Moto3 Buriram: Arenas wins tight Thailand tussle

Albert Arenas rode a superb last lap to win the Moto3 Thailand Grand Prix as the championship battle played out behind him.

The Gaviota Angel Nieto Team rider had shown he was well adapted to the hot sticky conditions by topping warm-up and continued that form into the race.

The Spaniard then translated his front row start, which allowed him to stay in the mix and out of trouble into a superb win on the KTM, his first podium visit of the season coming in the shape of a victory after making all the right moves to stay ahead on final lap after a hotly contested race between the leaders.

Leopard Racing rider Lorenzo Dalla Porta fought hard to take the win all the way to the line, but had to settle for second - which translated to valuable championship points - increasing his lead to 22, with his rostrum finish emotionally dedicated to his late grandmother who passed away this weekend.

Title rival Aron Canet saw his chance to claw back points vanish after a rash move from Darryn Binder pushed him off track, starting a crash which not only collected Canet but also Tatsuki Suzuki and John McPhee. Binder was handed a ride through penalty for his actions.

The final podium spot went to fellow Honda rider Alonso Lopez, the seventeen year old enjoyed his best ever finish after running in the lead group and often leading the way for Estrella Galicia 0,0.

Dalla Porta’s team mate Marcos Ramirez just missed out in fourth, with Dennis Foggia picking off the places as the race wound down to climb to fifth after qualifying down in twelfth for Sky Racing Team VR46.

His teammate Celestino Vietti staged a late recovery - fading from pole to outside the top ten, the rookie rallied to come back for a hard fought sixth.

The Italian held off Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) in the run to the line, while Stefano Nepa was next to see the chequered flag, taking his first top ten finish of the season for Reale Avintia Arizona 77 in eighth.

Raul Fernandez (Gaviota Angel Nieto Team) was over nine seconds behind the winner as  crashes splintered what had been a huge lead pack as he claimed ninth, with Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers) falling out of the battle for first with an issue with his hand and/or glove, which saw him drop to tenth in the closing stages. 

Filip Salac (Redox PruestelGP), fellow Czech rider and teammate Jakub Kornfeil, Riccardo Rossi (Kommerling Gresini Moto3) and Makar Yurchenko were all handed penalties ahead of the race but all came through from the back of the grid to fill eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fifteenth respectively.

Sergio Garcia split the penalised riders taking 14th over the line for Estrella Galicia.

Ayumu Sasaki and Romano Fenati’s replacement Julian Jose Garcia failed to finish. There were also late falls for Ai Ogura and Andrea Migno (who remounted) and Tom Booth-Amos who crashed out on the final lap.

Gabriel Rodrigo was declared unfit to race following his huge highside in warm-up which lead to a fracture in his right foot.