Maverick Vinales escapes to Catalunya Moto3 win
Maverick Vinales captured his second Moto3 victory of the season with a superb breakaway ride at Catalunya, cutting Sandro Cortese's championship lead to just seven points
The Avintia FTR-Honda rider led a string of seven riders all fighting for first for the opening half of the race, with only 1.2 seconds covering the group at the halfway mark.
As those behind him began to squabble for position however Vinales made his break, edging a gap of four tenths of a second 12 laps from the end.
It proved perfectly timed, as the sight of the Spaniard escaping sparked the chasing pack to push even harder - and stumble over each other even more.
Second place changed hands almost corner by corner, exaggerating Vinales' gains. Within one lap he was two seconds clear; within two, his lead was suddenly over four. It increased for the remainder of the race, allowing Vinales to stand atop his bike as he claimed the flag.
Cortese (Ajo KTM) could not quite match the magnitude of Vinales' breakaway, but he was able to crucially pull clear of the runner-up fight on the final lap, allowing him to claim second and preserve his championship lead.
His podium was all the more remarkable considering his heavy fall in third practice, for which he was still receiving treatment in the build up to the race.
Miguel Oliveira (Monlau Honda) got the better of Louis Rossi (Germany FTR-Honda), Alexis Masbou (Caretta Honda), wildcard Alex Marquez (Galicia Suter-Honda), Hector Faubel (Aspar Kalex-KTM ) and Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Ajo KTM) to seal third.
The seven-strong group had swapped positions throughout the race, continuing until the very final corner when Oliveira edged inside Masbou and then beat Rossi to the line in a photo finish.
Results - 22 laps:
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time/Gap
1. Maverick Vinales Avintia FTR-Honda 41m50.965s
2. Sandro Cortese Ajo KTM + 7.752s
3. Miguel Oliveira Monlau Suter-Honda + 7.853s
4. Louis Rossi Germany FTR-Honda + 8.007s
5. Alexis Masbou Caretta Honda + 8.075s
6. Alex Marquez Monlau Suter-Honda + 8.267s
7. Hector Faubel Aspar Kalex-KTM + 8.355s
8. Zulfahmi Khairuddin Ajo KTM + 8.480s
9. Romano Fenati Italia FMI FTR-Honda + 8.600s
10. Luis Salom RW Kalex-KTM + 16.023s
11. Jakub Kornfeil Ongetta FTR-Honda + 16.127s
12. Niccolo Antonelli Gresini FTR-Honda + 16.222s
13. Alan Techer Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda + 16.792s
14. Alberto Moncayo Aspar Kalex-KTM + 30.132s
15. Jack Miller Caretta Honda + 30.132s
16. Jasper Iwema FGR Honda + 30.304s
17. Adrian Martin Laglisse FTR-Honda + 30.663s
18. Ivan Moreno Laglisse FTR-Honda + 30.970s
19. John McPhee KRP-Honda + 31.042s
20. Danny Kent Ajo KTM + 43.738s
21. Niklas Ajo TT Motion KTM + 43.765s
22. Arthur Sissis Ajo KTM + 44.119s
23. Simone Grotzkyj Ambrogio Suter-Honda + 1m02.007s
24. Isaac Vinales Ongetta FTR-Honda + 1m11.320s
25. Kenta Fujii Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda + 1m19.060s
26. Luigi Morciano Ioda Italia + 1m19.314s
27. Giulian Pedone Ambrogio Suter-Honda + 1m19.331s
Retirements:
Alessandro Tonucci Italia FMI FTR-Honda 21 laps
Danny Webb Mahindra 16 laps
Marcel Schrotter Mahindra 16 laps
Alex Rins Monlau Suter-Honda 15 laps
Efren Vazquez Laglisse FTR-Honda 15 laps
Brad Binder RW Kalex-KTM 6 laps
Jonas Folger Ioda 4 laps
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Silverstone: Circuit of Wales is not viable
Qatar MotoGP: Marquez beats Rossi in action-packed race
Redding: I've got to 'do a Marquez'
Latvala: Neuville, Evans tied for WRC Croatia lead "something special"
WEC Imola: Ferrari remains on top in FP2 as Fuoco beats Porsche
WRC Croatia: Neuville, Evans tied for the lead after eight stages
WIN! A VIP Race Weekend Experience in Monaco
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments