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Race report

Le Mans Moto3: Arenas inherits win after penalty drama

Albert Arenas took his maiden victory in Moto3 at Le Mans in dramatic fashion after Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin crashed at the last corner and Fabio Di Giannantonio was given a post-race penalty.

Albert Arenas, Ángel Nieto Team Moto3

Albert Arenas, Ángel Nieto Team Moto3

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bezzecchi and Martin were fighting for the lead for the majority of the race, and started the last lap with the Italian rider leading.

Martin was unable to pass Bezzecchi on the back straight and instead dropped out of the top two for the first time in the race when his Gresini teammate Di Giannantonio passed him.

He then also passed Bezzecchi to lead the race at the penultimate corner, and moments later Bezzecchi had a big highside crash and collected Martin as well.

Di Giannantonio crossed the finish line first, only to lose his maiden victory due to a three-second penalty for having cut Turn 9 with six laps to go.

That promoted Arenas into first place, the Spaniard celebrating his maiden Moto3 victory.

His Angel Nieto KTM teammate Andrea Migno took second, with Marcos Ramirez completing a rare all-KTM podium on the Bester Capital Dubai bike.

Niccolo Antonelli had crossed the line fourth, and would have moved up to third - but he was also given a penalty to the tune of 1.8s and was classified fifth behind Di Giannantonio.

Bezzecchi's Prustel GP teammate, Jakub Kornfeil was also given a time penalty, and ended up sixth.

Kornfeil miraculously survived an incident with the crashing Enea Bastianini on the penultimate lap, as Bastianini fell at the final corner and Kornfeil ran over his bike, launched into the air, landed in the gravel and managed to stay upright.

Tony Arbolino (Snipers) was seventh ahead of Aron Canet, who started from last as a penalty for causing a crash last time out at Jerez but quickly recovered to 11th.

Tatsuki Suzuki and Jaume Masia completed the top 10, while the other riders to crash out were Gabriel Rodrigo, Nakarin Atiratphuvapat and Nicolo Bulega.

Race results:

Pos.#RiderBikeTime/Gap
1 75 spain Albert Arenas  KTM 37'40.056
2 16 italy Andrea Migno  KTM 0.160
3 42 spain Marcos Ramirez  KTM 0.709
4 21 italy Fabio Di Giannantonio  Honda 1.811
5 23 italy Niccolo Antonelli  Honda 2.305
6 84 czech_republic Jakub Kornfeil  KTM 5.487
7 14 italy Tony Arbolino  Honda 7.577
8 44 spain Aron Canet  Honda 11.190
9 24 japan Tatsuki Suzuki  Honda 11.517
10 5 spain Jaume Masia  KTM 11.704
11 40 south_africa Darryn Binder  KTM 12.011
12 17 united_kingdom John McPhee  KTM 12.073
13 76 kazakhstan Makar Yurchenko  KTM 12.358
14 10 italy Dennis Foggia  KTM 12.481
15 65 germany Philipp Ottl  KTM 12.746
16 71 japan Ayumu Sasaki  Honda 12.808
17 27 japan Kaito Toba  Honda 14.397
18 22 japan  Kazuki Mazaki  KTM 28.015
19 72 spain  Alonso Lopez  Honda 36.479
20 41 thailand Nakarin Atiratphuvapat  Honda 59.917
21 11 belgium Livio Loi  KTM 1'07.363
Ret 12 italy Marco Bezzecchi  KTM 1 lap
Ret  88 spain Jorge Martin  Honda 1 lap
Ret  7 malaysia Adam Norrodin  Honda 1 lap
Ret  33 italy Enea Bastianini  Honda 2 laps
Ret  48 italy Lorenzo Dalla Porta  Honda 6 laps
Ret  8 italy Nicolo Bulega  KTM 13 laps
Ret  19 argentina Gabriel Rodrigo  KTM 19 laps

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