Sachsenring Moto3: Martin leads Bezzecchi for fifth win of 2018
Jorge Martin took his fifth victory of the 2018 Moto3 season with main rival Marco Bezzecchi taking second at the Sachsenring.
Martin led the majority of the race, only giving up the lead on a few occasions, most notably when his Gresini teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio tagged him as the Italian crashed at Turn 1.
Martin passed PrustelGP KTM rival Bezzecchi with seven laps remaining and was able to pull away from the Italian to eventually win by 2.5 seconds.
Bezzecchi came under pressure from John McPhee (CIP KTM) but held on to second, with the Scotsman completing the podium.
Marcos Ramirez led for a few corners in the early stages, having started second, but dropped down to the second half of the top 10 before recovering to fourth.
He made a last-lap pass on Aron Canet (Monlau Honda), as Ramirez's Bester Capital KTM teammate Jaume Masia took sixth.
Jakub Kornfeil (Prustel KTM) was seventh ahead of local rider Philipp Oettl (Schedl KTM).
Rookie Raul Fernandez, replacing the injured Darryn Binder in the Ajo KTM team, was running inside the top 10 early on before he was forced off-track at the last turn by Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Honda).
However, Fernandez fought back to take ninth ahead of Sprinta Honda duo Ayumu Sasaki and Adam Norrodin.
Enea Bastianini (Leopard) and Alonso Lopez (Monlau) collided at Turn 7, while Ai Ogura and Gabriel Rodrigo crashed at the first corner.
Le Mans winner Albert Arenas (Aspar KTM) likewise crashed at Turn 12 while fighting inside the top five.
Race results:
Pos. | Rider | Bike | Gap |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Jorge Martin | Honda | 27 laps |
2 | Marco Bezzecchi | KTM | 2.515 |
3 | John McPhee | KTM | 2.571 |
4 | Marcos Ramirez | KTM | 2.936 |
5 | Aron Canet | Honda | 3.028 |
6 | Jaume Masia | KTM | 3.341 |
7 | Jakub Kornfeil | KTM | 3.532 |
8 | Philipp Ottl | KTM | 4.886 |
9 | Raul Fernandez | KTM | 5.383 |
10 | Ayumu Sasaki | Honda | 5.486 |
11 | Adam Norrodin | Honda | 5.610 |
12 | Andrea Migno | KTM | 9.938 |
13 | Lorenzo Dalla Porta | Honda | 10.027 |
14 | Nicolo Bulega | KTM | 10.360 |
15 | Kazuki Masaki | KTM | 10.467 |
16 | Niccolo Antonelli | Honda | 11.514 |
17 | Tony Arbolino | Honda | 11.712 |
18 | Kaito Toba | Honda | 20.039 |
19 | Dennis Foggia | KTM | 31.237 |
20 | Luca Grunwald | KTM | 32.768 |
21 | Stefano Nepa | KTM | 41.058 |
Ret | Gabriel Rodrigo | KTM | 3 laps |
Ret | Ai Ogura | Honda | 3 laps |
Ret | Enea Bastianini | Honda | 5 laps |
Ret | Alonso Lopez | Honda | 5 laps |
Ret | Albert Arenas | KTM | 7 laps |
Ret | Vicente Perez | KTM | 9 laps |
Ret | Nakarin Atiratphuvapat | Honda | 11 laps |
Ret | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Honda | 12 laps |
Ret | Tatsuki Suzuki | Honda | 22 laps |
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