Fenati Dominates in Japan to Keep Title Hopes Alive

Romano Fenati ensured the Moto3 championship battle will continue on to Australia after dominating the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. The Italian produced another wet-weather masterclass to take an unchallenged victory to close Joan Mir’s championship lead down to 55 points after the Leopard rider failed to score.

The Moto3 race was subject to a lengthy delay following an engine failure for Sky VR46’s Andrea Migno in the morning warm-up, the KTM spilling oil throughout the first half of its out lap before grinding to a halt. As a result, with the schedule so condensed, the Moto3 race was shortened by a third to thirteen laps with full points awarded.

Continuing a miserable morning for Sky VR46, polesitter Nicolo Bulega fell backwards from the start, losing fourteen places on the opening lap, as Niccolo Antonelli hit the front from Fenati and Aron Canet. Antonelli’s resistance lasted until lap three as Fenati managed to wrongfoot the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider through the fast turn 6/7/8 sequence, enabling him to take a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.

Antonelli held onto second in a rare bright spot amid a season of pain for the young Italian while a disastrous season for Mahindra finally brought some joy courtesy of young Marco Bezzecchi who converted his career-best grid position into a maiden Grand Prix rostrum, just edging out home favourite Tatsuki Suzuki on the SC58 Honda.

Canet dropped to fifth ahead of Phillip Oettl who stormed through from 21st on the grid to sixth while Fabio Di Giannantonio consolidated fourth in the championship with seventh, narrowly beating the Peugeot of Jakub Kornfeil, Bo Bendsneyder and John McPhee.

As for Mir, the championship leader made scant progress from the seventh row of the grid and only crashes ahead of him lifted him up the order. Mir trailed home out of the points in seventeenth, meaning he will have to try again in Australia as he looks to wrap up the championship.

 

Moto3 Motul Grand Prix of Japan: Race Result

Pos	Rider	Constructor	Team	Time/Gap	Pts
1	5. Romano Fenati	Honda	Marinelli Rivacold Snipers	29:22.278	25
2	23. Niccolo Antonelli	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+4.146	20
3	12. Marco Bezzecchi	Mahindra	CIP	+5.013	16
4	24. Tatsuki Suzuki	Honda	SIC58 Squadra Corse	+8.767	13
5	44. Aron Canet	Honda	Estrella Galicia 0,0	+12.827	11
6	65. Philipp Oettl	KTM	Südmetall Schedl GP Racing	+14.865	10
7	21. Fabio Di Giannantonio	Honda	Del Conca Gresini Moto3	+15.482	9
8	84. Jakub Kornfeil	Peugeot	Peugeot MC Saxoprint	+15.625	8
9	64. Bo Bendsneyder	KTM	Red Bull KTM Ajo	+15.947	7
10	17. John McPhee	Honda	British Talent Team	+16.216	6
11	41. Nakarin Atiratphuvapat	Honda	Honda Team Asia	+16.414	5
12	8. Nicolo Bulega	KTM	Sky Racing Team VR46	+18.783	4
13	16. Andrea Migno	KTM	Sky Racing Team VR46	+19.057	3
14	42. Marcos Ramirez	KTM	Platinum Bay Real Estate	+19.536	2
15	88. Jorge Martin	Honda	Del Conca Gresini Moto3	+21.208	1
16	33. Enea Bastianini	Honda	Estrella Galicia 0,0	+22.731
17	36. Joan Mir	Honda	Leopard Racing	+23.879
18	95. Jules Danilo	Honda	Marinelli Rivacold Snipers	+23.935
19	11. Livio Loi	Honda	Leopard Racing	+33.663
20	40. Darryn Binder	KTM	Platinum Bay Real Estate	+34.695
21	27. Kaito Toba	Honda	Honda Team Asia	+39.533
22	4. Patrik Pulkkinen	Peugeot	Peugeot MC Saxoprint	+48.473
23	14. Tony Arbolino	Honda	SIC58 Squadra Corse	+1:30.837
24	70. Tom Toparis	KTM	Cube Racing	+2:18.580
NC	58. Juanfran Guevara	KTM	RBA BOE Racing Team	+2 Laps
NC	19. Gabriel Rodrigo	KTM	RBA BOE Racing Team	+4 Laps
NC	71. Ayumu Sasaki	Honda	SIC Racing Team	+4 Laps
NC	7. Adam Norrodin	Honda	SIC Racing Team	+7 Laps
NC	96. Manuel Pagliani	Mahindra	CIP	+12 Laps
NC	48. Lorenzo Dalla Porta	Mahindra	Mahindra Gaviota Aspar	+13 Laps
NS	75. Albert Arenas	Mahindra	Mahindra Gaviota Aspar	Injured