. Having started from 11^th grid position, Holgado made rapid progress into 6^th, with Adrian Fernandez, Stefano Nepa, Jose Antonio Rueda and Joel Kelso in the early top 10. Luca Lunetta lost a couple of positions early on, having to recover from 14^th, while David Muñoz wrote his race off at turn 2, crashing out on the opening lap, rejoining to complete his double long lap penalties from his last outing in Misano and then crashing back out a few laps later. 

Meanwhile at the front, Alonso was already robbing Furusato of the spotlight by the end of the opening lap, as rival Ortola started going backwards and dropped down to 8^th within half a lap, although only a second behind the leader. Piqueras, Furusato and Holgado were Alonso’s main threats by lap three, Holgado looking to be the strongest of the group, quickly making his way into second and breathing down Alonso’s neck by lap four. Taking the lead wasn’t much more difficult either, Holgado having a go at Alonso that same lap, with Fernandez following his example soon after, deposing Alonso of second position at the first corner. Piqueras and Furusato were next to demote Alonso to 5^th, with Veijer, Rueda, Kelso and Ortola in tow but with 14 riders still in the leading group.

Holgado enjoyed a couple of laps of clear air at the front, while the Leopard Racing duo were engaged in friendly fire, but Piqueras was particularly keen to return to the limelight. A move at turn 14 secured him second position, followed by a turn 2 attack on Holgado handing him the lead at the start of lap seven. However, a big moment at turn 15 lost him a couple of positions only one lap later, allowing Holgado and Alonso back through. The duo immediately started to tango at the front, with Piqueras, Kelso and Veijer being joined by a recovering Lunetta in the top six. A risky move from Furusato on Fernandez cost the Spaniard a couple of positions down to 7^th, while the poleman dropped to 12^th but still inside the lead group of 14. 

Despite the sizeable group still technically in victory contention, the main actors continued to be Alonso, Holgado and Piqueras by the halfway point of proceedings. The trio started to stretch a bit of a gap over the next couple of laps, keeping Veijer & Co about half a second back, but the Dutchman wasn’t happy with that and tried to reel them back in, while dropping the rest of the group eight tenths behind with eight laps remaining. Lunetta was left in charge of the pursuit, which was starting to fragment as well, only Ortola and Kelso keeping up with the Italian. 

The leading trio officially became a quartet with seven laps to go, as Veijer joined the party but Holgado, Piqueras and Veijer were not keen to show their cards just yet, letting Alonso show them the way. By the time Ortola took control of the chase, he found himself one full second behind the leaders and was running out of time to catch up. Significant moves in the leading group only started on the penultimate lap, when Holgado attacked Alonso for the lead, also allowing Piqueras to sneak through on the Columbian. However, a double slipstream in the run up to turn eight allowed Alonso to retaliate on both Piqueras and Holgado on the final lap and the late exchanges between the Spaniards helped Alonso keep the lead until the chequered flag by less than two tenths of a second. Piqueras eventually won the battle for second, crossing the finish line one tenth ahead of Holgado, who then got sanctioned for exceeding track limits on the final lap and invited Veijer to the podium instead. Ortola took 5^th over two and a half seconds later, while Lunetta fended off Kelso for 6^th place and Fernandez, Bertelle and Rueda completed the top 10. A long lap penalty for exceeding track limits lost Furusato more ground and the poleman finished 13^th. 

Alonso’s victory allows him to extend his already sizeable advantage in the world championship to 82 points, with Holgado and Veijer tied on points. Ortola drops to 4^th, with an 87-point deficit. 

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