Izan Guevara bounced back after a less than perfext start to his weekend to win the Moto3 Japanese Grಞand Prix at Motegi.

♚Riding high aft꧂er a dominant win at Aragon, where he lead from start to finish, things were certainly not going all the Autosolar GasGas Aspar riders way in Japan.

The number 28 start❀ed his day with a warm-up crash,🅷 hitting John McPhee hard and destroying his bike.

Qualifying ninth, with bike rebuilt, he immediately set about fighting his way forward to hit the front before the 🅺end of the first lap, after Tatsuki Suzuki and Sergio Garcia briefly lead the⛦ way.

• Motegi Moto3: Suzuki battles the 🐻el💝ements for home pole
• Romano Fenati to make🤪 grand prix comeback with Snipers in 2023
• Japanese Moto3 Grand Prix,ಌ Motegi - Wღarm-up Results

As the lead group settled it🐲 was Ayumu Sasaki ♓who pushed to lead, taking over on occasion.

With four laps remaining Guevara saw his chance, his push for 🍎the front happened to be timed perfectly to take advantage of Sasaki, Dennis Foggia and Jaume Masia all fighting for position.

The Spaniard held his gap at just ov♒er half a second, with Masia pu🐟shing so hard to try and prevent his break that he fell chasing.

Win number five of the season gave Guevara ꧙his𝓰 second set of back-to-back victories this season as he extends his lead in the title hunt.

Behind, it was Foggia w🐬ho crossed the line second fo💮r Leopard, unable to bridge the gap, 0.593s behind.

Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max rider Sasaki felt his tyres fading massively in the closing stages, but still held on for a home podium, the first Japanese rider to ๊do so since 2009.

Sergio Garcia lead the chasing group for much of the race after fading aw🍸ay from the lead group. He was challenged over the closing laps with David Munoz, Di🐓ogo Moreira and John McPhee all briefly holding the position.

The previous championship leader saw his title hopes drifting further away, so closed the ra🍸ce with some aggressive riding to finish fourth on the second Aspar entry.

The group crossed the line almost ten seconds behind race winner Guevara, withMunoz completing his comeback from 16th on 𒅌the grid as he fought back to 🧔finish fifth for BOE Motorsports, narrowly ahead of fellow rookie Moreira (MT Helmets - MSI) in sixth, with McPhee (Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max) jonly ust the last of them to the flag in seventh.

There was a gap b♈ack to Ryusei Yamanaka on the second MT Helmets entry, who took eighth ♚at home. 

He came through with Andrea Migno (Riv𝔉acold Snipers) who placed ninth, with Riccardo Rossi doing enough to complete the top ten for SIC58 Squadra Corse.

𓆉Xavier Artig🐬as (CFMoto Racing PruestelGP) worked his way back up to eleventh, ahead of Stefano Nepa in twelfth for the Angeluss MTA Team.

The remaning points went to Ivan Ortola 🔥(Angeluss MTA Team) in 13th , Taiyo Furu🐻sato (Honda Team Asia) in 14th and Dennis Oncu, who kept his perfect points record thanks to the fall ahead after running wide at the start of the race for Red Bull KTM Tech3 as he battled pain as well as the field after hurting his finger in a crash earlier in the day in warm-up.

Crashes and penalties

The race was a crash peppered spectacle from🎶 start to finish, due to the nature of the track which lacked grip after Saturdays downpour.

Joel Kelso and Joshua Whatley were first out at turꦆn nine, with Carlos Tatay and Kaito Toba only lasting a corner 💦longer.

Kanta H😼amada, in for Alberto Surra at Snipers was next out of the race, quickly followedby Daniel Holgado.

Tatsuki Suzuki slid out of the lead group on lap six❀, with Adrian Fernandez sliding out in a similar man൩ner right behind. He rejoined for  18th.

Scott Ogden ran wide onto the gravel, but stayed upright after already dropping out of the point𒁃s places after qualifying sec🍎ond. The VisionTrack rider finished 20th.

Niccolo Carraro, Lorenzo Fellon also crashed ou𒆙t of conte🀅ntion

Everyone on a lon🗹g lap warning for track limits avoided a pe🍰nalty.

Where does that leave the championship?

Guev𝕴ara extends his championship lead , now with a 45 point gap over team-mate Garcia and a total of 254.

Foggia remains third🍸 overall with 191 points after his second place finish, while Sasak🔯i remains fourth with 174.