Romano Fenati takes stunning wet Moto3 win at Jerez

While Fenati ran at the front throughout, set a flurry of fastest laps at the end and lapped several riders on the way to a 30-second victory that also gave him the points lead, his win also owed to the high number of riders who fell foul of the circuit conditions - with just 17 riders able to finish the race.

The tone of the race was set from the start, as three riders - including Jack Miller from second - all high-sided at the damp Turn 9.

Two laps later and Jakub Kornfeil, who was leading, lost the rear of his Ongetta FTR-Honda on the final corner. He managed remarkably to hang on to the bike and stay upright, only to drop the machine on the wet astroturf as he attempted to rejoin.

That left Alex Rins, Fenati and Louis Rossi in a three-way fight for the lead, and it was Rins who looked the most likely of the trio as he began to stretch away.

His advantage was undone when he too slipped off track and was passed by both Fenati and Rossi. The order lasted all of one lap, as Rossi then dropped his FTR-Honda at Turn 1 and surrendered what would have been a career-best finish.

Fenati then began to pull away from Rins, before the Spaniard dropped it at Turn 1. Once again he was able to get going, but his fight for victory was over as he slipped back into the chasing pack of Sandro Cortese, Luis Salom and Alexis Masbou.

The quartet traded places almost corner by corner in the final laps - their battle a direct contrast to the serenity of Fenati, 34s down the road - with Salom eventually claiming second ahead of Cortese and Rins.

Qatar race winner Maverick Vinales was another early victim, running through the gravel on lap three, but the championship favourite staged a remarkable recovery and fought his way back to sixth at the finish.

Alberto Moncayo, Niccolo Antonelli and Hector Faubel rounded out the top nine, having been locked in a fight for sixth throughout the race.

Results - 23 laps:

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                   Time/Gap
 1.  Romano Fenati        Italia FMI FTR-Honda      43m50.885s
 2.  Luis Salom           RW Kalex-KTM               + 36.139s
 3.  Sandro Cortese       Ajo KTM                    + 36.895s
 4.  Alex Rins            Monlau Suter-Honda         + 37.061s
 5.  Alexis Masbou        Caretta Honda              + 49.036s
 6.  Maverick Vinales     Avintia FTR-Honda          + 55.857s
 7.  Alberto Moncayo      Aspar Kalex-KTM            + 57.505s
 8.  Niccolo Antonelli    Gresini FTR-Honda        + 1m03.683s
 9.  Hector Faubel        Aspar Kalex-KTM          + 1m15.351s
10.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Ajo KTM                  + 1m35.650s
11.  Alessandro Tonucci   Italia FMI FTR-Honda         + 1 lap
12.  Alex Marquez         Monlau Suter-Honda           + 1 lap
13.  Ivan Moreno          Laglisse FTR-Honda           + 1 lap
14.  Alan Techer          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda      + 1 lap
15.  Giulian Pedone       Ambrogio Oral                + 1 lap
16.  Marcel Schrotter     Mahindra                     + 1 lap
17.  Jasper Iwema         FGR-Honda                    + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Adrian Martin        Laglisse FTR-Honda           15 laps
     Kenta Fujii          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda      15 laps
     Danny Webb           Mahindra                     14 laps
     Louis Rossi          Germany FTR-Honda             9 laps
     Isaac Vinales        Ongetta FTR-Honda             6 laps
     Josep Rodriguez      BST FTR-Honda                 4 laps
     Miguel Oliveira      Monlau Suter-Honda            3 laps
     Arthur Sissis        Ajo KTM                       3 laps
     Jakub Kornfeil       Ongetta FTR-Honda             2 laps
     Brad Binder          RW Kalex-KTM                  2 laps
     Efren Vazquez        Laglisse FTR-Honda            2 laps
     Niklas Ajo           TT Motion KTM                 2 laps
     Toni Finsterbusch    MZ FTR                        2 laps
     Luigi Morciano       Ioda                          2 laps
     Jack Miller          Caretta Honda                 0 laps
     Danny Kent           Ajo KTM                       0 laps
     Simone Grotzkyj      Ambrogio Oral                 0 laps