Australia's Miller crashes out in clash with Alex Marquez.
Romano Fenati judged the conditions best to take victory in the Moto3 race in tricky conditions at the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon, with Alex Marquez and Danny Kent and also on the podium.
Romano Fenati judged the conditions best to take victory in the Moto3 race in tricky conditions at the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon, with Alex Marquez and Danny Kent and also on the podium.
Marquez and previous championship leader Jack Miller were summoned by Race Direction after contact between the pair saw Miller crash early in the race.
The start of the race had been delayed by mist and fog which disrupted morning Warm Up and although a dry line formed for the Moto3 contest the conditions were difficult for the lightweight class competitors.
Fenati (SKY Racing Team VR46) produced a superb ride from 13th on the grid to win an incident packed race on the last lap, crossing the line 0.057s ahead of Marquez and 0.226s ahead of Kent (Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo).
The result saw Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) take over the championship lead by 11 points with four rounds to go. Miller and Marquez touched in the early stages with Miller going down as the pair battled for the race lead, with the Australian Red Bull KTM Ajo rider eventually finishing 27th after a second crash.
A mistake by Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) half way through saw him drop to seventh after contesting the race lead, the Spaniard eventually finishing fourth, ahead of Jakub Kornfeil (Calvo Team) who was fifth – the Czech rider having also made an error to crash and drop from a provisional race lead.
The top ten was completed by Enea Bastianini (Junior Team Go&FUN Moto3), Miguel Oliveira (Mahindra Racing), Brad Binder (Ambrogio Racing), Niccolo Antonelli (Junior Team GO&FUN) and Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold). Wildcard Hiroki Ono (Honda Team Asia) rode well for 11th from 19th on the grid.
The wet-drying conditions saw a huge number of crashes throughout the race, some riders falling multiple times. Luca Grünwald (Keifer Racing) fell at Turn 1 having opted for wet tyres.
Matteo Ferrari (San Carlo Team Italia) fell soon after, as did Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) with the latter able to rejoin. Scott Deroue (RW Racing GP) and Juanfran Guevara (Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3) both fell and were unable to remount.
Jorge Navarro (Marc VDS Racing Team), Alessandro Tonucci (CIP) and Philip Oettl (Interwetten Paddock Moto3) all crashed out of the race, joined by Andrea Migno (Mahindra Racing) soon after. Isaac Viñales (Calvo Team) fell twice and was able to rejoin both times.
SAXOPRINT-RTG teammates Efren Vazquez and John McPhee both crashed, the latter doing so twice.
2014 MotoGP World Championship
Round 14 – Aragon, Spain
Moto3 race results:
1. Romano FENATI
2. Alex MARQUEZ +0.057s
3. Danny KENT +0.283s
4. Alex RINS +11.631s
5. Jakub KORNFEIL +18.382s
6. Enea BASTIANINI +19.259s
7. Miguel OLIVEIRA +23.706s
8. Brad BINDER +24.773s
9. Niccolò ANTONELLI +37.023s
10. Alexis MASBOU +39.044s
27. Jack MILLER (AUS) +3 Laps
Moto3 championship standings:
1. Alex MARQUEZ 206
2. Jack MILLER (AUS) 195
3. Alex RINS 188
4. Romano FENATI 165
5. Efren VAZQUEZ 154
6. Alexis MASBOU 140
7. Isaac VIÑALES 116
8. Enea BASTIANINI 108
9. Danny KENT 93
10. Miguel OLIVEIRA 93