Phillip Island Moto3: Sandro Cortese wins as Arthur Sissis stars
Moto3 world champion Sandro Cortese sealed his fifth win of the season in the Australian round at Phillip Island, as his Ajo team-mate Arthur Sissis wowed his home crowd in third
With Cortese having wrapped up the series' inaugural title at Sepang a week ago, the pressure was off at Phillip Island.
When the lead battle was broken up by a spate of ride-through penalties for false starts - with frontrunners Jonas Folger, Luis Salom and Louis Rossi among those transgressing - Cortese and Monlau's Miguel Oliveira managed to break away.
Oliveira enjoyed a brief spell in the lead, but Cortese had matters in hand. He hit the front for good with three laps to go and duly clinched another victory, as Oliveira secured a career-best runner-up spot.
For the ecstatic crowd, the real hero was Sissis.
The young Australian clung on at the front of an incredible battle for third position to take his maiden world championship podium in the best possible place.
Sissis fended off rivals Alex Rins, Danny Kent, Romano Fenati, Alessandro Tonucci and Efren Vazquez by just fractions of a second at the line after a frantic last few laps.
Maverick Vinales had been in the thick of this battle on his return to the series but crashed seven laps from home.
Sepang podium finisher Zulfahmi Khairuddin led for a few laps early on before drifting back to the tail of the podium dice and then falling when a mechanical problem struck his Ajo KTM.
Results - 23 laps:
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time/Gap
1. Sandro Cortese Ajo KTM 38m20.014s
2. Miguel Oliveira Monlau Suter-Honda + 2.108s
3. Arthur Sissis Ajo KTM + 5.031s
4. Alex Rins Monlau Suter-Honda + 5.084s
5. Danny Kent Ajo KTM + 5.107s
6. Romano Fenati Italia FMI FTR-Honda + 5.109s
7. Alessandro Tonucci Italia FMI FTR-Honda + 5.374s
8. Efren Vazquez Laglisse FTR-Honda + 5.894s
9. Alex Marquez Ambrogio Suter-Honda + 30.783s
10. Isaac Vinales Ongetta FTR-Honda + 30.911s
11. Jonas Folger Aspar Kalex-KTM + 32.803s
12. Adrian Martin Laglisse FTR-Honda + 33.302s
13. Jakub Kornfeil Ongetta FTR-Honda + 33.479s
14. Brad Binder RW Kalex-KTM + 34.102s
15. Luis Salom RW Kalex-KTM + 43.749s
16. Alan Techer Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda + 43.827s
17. Alberto Moncayo Laglisse FTR-Honda + 49.394s
18. Armando Pontone Ioda Italia + 1m06.551s
19. John McPhee Caretta KRP-Honda + 1m06.588s
20. Louis Rossi Germany FTR-Honda + 1m08.801s
21. Jack Miller Caretta Honda + 1m08.908s
22. Kenta Fujii Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda + 1m10.030s
23. Giulian Pedone Ambrogio Suter-Honda + 1m10.411s
24. Lincoln Gilding K1 Honda + 1m33.510s
25. Sam Clarke Fastline Honda + 1 lap
Retirements:
Zulfahmi Khairuddin Ajo KTM 19 laps
Toni Finsterbusch Germany Honda 16 laps
Maverick Vinales Avintia FTR-Honda 14 laps
Niklas Ajo TT Motion KTM 11 laps
Luca Amato Aspar Kalex-KTM 8 laps
Riccardo Moretti Mahindra 1 lap
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