Race day in Silverstone was just as overcast as any other day this weekend but slightly higher temperatures welcomed the lightweight class for their opening act. If practice and qualifying results made victory a foregone conclusion, Niccolò Antonelli did his best to go against the prediction and apply some pressure on runaway poleman Romano Fenati. However, 17 laps later, Fenati confirmed his superiority around Silverstone once again and provided us with the first winner from pole of this Moto3 campaign. Antonelli finished one second away from victory in a phenomenal comeback from injury and was joined on the podium by Dennis Foggia, who made it an all-Italian top 3 after a fought-out final lap of the race.
Fenati was nearly untouchable from the start, the poleman leading the way into turn 1 despite a challenge from front row starter Gabriel Rodrigo. The Argentinian rider immediately started going backwards instead and allowed Antonelli, Andrea Migno and Riccardo Rossi past. Having shared a start on the 8th row of the grid, title contenders Pedro Acosta and Sergio Garcia quickly recovered to knock on the doors of the top 15 by the end of lap 1.
By lap 2, Antonelli was the only rider close enough to attack Fenati, with Migno also eager to join the battle for victory and doing so one lap later, while the chasing group led by Rossi and Darryn Binder had dropped almost a second back. Another second down the road, Acosta and Garcia were engaging in direct battle just outside the top 10 while trying to bridge the gap to the sizeable group ahead.
The Italian leading trio stretched a one and a half seconds gap by lap 4 and the exchanges between Binder, Foggia and Rossi seemed to be helping their escape. Jaume Masia, Tatsuki Suzuki, Izan Guevara and Deniz Öncü were also part of the chasing group, with Garcia not making much of an impression in their pursuit.
Back at the front, Antonelli and Migno were not showing a wheel to Fenati yet but were keeping him close in their sights. Migno however, never got a shot at victory, as he had to retire with a mechanical issue on lap 6, leaving his two compatriots in the lead and with Foggia inheriting third at the helm of the chasing group that suddenly found itself battling for a podium position. Migno’s bad luck also promoted Acosta to the top 10 but the championship leader had over three seconds to find if he was to join the sizeable third place battle and Garcia was still keeping him busy with the occasional overtake. However, the main championship contenders were not alone, with John McPhee, Carlos Tatay and Filip Salac demoting them every so often, while Rodrigo had dropped all the way down to 19th by lap 8.
Fenati started the final half of the race still in the lead but with Antonelli in close proximity and Foggia still holding onto third, almost four seconds down the road. While Guevara, Binder, Suzuki and Masia were biding their time to attack for the podium, Öncü and Rossi lost touch with that group but were a safe six seconds ahead of the battle for 10th place, where Acosta and Garcia were not having it all their own way. With the exception of that particularly feisty group, things were unusually quiet for a Moto3 race at the front, Antonelli yet to attack Fenati as the race entered its final five laps and the gap between the two seemed to be growing from then on.
The leading Italians entered the final lap separated by one full second and Antonelli’s focus turned to the threat behind him, where Foggia and Guevara were closing in for the final couple of laps. The duo got within half a second of Antonelli, but the KTM rider held onto second place. Guevara sniffed around Foggia for a long time before making his bid for the podium at the start of the final lap, but Foggia retaliated soon after at Abbey and secured third place. Guevara settled for fourth as his best result of the season, with Suzuki leading Masia and Binder over the finish line in the battle for fifth. Öncü and Rossi took the checkered flag seven seconds later, while the battle for 10th was still raging on over the final lap and saw Tatay come out on top. The frequent exchanges left Acosta outside of point scoring positions with three laps to go, but a several of fortunes saw him climb up to 12th on the last lap, while rival Garcia lost a lot of ground and dropped to 16th place.
As if Acosta needed the help, a late track limits penalty for John McPhee promoted him to 11th position and handed him an extra point in the championship standings, leaving Garcia 46 points behind, with victor Fenati 69 points down on the leader.
Results:
Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time/Diff |
1 | 55 | Romano Fenati | Husqvarna | 37'26.974 |
2 | 23 | Niccolò Antonelli | KTM | +1.679 |
3 | 7 | Dennis Foggia | Honda | +2.107 |
4 | 28 | Izan Guevara | GASGAS | +2.154 |
5 | 24 | Tatsuki Suzuki | Honda | +7.475 |
6 | 5 | Jaume Masia | KTM | +7.541 |
7 | 40 | Darryn Binder | Honda | +7.559 |
8 | 53 | Deniz Öncü | KTM | +14.523 |
9 | 54 | Riccardo Rossi | KTM | +14.541 |
10 | 99 | Carlos Tatay | KTM | +20.503 |
11 | 37 | Pedro Acosta | KTM | +21.898 |
12 | 17 | John McPhee | Honda | +21.859 |
13 | 71 | Ayumu Sasaki | KTM | +22.028 |
14 | 12 | Filip Salac | KTM | +22.107 |
15 | 2 | Gabriel Rodrigo | Honda | +22.157 |
16 | 11 | Sergio Garcia | GASGAS | +22.444 |
17 | 82 | Stefano Nepa | KTM | +22.331 |
18 | 43 | Xavier Artigas | Honda | +22.580 |
19 | 31 | Adrian Fernandez | Husqvarna | +25.215 |
20 | 67 | Alberto Surra | Honda | +27.518 |
21 | 52 | Jeremy Alcoba | Honda | +32.821 |
22 | 20 | Lorenzo Fellon | Honda | +33.015 |
23 | 6 | Ryusei Yamanaka | KTM | +33.310 |
24 | 92 | Yuki Kunii | Honda | +52.820 |
25 | 73 | Maximilian Kofler | KTM | +52.858 |
Not Classified | ||||
16 | Andrea Migno | Honda | 12 Laps | |
27 | Kaito Toba | KTM | 14 Laps |
Comments
motogp.com
I live in australia, less than one minute to go and I get a subscribe request from Dorna even tho my login is showing clearly...tried everything, have they been hacked or what??
In reply to motogp.com by raffles
Log out and log back in of
Log out and log back in of app to fix the subscribe issue. Has been an issue for last couple of races
In reply to Log out and log back in of by blingham
Stupid problem
All I got here in Canada was the first two laps and then the last three ... cutting out midway through the final one. Pain in the you-know-what, for sure. Tried to log out and back in, wouldn't even let me log out. Given the cost of the subscription, I figure Dorna owes me a case of good beer!
In reply to Log out and log back in of by blingham
I had same issue as Larry.
I had same issue as Larry. Stopped just before warm up lap. On the website I couldn't log out and therefore log back in. On Iphone app could log out and back in but it just continued telling me to subscribe. Hopefully this was a big enough problem that the motivation to fix the issue is now present. It has been looming over the horizon for many weeks.
cheers mate
missed the whole race :(
but wont next time :)