Moto3 Sepang: Superb Dalla Porta makes it three in a row

Lorenzo Dalla Porta celebrated his title win last time out in style by using his Honda’s superior straight line speed to win the drag to the line and take his third consecutive victory at the Moto3 Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Leopard rider was always in the mix in the lead group and came to the fore when early frontrunner Gabriel Rodrigo crashed out of first place taking Tatsuki Suzuki with him, collecting Alonso Lopez who was launched over the Japanese rider’s bike like a ramp.

He is joined on the podium by rookie Sergio Garcia, making a first rostrum visit after earning a hard fought second for Estrella Galicia 0,0.

Jaume Masia’s race got off to a terrible start when his Mugen Race bike had battery issues on the sighting lap. His mechanics quickly rectified the problem and he was allowed a pitlane start for the warm-up lap and lined up last on the grid.

He immediately set about clawing back positions and was helped by the wide track allowing for a lot of different lines, causing plenty of close racing and overtakes, and stayed clear of trouble to claim an incredible third. The Spaniard was the top KTM finisher.

Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia) caught the leaders to take the battle for the top rookie title to the last race, finishing fourth ahead of Celestino Vietti in fifth, who looked to have the honour sewn up when leading earlier in the race for Sky Racing Team VR46.

Pole sitter Marcos Ramirez only avoided falling out of contention by running onto the grass to avoid the Suzuki/Rodrigo incident, he finished sixth on the second Leopard entry.

John McPhee performed the best for Petronas at the team’s home grand prix in seventh, while Aron Canet was next to cross the finish line in eighth, enough for him to hold second in the overall standings.

Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers) recovered from his difficult qualifying - the Italian started 19th - to climb to ninth.

Niccolo Antonelli was a distant but determined tenth - the SIC58 Squadra Corse rider had sat out much of the weekend as he battles against the pain from the catalogue of injuries he has picked up over the previous rounds of the championship.

Romano Fenati was next to see the chequered flag on the second VNE Snipers entry, with Albert Arenas ( Gaviota Angel Nieto Team) crossing the line in twelfth despite crashing right at the end of the final lap from his battle with the leaders, there was enough of a gap for him to remount in the points.

Filip Salac (Redox PruestelGP) took 13th, Raul Fernandez (Gaviota Angel Nieto Team) 14th with Gresini’s Riccardo Rossi picking up the final championship point on offer.

The race was peppered with falls from start to finish, shortly after Rodrigo’s fall from the lead Stefano Nepa and Tom Booth-Amos tangled on track, the British rider rejoined for 21st. 

Just one lap later Kaito Toba, Andrea Migno and Ayumu Sasaki got involved with each other, ending thier day in the gravel, while Darryn Binder exited by himself at turn two with seven laps remaining.