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Edition

Australia
Race report

Sepang Moto3: Dalla Porta beats Vietti to victory

Newly-crowned Moto3 champion Lorenzo Dalla Porta claimed victory in the penultimate round of the 2019 Moto3 season at Sepang, as a highside for Gabriel Rodrigo wiped the early leaders out of the race.

Lorenzo Dalla Porta, Leopard Racing

Lorenzo Dalla Porta, Leopard Racing

Srinivasa Krishnan

Having retaken the lead at the start of Lap 6, Rodrigo was violently launched off his bike at the exit of Turn 4, with chief rival Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58) and Alonso Lopez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) unable to avoid the Gresini rider and also retiring on the spot.

The incident initially left Celestino Vietti in the lead, before Leopard Racing’s Dalla Porta passed the VR46 rider later in the lap to snatch top spot.

However, Dalla Porta was never able to shake off Vietti and even briefly lost the lead with four laps to go after running wide at turn 14, before retaking the position at the final corner.

The two riders again battled on the final lap, Vietti surging past Dalla Porta at turn 2 before the latter regained the initiative at turn 9 in a move that sealed his third successive victory of the season.

Vietti, meanwhile, was tagged by Albert Arenas (Angel Nieto) at the exit of the same corner and dropped down to fifth, losing a podium in the process.

Arenas himself crashed out on his own at the final corner, elevating Sergio Garcia (Estrella Galicia 0,0) into second and a charging Jaume Masia (Mugen Race) onto the final podium spot.

Masia was forced to start at the back off the grid after his bike stopped on the outlap, but pulled off a stunning recovery ride to break into the Top 10 early on, before grabbing third on the final lap.

Ai Ogura finished fourth ahead of Vietti, with polesitter Marco Ramirez seventh after being forced to take evasive action for the early melee caused by Rodrigo.

John McPhee and Aron Canet were seventh and eighth respectively, while the top 10 was completely by Tony Arbolino and Niccolo Antonelli. 

Race results:

Cla Rider Bike Gap
1 Italy Lorenzo Dalla Porta
Honda
2 Spain Sergio García
Honda 00.410
3 Spain Jaume Masia
KTM 00.803
4 Japan Ai Ogura
Honda 00.885
5 Italy Celestino Vietti Ramus
KTM 00.902
6 Spain Marcos Ramirez
Honda 01.095
7 United Kingdom John McPhee
Honda 01.342
8 Spain Arón Canet
KTM 02.253
9 Italy Tony Arbolino
Honda 03.035
10 Italy Niccolo Antonelli
Honda 07.726
11 Italy Romano Fenati
Honda 08.008
12 Spain Albert Arenas
KTM 10.521
13 Czech Republic Filip Salač
KTM 15.542
14 Spain Raúl Fernández
KTM 15.873
15 Italy Riccardo Rossi
Honda 15.950
16 Kazakhstan Makar Yurchenko
KTM 16.064
17 Czech Republic Jakub Kornfeil
KTM 16.497
18 Japan Kazuki Masaki
KTM 16.567
19 Italy Dennis Foggia
KTM 24.161
20 Turkey Can Öncü
KTM 29.330
21 United Kingdom Tom Booth-Amos
KTM 01'22.202
South Africa Darryn Binder
KTM 7 Laps
Japan Ayumu Sasaki
Honda 9 Laps
Italy Andrea Migno
KTM 9 Laps
Japan Kaito Toba
Honda 9 Laps
Italy Stefano Nepa
KTM 10 Laps
Japan Tatsuki Suzuki
Honda 12 Laps
Argentina Gabriel Rodrigo
Honda 12 Laps
Spain Alonso López
Honda 12 Laps

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Edition

Australia