VOL. 54 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 31, 2017 P71
MOTO3
Remarkably, this was the first
pole of the year for dominant
new champion Joan Mir (Leop-
ard Honda), but with frequently
fastest Jorge Martin (Del Conca
Honda) alongside and shooting
off straight into the lead, could
Mir take a 10th win of the sea-
son?
It looked in doubt, with Martin
almost two seconds clear after
just three laps, but there was still
a long way to go, and for once
the pursuit pack—Mir in front—
didn't spoil one another's speed
with too much squabbling.
By lap six, Mir and company
were within a second; and when
he caught up on lap nine Martin
offered no resistance, preferring
to follow along to take his fellow
Spaniard's measure.
By now third front-row starter
John McPhee (BTT Honda)
had dropped to the back of the
group after running off to avoid a
crashing Nico Antonelli (Red Bull
KTM).
The pursuit was led instead by
Enea Bastianini (EG Honda) with
second Leopard Honda rider
Livio Loi delayed behind him in
combat with Malaysian Adam
Norrodin (SIC Honda).
With five laps to go, the front
three were all over one another.
Martin would lead again three
times over the line, Bastianini
also on laps 12 and 13. But,
once again, Mir proved his
superiority, escaping on the last
couple of laps to win by three
quarters of a second. Martin
Further crashes would take
out Kalex riders Lorenzo Baldas-
sarri and Stefano Manzi; soon
after half distance there were
only 18 out of the original 28 still
going.
Oliveira hadn't meant to lead,
he said later. "My strategy was to
go with the leading group." But
he never got the chance. Better
than a second clear of Morbidelli
by lap two, he decided to keep
on keeping on, and his lead
would grow to better than five
seconds, only slacking off when
the rain started to spit at the end.
He won by some 2.5 seconds.
The battle had been for
second, with Binder taking
over from Bagnaia to lean on
Morbidelli before half distance.
Bagnaia would lose ground
shortly afterwards while the
South African harried the new
champion, finally getting ahead
for keeps with three laps left.
"When it started raining, it was
time to go for it," he said.
With the threatening condi-
tions, lap times started to vary
wildly, and positions among the
pursuers with them.
Quartararo had caught Ba-
gnaia and was briefly ahead,
at the same time, Mattia Pasini
(Italtrans Kalex) was coming
steadily through from ninth on
lap one, followed by Malaysian
Hafizh Syahrin (Petronas Kalex),
Manzi—until he crashed—and
Xavi Vierge (Tech 3).
Pasini narrowly led Bagnaia
over the line for fourth, with
Syahrin next, from Quartararo,
Vierge and at the end Isaac
Vinales (SAG Kalex), fourth
to ninth covered by barely
three seconds. Second SAG
rider Tetsuta Nagashima was
a career-best tenth with Corsi,
Fernandez, Locatelli, Lecuona
and Raffin wrapping up the
points.
Morbidelli has 288 points,
Luthi is safe in second at 243,
while Oliveira has secured third
ahead of no-score Marquez,
216:190. Bagnaia, at 161, is safe
as top rookie, in spite of ninth-
placed Binder's two podiums in
a row.
