Del Conca Gresini’s Jorge Martin took his maiden Moto3 win this morning at the Valencia MotoGP round while champion Joan Mir came from 19th on lap three to finish second and set a new season points record for the class.
Martin wasn’t challenged for the win after a crash from Gabriel Rodriguez in second saw Mir take to the gravel in avoidance and the resulting melee gave Martin a 1.8s advantage which he built to six seconds and managed the pace to cross the line with a 3.760s.
Mir came through the pack like his hair was on fire, slicing his way from 19th to the podium pack in ten laps and then picked his passes carefully, taking second from Romano Fenati with seven to go as the Italian battled with Marco Ramirez, Enea Bastianini, Juanfran Guevara, Dennis Foggia, John McPhee and Aron Canet for the remaining podium spot.
Mir, in his typical style, was never ruffled despite being shown wheels by Ramirez and Fenati, and he crossed the line with a 0.117s advantage over Ramirez to take his points tally to an all-time record of 341 for a season, averaging 18.9 per race. He didn’t, however, get the 11th win needed to equal Valentino Rossi’s record of 11 lightweight class wins in a season.
Fenati lost out to Ramirez by just 0.076s in his final race before he moves into Moto2 next season with the Rivacold Snipers team. Bastianini was fifth with Guevara in sixth place. Foggia, the new Junior World Champion, made an error into the last turn and crossed the line in seventh.
Britain’s John McPhee rode a smart race, allowing Mir to tow him up to the podium pack and he ended the day in eighth from 22nd on the grid. Aron Canet was ninth with new Red Bull Rookies champion Masaki taking a top ten in his debut race.
Fabio DiGiannantonio's scary moment
