Argentina Moto3: Masia goes fifth-to-first on final lap

Masia won following a massive crash in the morning warm-up with Sergio Garcia, which forced the latter to skip the race.

The 18-year-old had a scrappy start from pole position and while he was part of the big lead group, he spent most of the race outside of the top five.

He started the final lap, when Darryn Binder (CIP) was in the lead, only fifth, but gained three positions on the back straight to run second behind Gabriel Rodrigo (Gresini) at Turn 5.

The Bester Capital Dubai rider then made a forceful move two turns later, and held off the charge of Rodrigo in the last overtaking spot of the track at Turn 13 to take his maiden victory in Moto3.

Rodrigo tried to retake the lead on the outside line of the corner but ended up being forced wide by Binder.

The younger brother of Moto2 rider Brad Binder, Darryn secured his best-ever result in second, while Snipers rider Tony Arbolino celebrated his maiden podium in third.

Local hero Rodrigo in the end also fell behind Niccolo Antonelli (SIC58 Squadra Corse) and Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas Sprinta) to sixth.

Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard) was well-placed to win as he led two of the last four laps but in the end the Italian was shuffled back to seventh, followed by fellow Italian Dennis Foggia (Sky VR46).

Dalla Porta's teammate Marcos Ramirez and Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) completed the top 10, the latter keeping a two-point lead in the championship, having won the season opener in Qatar.

Toba narrowly escaped crashing out when he was involved in an incident between John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta) and Alonso Lopez (EG0,0), but the Japanese rider was the only one of the three to stay upright.

Aron Canet (EG0,0) was also fighting for the lead for the majority of the race, but in the end settled for 12th while Romano Fenati (Snipers) was a disappointing 16th, three places ahead of Alex Viu (Angel Nieto), who replaced the injured Albert Arenas.

PrustelGP duo Jakub Kornfeil and Filip Salac crashed in the early stages, Can Oncu and Kazuki Masaki both fell at Turn 1, while Vicente Perez had a highside at Turn 13.

Race results

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	Jaume Masia	KTM	21 Laps
2	Darryn Binder	KTM	0.108
3	Tony Arbolino	Honda	0.295
4	Niccolo Antonelli	Honda	0.386
5	Ayumu Sasaki	Honda	0.519
6	Gabriel Rodrigo	Honda	0.550
7	Lorenzo Dalla Porta	Honda	0.588
8	Dennis Foggia	KTM	0.671
9	Marcos Ramirez	Honda	0.792
10	Kaito Toba	Honda	1.280
11	Andrea Migno	KTM	1.629
12	Aron Canet	KTM	1.775
13	Tatsuki Suzuki	Honda	1.836
14	Celestino Vietti Ramus	KTM	1.978
15	Raul Fernandez	KTM	2.092
16	Romano Fenati	Honda	2.273
17	Ai Ogura	Honda	2.350
18	Tom Booth-Amos	KTM	9.798
19	Aleix Viu	KTM	9.904
20	Makar Yurchenko	KTM	10.136
21	John McPhee	Honda	26.464
22	Riccardo Rossi	Honda	27.044
23	Kazuki Masaki	KTM	39.985
24	Jakub Kornfeil	KTM	40.177
25	Filip Salac	KTM	58.474
26	Can Öncü	KTM	1 Lap
Ret	Vicente Perez	KTM	8 Laps
Ret	Alonso Lopez	Honda	10 Laps