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Motegi Moto3: Danny Kent takes maiden win as Sandro Cortese falls in late drama

Danny Kent claimed his maiden grand prix in an astonishing finish to the Motegi Moto3 race

With half a lap to go it looked like Sandro Cortese was on course to claim the series' inaugural world championship, only for a clash with Alessandro Tonucci to send the points leader to the ground.

While Cortese got back on to finish sixth, Maverick Vinales' second place kept the title battle alive for another week.

Kent, Jonas Folger, Luis Salom and Zulfahmi Khairuddin were the main protagonists initially in a four-bike breakaway pack. Cortese and Cortese were back in the next group, jostling with Tonucci and Alex Rins.

Folger and Kent swapped first place repeatedly in the first half of the race, before Tonucci, Cortese and Vinales reeled the top group in.

This was a breakthrough performance by Team Italia's Tonucci, who had never previously finished above 10th but was now a genuine contender for victory.

Folger led into the last lap, only for Salom to slide down the inside into Turn 1 from fourth place, passing Tonucci and Cortese successfully but then slamming into Folger.

That handed the lead to Cortese, and with Vinales back in fourth behind Kent and Tonucci, the Ajo man was set to clinch the championship.

As Vinales battled to get past Tonucci, Kent dived past team-mate Cortese into the right-hander before the tunnel to snatch the race lead.

Tonucci followed Kent through, relegating Cortese to third. As he tried to fight back, he clashed with the Italian and slid to the ground.

Kent proceeded to claim his first win, with Monlau rider Vinales slipping through to second as Tonucci recovered momentum.

The wild finish allowed Rins and Khairuddin to reappear in fourth and fifth, ahead of Cortese, who got going just in time to beat the next large pack, led by Miguel Oliveira.

Cortese then angrily gesticulated at Kent on the slowing-down lap, seemingly blaming his race-winning team-mate for starting the problem with his initial overtaking move.

Results - 20 laps:

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                   Time/Gap
 1.  Danny Kent           Ajo KTM                   40m02.775s
 2.  Maverick Vinales     Avintia FTR-Honda           + 0.260s
 3.  Alessandro Tonucci   Italia FTR-Honda            + 2.352s
 4.  Alex Rins            Monlau Suter-Honda          + 3.404s
 5.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Ajo KTM                     + 3.645s
 6.  Sandro Cortese       Ajo KTM                    + 13.394s
 7.  Miguel Oliveira      Monlau Suter-Honda         + 15.523s
 8.  Louis Rossi          Germany FTR-Honda          + 15.739s
 9.  Efren Vazquez        Laglisse FTR-Honda         + 15.946s
10.  Romano Fenati        Italia FTR-Honda           + 16.129s
11.  Arthur Sissis        Ajo KTM                    + 16.223s
12.  Niccolo Antonelli    Gresini FTR-Honda          + 16.371s
13.  Niklas Ajo           TT Motion KTM              + 28.368s
14.  Alex Marquez         Ambrogio Suter-Honda       + 28.375s
15.  Jakub Kornfeil       Ongetta FTR-Honda          + 28.509s
16.  Hyuga Watanabe       U 7C Harc-Honda            + 31.071s
17.  Adrian Martin        Laglisse FTR-Honda         + 40.292s
18.  Kenta Fujii          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda    + 42.822s
19.  Jack Miller          Caretta Honda              + 42.896s
20.  Alan Techer          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda    + 47.451s
21.  John McPhee          Caretta KRP Honda          + 48.245s
22.  Luca Amato           Aspar Kalex-KTM            + 48.359s
23.  Isaac Vinales        Ongetta FTR-Honda          + 48.439s
24.  Josep Rodriguez      FGR Honda                + 1m03.762s
25.  Giulian Pedone       Ambrogio Suter-Honda     + 1m10.290s
26.  Danny Webb           Mahindra                 + 1m10.484s
27.  Yuudai Kamei         18 Garage Honda              + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Jonas Folger         Aspar Kalex-KTM              19 laps
     Luis Salom           RW Kalex-KTM                 19 laps
     Alberto Moncayo      Laglisse FTR-Honda           19 laps
     Brad Binder          RW Kalex-KTM                 14 laps
     Toni Finsterbusch    Germany Honda                 3 laps
     Armando Pontone      Ioda                          0 laps
     Riccardo Moretti     Mahindra                      0 laps

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