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Maverick Vinales beats new star Romano Fenati to win Moto3's inaugural race in Qatar

Maverick Vinales became the first ever winner of a Moto3 race in Qatar after a tough battle with world championship newcomer Romano Fenati

Last year's Italian 125cc runner-up Fenati blasted into the lead from sixth on the grid at the start, while pre-season title favourite Vinales dropped back to fourth. The Spaniard - hotly-tipped for 2012 after winning four 125cc races in his rookie season at world level in '11 - soon fought through to join Fenati at the front, as they broke away from the rest of the field.

Vinales (Avintia) bided his time behind Fenati (Italia FMI) until lap six, when he swept past into Turn 1. He could not shake Fenati off at first, and would have to relinquish the lead again as the young Italian retaliated on lap 10.

But Vinales drafted back ahead two laps later, and after that started to storm away, eventually beating Fenati to victory by 4.3 seconds.

A massive battle for third showed that Moto3 will produce racing just as spectacular as its 125cc predecessor had. Polesitter Sandro Cortese eventually grabbed the final podium spot for the Ajo team, but only after an epic side by side pack race with Luis Salom (RW), Miguel Oliveira (Monlau), Ajo trio Zulfahmi Khairuddin, Arthur Sissis and Denny Kent, and Team Germany's Louis Rossi.

Monlau's highly-regarded Spanish newcomer Alex Rins beat fellow world-level rookie Alan Techer (Technomag-CIP) and veteran Aspar rider Hector Faubel to 10th.

Results - 18 laps:

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                   Time/Gap
 1.  Maverick Vinales     Avintia FTR-Honda         38m40.995s
 2.  Romano Fenati        Italia FMI FTR-Honda        + 4.301s
 3.  Sandro Cortese       Ajo KTM                    + 18.013s
 4.  Luis Salom           RW Kalex-KTM               + 18.200s
 5.  Miguel Oliveira      Monlau Suter-Honda         + 18.745s
 6.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Ajo KTM                    + 19.052s
 7.  Arthur Sissis        Ajo KTM                    + 19.466s
 8.  Danny Kent           Ajo KTM                    + 21.098s
 9.  Louis Rossi          Germany FTR-Honda          + 21.153s
10.  Alex Rins            Monlau Suter-Honda         + 28.733s
11.  Alan Techer          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda    + 29.775s
12.  Hector Faubel        Aspar Kalex-KTM            + 29.813s
13.  Niklas Ajo           TT Motion KTM              + 35.940s
14.  Alberto Moncayo      Aspar Kalex-KTM            + 35.983s
15.  Jakub Kornfeil       Ongetta FTR-Honda          + 38.641s
16.  Efren Vazquez        Laglisse Honda             + 40.219s
17.  Niccolo Antonelli    Gresini Honda              + 50.629s
18.  Danny Webb           Mahindra                   + 54.751s
19.  Ivan Moreno          Laglisse FTR-Honda         + 54.989s
20.  Adrian Martin        Laglisse Honda           + 1m05.183s
21.  Kenta Fujii          Technomag-CIP TSR Honda  + 1m21.239s
22.  Simone Grotzkyj      Ambrogio Oral            + 1m35.791s
23.  Toni Finsterbusch    MZ Honda                 + 1m41.291s
24.  Jasper Iwema         FGR Honda                + 1m54.293s
25.  Jack Miller          Caretta Honda                + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Jonas Folger         Ioda                         11 laps
     Luigi Morciano       Ioda                          7 laps
     Brad Binder          RW Kalex-KTM                  6 laps
     Marcel Schrotter     Mahindra                      5 laps
     Alexis Masbou        Caretta Honda                 0 laps
     Alessandro Tonucci   Italia FMI FTR-Honda          0 laps
     Isaac Vinales        Ongetta FTR-Honda             0 laps

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