Submitted by Mike Lewis on
Joan Mir saved both his tires and opportunities for the end of the Sepang Moto3 race Sunday to take a 10th win of the season and put him one victory shy of the season record for the class -- a record still held by Valentino Rossi. Jorge Martin took second following a late, last-lap pass on Enea Bastianini, who was the final podium finisher.
Mir's win adds to a dominant season that saw him crowned champion last week at the Philip Island and crush the pole-position lap record this weekend in Malaysia. With one race remaining in Valencia, Mir has an opportunity to tie Rossi's 11-win record set in 1997 when the class consisted of 125cc two-strokes.
Livio Loi, still fighting for a contract for next year, grabbed a lonely fourth five seconds clear of fifth-place finisher John McPhee. Andrea Migno in sixth was the top KTM (and one of two non Hondas in the top 10). Romano Fenati with seventh guaranteed a second-place in the Moto3 championship. Aron Canet (8th), Fabio Di Giannantonio (9th) and Bo Bendsneyder (10th) rounded out the top 10.
Result:
| Pos. | No. | Rider | Bike | Time / Diff. |
| 1 | 36 | Joan MIR | Honda | 40'14.545 |
| 2 | 88 | Jorge MARTIN | Honda | 0.724 |
| 3 | 33 | Enea BASTIANINI | Honda | 0.763 |
| 4 | 11 | Livio LOI | Honda | 6.868 |
| 5 | 17 | John MCPHEE | Honda | 11.051 |
| 6 | 16 | Andrea MIGNO | KTM | 11.09 |
| 7 | 5 | Romano FENATI | Honda | 11.238 |
| 8 | 44 | Aron CANET | Honda | 11.671 |
| 9 | 21 | Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO | Honda | 11.959 |
| 10 | 64 | Bo BENDSNEYDER | KTM | 12.062 |
| 11 | 7 | Adam NORRODIN | Honda | 12.572 |
| 12 | 71 | Ayumu SASAKI | Honda | 13.581 |
| 13 | 58 | Juanfran GUEVARA | KTM | 14.885 |
| 14 | 19 | Gabriel RODRIGO | KTM | 18.736 |
| 15 | 96 | Manuel PAGLIANI | Mahindra | 21.986 |
| 16 | 65 | Philipp OETTL | KTM | 23.365 |
| 17 | 42 | Marcos RAMIREZ | KTM | 23.524 |
| 18 | 41 | Nakarin ATIRATPHUVAPAT | Honda | 25.908 |
| 19 | 12 | Marco BEZZECCHI | Mahindra | 26.173 |
| 20 | 27 | Kaito TOBA | Honda | 40.612 |
| 21 | 84 | Jakub KORNFEIL | Peugeot | 40.772 |
| 22 | 14 | Tony ARBOLINO | Honda | 43.11 |
| 23 | 4 | Patrik PULKKINEN | Peugeot | +1'00.918 |
| 24 | 6 | Maria HERRERA | Mahindra | +1'01.104 |
| Not Classified | ||||
| 9 | Kasma Daniel KASMAYUDIN | Honda | 1 Lap | |
| 48 | Lorenzo DALLA PORTA | Mahindra | 2 Laps | |
| 8 | Nicolo BULEGA | KTM | 3 Laps | |
| 23 | Niccolò ANTONELLI | KTM | 10 Laps | |
| 95 | Jules DANILO | Honda | 13 Laps | |
| 40 | Darryn BINDER | KTM | 15 Laps | |
| 24 | Tatsuki SUZUKI | Honda | 17 Laps | |
Comments
Matt Birt and Steve Day
(on the English language world feed) were a bit late in suggesting Mir as an eventual replacement for Pedrosa - some suggested that months ago.
Not a VR46 fan here, but to be fair he won 11 of 15 races in GP125 in 1997, while Mir will only win 10 or 11 of 18 races. But on the track the two have had an uncanny resemblance to each other (Rossi 1996/7, Mir 2016/7).