Jorge Martin held off Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio in a three-way photo finish to take his third victory of the season at Mugello. The Spaniard played his tactics to perfection in an intriguing race to close the gap on Bezzecchi at the top of the world championship to three points.
Before the race got underway, hopes were high for a repeat of previous years when the lightweight class produced leading groups of over a dozen riders. Martin had other ideas however and the polesitter set a blistering early pace which stretched the pack out, with only Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio able to give chase.
The odds appeared to be favouring Bezzecchi whose KTM would often breeze past the Gresini Hondas on the start/finish straight, but Martin’s superior tactics on the final lap swung the race his way. Bezzecchi looked set to lead into San Donato for the final time but outbraked himself into the right-hander, allowing Martin and Di Giannantonio through, and Jorge’s deliberately wide line into the last corner give him enough of a slingshot to beat Bezzecchi to the line by 0.019s.
The traditional Mugello madness came in the fight for fourth with Gabriel Rodrigo outdragging 2017 winner Andrea Migno to take the position. Enea Bastianini and Tony Arbolino were inches further back in sixth and seventh while three more Italians rounded out the top ten in the form of Lorenzo Dalla Porta, Niccolo Antonelli and Junior World Championship leader Manuel Pagliani on the Leopard wildcard machine.
Moto3 Grand Premio d’Italia Oakley: (Result)
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