Valencia Moto3: Arbolino win sets up three-rider title battle

Despite missing the first Aragon round due to a COVID-19-enforced quarantine, Arbolino is just 11 points adrift of Arenas now after claiming his first win of the season, while Honda Team Asia’s Ai Ogura was eighth. 

KTM Ajo’s Kaito Toba grabbed the holeshot from second on the grid, though teammate Fernandez found his way into the lead at Turn 8 and immediately pulled the pin.

Just as he did on his way to victory last weekend, Fernandez immediately opened up a gap of a second, with his lead standing at 1.5s by the fourth tour. 

Consistent pace would allow Fernandez’s lead to open up to two seconds at one stage, with it generally hovering around 1.6s to 1.8s.

However, the second-placed battle headed by Arbolino and EG 0,0 Honda’s Sergio Garcia started to reel Fernandez in come lap 16, with the KTM rider’s advantage down to a second. 

Arbolino and Garcia gapped the group behind of championship leader Arenas, Deniz Oncu on the Tech3 KTM and CIP poleman Darryn Binder and had wiped out Fernadez’s lead by lap 18. 

Fernandez continued to hold his lead, while last year’s Valencia GP winner Garcia found a way through into second on Arbolino for second. 

Arbolino carved up the inside of Garcia at the final corner with four tours to go to reclaim second, while behind Arenas was holding firm in an important fourth.

The Snipers rider used the power of his Honda to blast past Fernandez into the first corner with two laps to go.

Fernandez and Garcia engaged over second place across the final lap, giving Arbolino a buffer of 1.1s to get to the chequered flag in front. 

Garcia got the better of Fernandez for his second podium of the season, while Arenas fended off Binder in fourth on the final lap to open his championship lead over Ogura to seven. 

Oncu completed the top six ahead of VR46’s Andrea Migno, while Ogura beat Leopard’s Jaume Masia by 0.012s for eighth.

Jeremy Alcoba completed the top 10 on the sole Gresini Honda at the chequered flag, after teammate Gabriel Rodrigo crashed out with Max Racing’s Alonso Lopez on lap nine.

Masia’s ninth ended his title hopes for 2020, while an early fall for VR46’s Celestino Vietti also ruled him out of title contention. 

Arenas, Ogura and Arbolino will battle for the championship next weekend at the Portugal finale covered by just 11 points.   

Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time
1	14	Tony Arbolino	Honda
2	11	Sergio García	Honda	1.142
3	25	Raúl Fernández	KTM	1.297
4	75	Albert Arenas	KTM	2.825
5	40	Darryn Binder	KTM	2.999
6	53	Deniz Öncü	KTM	3.208
7	16	Andrea Migno	KTM	9.836
8	79	Ai Ogura	Honda	9.852
9	5	Jaume Masia	Honda	9.864
10	52	Jeremy Alcoba	Honda	12.802
11	17	John McPhee	Honda	12.879
12	55	Romano Fenati	Husqvarna	14.513
13	23	Niccolo Antonelli	Honda	15.619
14	82	Stefano Nepa	KTM	15.340
15	6	Ryusei Yamanaka	Honda	24.297
16	7	Dennis Foggia	Honda	24.320
17	70	Barry Baltus	KTM	24.666
18	92	Yuki Kunii	Honda	24.690
19	71	Ayumu Sasaki	KTM	27.484
20	9	Davide Pizzoli	KTM	27.754
21	99	Carlos Tatay	KTM	28.093
22	50	Jason Dupasquier	KTM	28.138
23	54	Riccardo Rossi	KTM	30.718
24	13	Celestino Vietti Ramus	KTM	48.093
25	89	Khairul Idham Pawi	Honda
26	2	Gabriel Rodrigo	Honda
27	21	Alonso López	Husqvarna
28	27	Kaito Toba	KTM
29	24	Tatsuki Suzuki	Honda
30	73	Maximilian Kofler	KTM
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