Leopard Racing’s Joan Mir snatched Moto3 victory in the last sector of the last lap at today’s race barely half an hour after a deal for the Spaniard to move into Moto2 next season was announced.
Mir picked poleman Jorge Martin’s pocket into turn 13 to steal the lead with Romano Fenati following him through at the final chicane and Mir now leads the championship by almost two race wins.
Fenati had taken the lead with five laps to go and attempted to check out, pulling a half-second gap but Mir had his measure, going back in front with three left to go on the pit straight.
Martin also passed the Italian into turn one but as they crossed the line to the start the penultimate lap, both Martin and Fenati were back past in the slipstream, and then Enea Bastianini also pushed Mir back to fourth.
At the beginning of the last lap, Mir re-passed Bastiannini for third and Fenati for second in short order. As the race moved into the last sector, Mir made his move and bagged the win by 0.191s from Fenati with Martin 0.088s further back.
Bastiannini ended in fourth with Estrella Galicia team-mate Aron Canet in fifth with Marcos Ramirez in sixth place. Britain’s John McPhee ended in 12th place.
