Britain’s Danny Kent took a hard-fought third place in today’s Moto3 race at Qatar’s MotoGP race after 18 laps of scrapping with a 12-rider group who were all in with a shout of the win 1.6s covered them.
Kent was in the top-five mix for the entire race, mixing it up with eventual winner Alexis Masbou, Enea Bastianini, Efren Vasquez, Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia while Scotland’s John McPhee sat at the back of the group.
The Leopard Honda man led the race four times and in each, he managed to pull a small breakaway but as he was passed, the group then slowed and it was back to a 12-bike dice for top spot.
Masbou and Nico Antonelli made the early running with McPhee and Kent but the Oban rider slowly slipped backwards. Class rookie and teenager Quartararo then made his way to the front while Bagnaia made a nuisance of himself.
In a race that never settled down, lead changes came thick and fast with Bastianini coming from the 21st on the grid while Masbou was pushed towards the back of the group and Vasquez started to use his weight advantage to push his way to the front on the start/finish straight.
With eight laps to go, Kent hit the front again and stayed there until he was passed on the straight. Bagnaia found himself on the grass with four laps to go but still maintained the lead while Vasquez pushed his way to the front with two to go.
The last lap was a proper dust up. Masbou made his way back into contention as Bagnaia hit the grass again. On the drive for the line, Masbou made the race his with Bastianini second while Kent got better drive than Vasquez out of the last corner to bag the final podium spot.
McPhee, who was two seconds adrift with two laps left, got a huge tow and hurtled into fifth place, just behind Vasquez and said afterwards his gearing was wrong and he struggled to pass anyone. Miguel Oliveira crashed at turn one on lap one but recovered to take 16th place while Romano Fenati retired on the last lap after running outside the points all race. He will be busy stuffing a copy of Playboy down his pants for when he is called to team boss Valentino Rossi's office this evening...
