Cycle News

MOTOGP FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 18 / NOVEMBER 17-18, 2018 RICARDO TORMO CIRCUIT / VALENCIA, SPAIN P70 Navarro and Sam Lowes. No change for the top three in the championship, with Bagnaia, Oliveira and Binder already set; while Marquez's 16 points put him 11 clear of Baldassarri and safe from threatening team-mate Mir. Marini and Schrotter were equal on points, but one race win gave seventh overall to Marini. Moto3 They had to change the rules to let Can Oncu into the GPs under the minimum age of 16. Just in time for him to enter his first race and win it at the first attempt, and become the youngest-ever GP winner in history. The 15-year-old Turk, wild- carding on a Red Bull Ajo KTM, stunned the racing crowd and overcame conditions that saw 15 Quartararo (Speed Up), who had started from the back after stall- ing on the form-up grid. Marcel Schrotter (Dynavolt Kalex) and Augusto Fernandez (Pons HP40 Kalex) were still close, Andrea Lo- catelli (Italtrans Kalex) and Simone Corsi (Tasca Kalex) not far behind to close out the top ten. Dominique Aegerter (Kiefer KTM) was a lone 11th, then Tet- suta Nagashima (Idemitsu Honda Kalex); with Steven Odedaal (NTS) finally moving clear of champion Bagnaia, with a distant Jesko Raffin (SAG Kalex) taking the last point. There were only 20 finishers: not among them Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), who had a rare crash after dropping to sixth by lap four, blaming tire problems. Other crashers included Jorge But while Oliveira swept on to a clear third win and Iker Lecuona (SII KTM) was safe for second, by that time there had been so many crashes and the field was so spread that Marquez was able to remount and finish third. "It was not about being fast. It was about being constant," said Oliveira, who moves to MotoGP next year; while Lecuona said: "I knew when I saw it was raining this morning it was perfect for me." And Marquez was smiling: "It's good to still fin- ish third when you've had a crash," he said. Xavi Vierge (Dynavolt Kalex) had also started from the front row, and was lying third when he fell on lap 12, and there were so many others—five in all— including American Joe Roberts (NTS), who had been dropped to 19th by the tangle on the first lap. Revelling in the wet conditions, he was back up into the top ten when he tumbled. Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Kalex), who led lap one, was fourth pretty much throughout. He'd almost gained third as Marquez remount- ed just in front of him, but had lost touch again by the end. A lively quartet had closed up in the latter laps, and Remy Gardner (Tech 3) had not only worked through to the front of it, a second down on the veteran. He was a career-best fifth, and now a couple of seconds clear of Fabio Miguel Oliveira made good on his final Moto2 appearance for the Valencia win.

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