Izan Guevara defeated Deniz Oncu to score the final Moto3 win of 2022 following a thrilling final lap tussle in the Valencia Grand Prix.
The duo dominated proceedings at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo as they sprinted clear of the rest of the field across the 23-lap encounter, 2022 lightweight class world champion Guevara pulling Oncu away from the former’s GasGas team-mate Sergio Garcia across the entirety of the encounter.
Having crafted a six-second advantage over Garcia by the time the pair began the final lap, Oncu elected to finally stage an attack having stalked the Spaniard for the entire race, the Tech 3 KTM man diving through on Guevara at Turn 8 with a bold move.
Guevara looked to re-pay the favour as they approached the final tight left-hander, though Oncu had other ideas and defended heavily – although to his cost as he ended up running wide as a result, thus giving Guevara the cut-back and the run to the line to snatch away a first win for Oncu by just 0.062s.
Garcia meanwhile enjoyed a much calmer encounter as he claimed a lonely third just over 6.5 seconds adrift of the leading battle – securing him the runners-up championship result in the process – though nearly eight seconds clear of the scrum for fourth, which was ultimately won by Leopard Racing’s Dennis Foggia.
The Italian played it safe for the bulk of the outing as he circulated towards the latter part of the top ten, electing to move his way forwards in the closing laps as he looked to keep hold of third in the championship ahead of Ayumu Sasaki, who started the race just six points adrift and ran fifth for much of the day.
This became fourth after Izan Ortola – who ran away with the leaders in the early laps – dropped back into the pack, though Foggia carved through to steal the spot from the Japanese rider at the death, Sasaki taking the chequered flag fourth.
Adrian Fernandez put on a strong showing in what looks to be his final Moto3 event in sixth on the sister Tech 3 machine, while David Munoz claimed seventh on his BOE-prepared bike.
Diogo Moreira ended up eighth having run with the leading riders early on, a long-lap penalty putting him back into the pack that he would ultimately never escape, the Brazillian rookie leading MT Helmet’s team-mate Ryusei Yamanaka and Daniel Holgado.
John McPhee failed to match up to his brilliant victory in the Malaysian GP in his final Moto3 outing at Valencia as he crossed the line 11th just ahead of a fading Ortola, while Andrea Migno closed out his lightweight class career with a miserable run to 14th for the Snipers squad.
