Danny Kent survived a dramatic last corner incident to take his third consecutive Grand Prix victory at Jerez. The Briton led approaching the notorious turn 13 on the final lap but a desperate move from Fabio Quartararo threatened to wipe out him and Miguel Oliveira. In the end, Kent dodged the mayhem and became the first British rider since Barry Sheene in 1977.
From a very early stage, the race descended into a four-way scrap for supremacy with Oliveira leading from Kent and Quartararo with Brad Binder keeping a watching brief on the second Red Bull Ajo KTM. Efren Vazquez threatened throw a fifth element into the leading fight after making rapid progress from seventeenth on the grid but as the pace quickened at the front, the second Leopard Honda was dropped.
Kent was left to go it alone for the Kiefer-run squad and with three laps to go, the championship leader seemed to have seized control with an accomplished move at turn one. Danny undid all of his hard work though with a mistake at turn eleven on the penultimate lap and as the final 4.4km began, Quartararo found himself in the driving seat.
The 16 year old was shuffled back to second at turn one as Oliveira dived through and on the approach to Dry Sac hairpin, Kent slipstreamed his way through into second. A mistake by Oliveira at the same corner almost gifted the Briton the lead but as the trio approached the last corner, Danny still had work to do.
Kent positioned his Honda beautifully on the approach to turn 13 and lined up a dive on the inside of the left-hander but Quartararo had the same idea. The French rookie left his braking far too late though and careered up the inside of both his rivals, falling behind Binder to fourth as he overshot the corner. Despite contact from the no.20 machine, Kent made the pass of Oliveira stick to secure victory with Binder snatching the final podium position.
Vazquez was fifth, losing substantial ground to his teammate in the title battle, while Romano Fenati won a multiple-rider tussle over sixth, pipping Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Navarro. Jakub Kornfeil played a significant part in that scrap before being taken out by Hiroki Ono but his loss was Enea Bastianini and John McPhee’s gain as the pair climbed into the top ten.
MOTO3 GRAN PREMIO BWIN DE ESPANA: RACE RESULT (23 LAPS)
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