Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia

Valencia Moto3: Wildcard Oncu takes shock win on debut

Fifteen-year-old Can Oncu took a sensational win on his Moto3 debut at a wet Ricardo Tormo circuit following crashes by Tony Arbolino and Marco Bezzecchi.

Podium: race winner Can Oncu, Red Bull KTM Ajo

Podium: race winner Can Oncu, Red Bull KTM Ajo

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Reigning Red Bull Rookies champion Oncu lined up fourth for his first Moto3 wildcard appearance and gained a position at the start, running behind pole-sitter Arbolino and the fast-starting Bezzecchi.

The early stages of the race saw several riders crash, including Tatsuki Suzuki collecting Aron Canet and Lorenzo Dalla Porta on the opening lap, and Bezzecchi soon hit the deck as well.

Arbolino subsequently built a safe gap over Oncu, who also pulled away from John McPhee, the Briton soon falling behind the charging Gresini duo of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Jorge Martin.

However drama ensued when Arbolino's comfortable run to his maiden win ended with a crash on lap 11 at Turn 4, giving Oncu a lead of over six seconds.

Oncu, who will make his full-time series debut next year with the Ajo KTM squad, even managed to further extend his lead although his gap was halved after a near-crash scare on the last lap at Turn 6 and he ultimately won by 4.0s.

Di Giannantonio started to struggle and fell behind Martin and McPhee, the duo completing the podium.

Jakub Kornfeil held sixth in the first half of the race but couldn't keep up with the top five and by the time Enea Bastianini found his way past the Czech rider, he was over 10 seconds adrift.

Bastianini eventually took fifth thanks to Arbolino's crash, followed by Jaume Masia, who became the top rookie of 2018.

Niccolo Antonelli finished seventh, with Nakarin Atiratphuvapat settling for eighth from second on the grid but still securing his best finish of his Moto3 career.

The top 10 was completed by Marcos Ramirez and Celestino Vietti.

Suzuki, Canet, the twice-crashing Alonso Lopez, Dennis Foggia, Kaito Toba, Albert Arenas, Izam Ikmal, Arbolino, Phillipp Oettl and Vicente Perez failed to finish.

Bezzecchi recovered to the point-scoring positions from his early crash only to fall again, but still took the chequered flag alongside Kornfeil, Darryn Binder and Dalla Porta, all of whom were able to continue after crashes.

Moto3 race results

Cla Rider Bike Laps Time
1 Can Oncu  KTM 23  
2 Spain Jorge Martin  Honda 23 4.071
3 United Kingdom John McPhee  KTM 23 2.059
4 Italy Fabio Di Giannantonio  Honda 23 6.767
5 Italy Enea Bastianini  Honda 23 1.838
6 Spain Jaume Masia  KTM 23 7.249
7 Italy Niccolo Antonelli  Honda 23 4.657
8 Thailand Nakarin Atiratphuvapat  Honda 23 4.117
9 Spain Marcos Ramirez  KTM 23 2.653
10 Celestino Vietti  KTM 23 5.597
11 Japan Ayumu Sasaki  Honda 23 3.324
12 Italy Stefano Nepa  KTM 23 6.599
13 Spain Raul Fernandez  KTM 23 5.503
14 Italy Andrea Migno  KTM 23 0.151
15 Czech Republic Jakub Kornfeil  KTM 23 1.839
16 Japan Kazuki Masaki  KTM 23 0.798
17 Argentina Gabriel Rodrigo  KTM 23 3.319
18 Italy Lorenzo Dalla Porta  Honda 23 34.552
19 South Africa Darryn Binder  KTM 22  
20 Italy Marco Bezzecchi  KTM 22 27.564
  Spain Vicente Perez  KTM 21  
  Germany Philipp Ottl  KTM 15  
  Italy Tony Arbolino  Honda 11  
  Izam Ikmal  Honda 7  
  Spain Albert Arenas  KTM 6  
  Japan Kaito Toba  Honda 4  
  Italy Dennis Foggia  KTM 1  
  Spain Aron Canet  Honda    
  Spain Alonso Lopez  Honda    
  Japan Tatsuki Suzuki  Honda    

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Moto2 and Moto3 unveil entry lists for 2019
Next article Moto2, Moto3 adopt MotoGP-style qualifying format

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia