Joan Mir raced through from sixteenth on the grid to earn his second win from as many starts in the 2017 Moto3 world championship. The Spaniard overcame the challenge of polesitter John McPhee and Gresini’s Jorge Martin as the podium positions in Argentina mirrored the top three from the opening round at Losail.
Having made a mess of qualifying, Mir had work to do from the sixth row of the grid but the Leopard rider methodically picked off his adversaries, climbing to tenth by the end of the opening lap. Two more spots were made up on lap two and by the time the main pack was split, Mir had established himself in a five-man breakaway with McPhee, Martin, Philipp Oettl and Andrea Migno.
Mir hit the front for the first time on lap seven, utilising the slipstream down the long back straight to outdrag McPhee into turn five. The British Talent Team rider regained the advantage with a similar move six laps from home but the Spaniard wasn’t behind for long and when he powered past for a second time, he wouldn’t be pulled back.
McPhee chased hard but couldn’t ultimately get close enough to make a move, instead having to fend off Martin in the final corner to maintain second, while Oettl won the battle of the KTMs to finish fourth, just six tenths off the lead. The fight in the chase group was won by Livio Loi on the second Leopard machine ahead of Romano Fenati with Tatsuki Suzuki, Juanfran Guevara and rookie Kaito Toba rounding out the top ten.
A number of big names went missing from the second group with Enea Bastianini crashing out while Fabio Di Giannantonio was sideswiped by Nicolo Bulega, the Sky VR46 rider receiving a post-race penalty which would deprive him of any points.
Moto3 Gran Premio Motul de la Republica Argentina: Race Result
[table id=1852 /]
