Vinales closes on Moto3 title rival Cortese after spectacular finish at Mugello
Maverick Vinales closed in on Sandro Cortese in the Moto3 title battle as he edged out local hero Romano Fenati in a spectacular finish at Mugello
Title rivals Vinales and Cortese were joined by Fenati in a three-bike breakaway in the closing stages.
Team Italia rider Fenati gave it everything to try and upstage the category benchmarks and take a home victory in his rookie season to follow up his Jerez triumph.
The 16-year-old tried around the outside of Vinales' Avintia FTR at Correntaio on the final lap, then tucked into Vinales and Cortese's slipstream as they dashed for the finish line. Fenati pulled to the inside of the track and managed to inch ahead of Ajo KTM rider Cortese for second, but fell 0.020 seconds shy of beating Vinales over the line, with Cortese just 0.051s further back.
Another rising Italian star took fourth, as Gresini's Niccolo Antonelli beat Cortese's team-mate Danny Kent, Laglisse rider Efren Vazquez and Monlau's Alex Rins in another spectacular battle. All four had been in the thick of the lead fight until Vinales, Fenati and Cortese broke clear, and the quartet took the flag covered by just 0.118s. Kent had to fight back into this group after a lap two brush with Louis Rossi (Team Germany) in which the Le Mans winner fell.
Jakub Kornfeil claimed eighth for Ongetta, ahead of Zulfahmi Khairuddin - who burst through from seventh on the grid to lead the first half-lap on his Ajo KTM. Veteran Hector Faubel (Aspar) completed the top 10.
Results - 20 laps:
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time/Gap
1. Maverick Vinales Avintia FTR-Honda 39m57.374s
2. Romano Fenati Italia FMI FTR-Honda + 0.020s
3. Sandro Cortese Ajo KTM + 0.071s
4. Niccolo Antonelli Gresini FTR-Honda + 5.788s
5. Danny Kent Ajo KTM + 5.836s
6. Efren Vazquez Laglisse FTR-Honda + 5.860s
7. Alex Rins Monlau Suter-Honda + 5.906s
8. Jakub Kornfeil Ongetta FTR-Honda + 18.195s
9. Zulfahmi Khairuddin Ajo KTM + 19.232s
10. Hector Faubel Aspar Kalex-KTM + 19.308s
11. Niklas Ajo TT Motion KTM + 35.855s
12. Alexis Masbou Caretta Honda + 35.872s
13. Adrian Martin Laglisse FTR-Honda + 36.175s
14. Kevin Calia Ciatti Honda + 36.195s
15. Michael Ruben Rinaldi Gabrielli Honda + 36.270s
16. Alessandro Tonucci Italia FMI FTR-Honda + 36.285s
17. Alan Techer Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda + 36.446s
18. Toni Finsterbusch MZ-Honda + 36.651s
19. Isaac Vinales Ongetta FTR-Honda + 51.252s
20. Danny Webb Mahindra + 57.030s
21. Jack Miller Caretta Honda + 57.136s
22. Simone Grotzkyj Ambrogio Suter-Honda + 57.148s
23. Giulian Pedone Ambrogio Suter-Honda + 57.151s
24. Brad Binder RW Kalex-KTM + 1m07.228s
25. Kenta Fujii Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda + 1m23.679s
26. Ivan Moreno Laglisse FTR-Honda + 1m31.341s
27. Luigi Morciano Ioda Italia + 1m55.845s
Retirements:
Miguel Oliveira Monlau Suter-Honda 12 laps
Jasper Iwema FGR Honda 8 laps
Jonas Folger Ioda 6 laps
Arthur Sissis Ajo KTM 4 laps
Alberto Moncayo Aspar Kalex-KTM 3 laps
Luis Salom RW Kalex-KTM 3 laps
Louis Rossi Germany FTR-Honda 1 lap
Riccardo Moretti Mahindra 0 laps
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