Assen Moto3: Canet makes last-corner move to win thrilling race

While the majority of the race was led by a six-bike group, with pole-sitter Jorge Martin and Romano Fenati trading the lead for much of the distance, a second group led by Canet caught up for the final few laps.

Championship leader Joan Mir started the last lap of the race in the lead, but ran wide at Turn 12, and was passed by several bikes and dropped down to ninth.

Fenati took over following Mir's mistake, but Canet was all over the Italian through the fast sequence of corners before edging past at the final chicane.

British Talent Team's John McPhee, who also slightly lost out behind Mir, fought back and overtook Martin to secure the final podium position from 19th on the grid.

Gresini rider Martin failed to convert his fifth straight pole into his maiden victory in Moto3, but the Spaniard recovered from two incidents to secure fourth.

He ran wide at Turn 1 early in the race from the lead but was back in first just three laps later.

Martin made contact with Marcos Ramirez, who led at the time, later on, and had to run off track again, this time falling outside of the top 10, only to rapidly recover again.

Fenati's Marinelli Rivacold Snipers teammate Jules Danilo took the best Moto3 result of his career in fifth, followed by Ramirez (Platinum Bay), who also lost momentum after his contact with Martin.

Gabriel Rodrigo of RBA Racing Team took seventh, the Argentinian making contact with local rider Bo Bendsneyder just a handful of metres before the chequered flag.

That sent the Dutchman into a crash, his bike theoretically finishing 10th behind Tatsuki Suzuki and Mir, but he was not classified for failing to be in contact with his bike as it crossed the line.

Bendsneyder's removal from the results promoted Niccolo Bulega (Sky Racing VR46) to 10th, the Italian finishing nearly seven seconds behind the leading group.

Bendsneyder wasn't the only rider to fall at the very end as Adam Norrodin, who spent the entire race in the top 10, fell at the fast left-hander before the final chicane.

Norrodin was one of eight riders not to finish the race, with Enea Bastianini and Fabio di Giannantonio, notably simultaneously falling at the final chicane on Lap 3.

Race results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap	Interval
1	44	Aron Canet	Honda	38'20.364
2	5	Romano Fenati	Honda	0.035	0.035
3	17	John McPhee	Honda	0.117	0.082
4	88	Jorge Martin	Honda	0.310	0.193
5	95	Jules Danilo	Honda	0.532	0.222
6	42	Marcos Ramírez	KTM	0.594	0.062
7	19	Gabriel Rodrigo	KTM	0.651	0.057
8	24	Tatsuki Suzuki	Honda	0.679	0.028
9	36	Joan Mir	Honda	0.980	0.301
10	8	Nicolo Bulega	KTM	6.972	5.992
11	65	Philipp Ottl	KTM	8.196	1.224
12	58	Juan Francisco Guevara	KTM	9.200	1.004
13	40	Darryn Binder	KTM	10.746	1.546
14	16	Andrea Migno	KTM	10.890	0.144
15	71	Ayumu Sasaki	Honda	10.920	0.030
16	12	Marco Bezzecchi	Mahindra	16.249	5.329
17	84	Jakub Kornfeil	Peugeot	16.344	0.095
18	41	Nakarin Atiratphuvapat	Honda	16.479	0.135
19	27	Kaito Toba	Honda	33.845	17.366
20	6	Maria Herrera	KTM	34.172	0.327
21	11	Livio Loi	Honda	34.338	0.166
22	4	Patrik Pulkkinen	Peugeot	48.171	13.833
	7	Adam Norrodin	Honda	1 lap	1 lap
	64	Bo Bendsneyder	KTM	1 lap	0.257
	31	Raul Fernandez	Mahindra	2 laps	1 lap
	33	Enea Bastianini	Honda	8 laps	6 laps
	48	Lorenzo Dalla Porta	Mahindra	8 laps	6'19.568
	14	Tony Arbolino	Honda	15 laps	7 laps
	96	Manuel Pagliani	Mahindra	16 laps	1 lap
	21	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Honda	19 laps	3 laps
	28	Ryan van de Lagemaat	KTM	20 laps	1 lap