Ortolá opens and Acosta signs the second in Austin

The Valencian made a spectacular comeback and scored a beautiful Moto3 race

The Murcian beat Arbolino in Moto2

MADRID, 16 (EUROPA PRESS)

The Grand Prix of the Americas, the third round of the World Championship, started this Sunday with the Spanish victories in Moto3 and Moto2 for Iván Ortolá (KTM) and Pedro Acosta (Kalex), with a complete Spanish podium in the small category and a nice heads-up from Murcia with the Italian Tony Arbolino (Kalex) in second.

Ortolá debuted his record on a Spanish podium that he shared with Jaume Masiá (Honda) and Xavier Artigas (CFMOTO). The Valencian signed a spectacular comeback after a good scare at the start, saving the fall to find himself in the tail. With a last lap with the knife between his teeth, full of overtaking, the Valencian scored an epic victory in Austin.

Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) led for most of the race but crashed three laps before the checkered flag. In those last corners, the Brazilian Diogo Moreira (KTM) found himself overtaken by Masiá and Artigas for that Spanish podium in the third round of the World Championship. The small category continues to be led overall by Daniel Holgado, also a Spaniard, who finished fifth.

The KTM rider now has 49 points, the same as a Moreira who let the lead slip away in the final hectic laps in which he missed out on the podium for the first time this season by nine thousandths of a second. Artigas (32) and Masiá (32) are third and fourth.

Next, the Moto2 event in Austin ended in a one-on-one between Acosta and Arbolino. The Spaniard, champion in Portimao, and the Italian, winner in Argentina, closely marked each other for much of the American event and, on the last lap, Acosta took the lead to score his second victory.

Arbolino, who maintains the World Championship lead with six points over the Spaniard, accepted the blow from Murcia with sportsmanship, who returns to push hard after a year of adaptation to which he arrived as a meteoric Moto3 champion.

The Dutchman Bo Bendsneyder (Kalex) completed the podium, surprising Jeremy Alcoba, Fermín Aldeguer and Aron Canet third in the World Championship. The three Spaniards were in contention for the podium, but they had to settle for fourth, sixth and eighth place.