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Qatar Moto3: Luis Salom wins five-bike victory tussle

Luis Salom took a beautifully-judged victory in the Moto3 season-opener in Qatar on his debut for new team Ajo

Maverick Vinales shrugged off his hand injury from testing to secure second in a photo-finish with Alex Rins.

That trio plus Alex Marquez and Jonas Folger formed a five-bike lead tussle for the whole distance.

Squabbling Monlau team-mates Rins and Marquez led into the final laps, but Laglisse rider Vinales showed his intentions by drafting from fourth to first on the pits straight.

The Monlau bikes slipped ahead again further around the lap, only to be swamped again on the straight, as this time Salom came through to first and Vinales to second.

It looked like another slipstreaming spectacular was in prospect to decide the win, but Salom had other ideas.

A mighty push on his final lap broke the tow and allowed him to cross the line a relatively comfortable 0.417 seconds ahead.

It was far closer for second, as Vinales hung on by 0.006s over Rins. Marquez and Folger followed right behind.

Zulfahmi Khairuddin came back from a disappointing qualifying session to beat Miguel Oliveira and Arthur Sissis to sixth.

Niklas Ajo and Efren Vazquez led the next pack to the flag to complete the top 10.

Second-row qualifier Alan Techer was among the early crashers.

Results - 18 laps:

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                 Time/Gap
 1.  Luis Salom           Ajo KTM                 38m26.859s
 2.  Maverick Vinales     Laglisse KTM              + 0.417s
 3.  Alex Rins            Monlau KTM                + 0.423s
 4.  Alex Marquez         Monlau KTM                + 0.701s
 5.  Jonas Folger         Aspar Kalex-KTM           + 0.916s
 6.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Ajo KTM                  + 17.489s
 7.  Miguel Oliveira      Mahindra                 + 17.566s
 8.  Arthur Sissis        Ajo KTM                  + 19.355s
 9.  Niklas Ajo           Tecno KTM                + 28.966s
10.  Efren Vazquez        Mahindra                 + 28.995s
11.  Danny Webb           WWC Suter-Honda          + 29.440s
12.  Brad Binder          WWC Suter-Honda          + 29.499s
13.  Jasper Iwema         RW Kalex-KTM             + 39.216s
14.  Alexis Masbou        Ongetta FTR-Honda        + 39.415s
15.  Romano Fenati        Italia FTR-Honda         + 39.451s
16.  Jack Miller          Caretta-RTG FTR-Honda    + 39.797s
17.  Philipp Oettl        Paddock Kalex-KTM        + 50.846s
18.  Alessandro Tonucci   Tasca Honda              + 51.093s
19.  Toni Finsterbusch    Kiefer Kalex-KTM         + 51.218s
20.  Ana Carrasco         Laglisse KTM             + 51.266s
21.  Juanfran Guevara     CIP TSR-Honda            + 51.329s
22.  Jakub Kornfeil       RW Kalex-KTM             + 53.745s
23.  Francesco Bagnaia    Italia FTR-Honda         + 54.691s
24.  Matteo Ferrari       Ongetta FTR-Honda        + 54.948s
25.  Florian Alt          Kiefer Kalex-KTM         + 55.236s
26.  Eric Granado         Aspar Kalex-KTM        + 1m03.601s
27.  Hyuga Watanabe       Tasca Honda            + 1m23.040s
28.  Lorenzo Baldassarri  Gresini FTR-Honda      + 1m23.178s

Retirements:

     John McPhee          Caretta-RTG FTR-Honda      16 laps
     Isaac Vinales        Ongetta FTR-Honda           7 laps
     Alan Techer          CIP TSR-Honda               2 laps
     Niccolo Antonelli    Gresini FTR-Honda           0 laps

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