Sepang Moto3: Dalla Porta beats Vietti to victory

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