Fenati fights back in France after Moto3 thriller

Romano Fenati struck back with a vengeance in France with hard-earned victory in one of the most thrilling Moto3 contests in the series' history. Fenati judged the tricky conditions in qualifying yesterday to put his SKY Racing Team VR46 KTM 5th on the grid. From there he was able to stick with the fight for the win throughout the entire race, taking the lead for the first time at turn two on lap four. That didn't last long as the Gresini Honda of Enea Bastianini slid past at turn nine on the fifteenth lap. Fenati fought back immediately and retook the lead, once again, at turn two at the start of the following lap. Jostling for position, the pair were side-by-side, in front, behind each other through the entire lap. It was Bastianini who held the advantage. The Beast encountered some grip issues in the closing stages, and he was forced to focus his attentions on holding onto the rostrum. Francesco Bagnaia completed the podium places after a sensational ride from the Italian in his début season for the Mapfre Mahindra Team. The Italian lead in the very early stages of the races, and took the lead again as the the riders crossed the line to start the final lap. A small error just cost him the victory. Danny Kent rued his decision to hold off going out right at the start of qualifying as it resulted in him starting 31st on the grid. The Briton put in an absolutely stunning ride to narrowly miss out on a podium place in 4th. The Leopard Racing Honda rider had found his way into 17th by the end of the first lap, and began chipping away at the pack in front. By the sixth lap he had passed the second SKY VR46 KTM of Andrea Migno for 8th and found himself in clear air, so he was able to close in on the leaders ahead. As the final lap began he was line-astern with Bastianini, but the determined Italian was not ready to relinquish his podium he had fought so hard from 18th for. Niccolo Antonelli was amongst the fight for the win for some time, but fell away as the final laps counte down. He had to settle for 5th, ahead of Jakub Kornfeil, Isaac Vinales, Miguel Oliveira, Andrea Migno and Philipp Oettl. Hiro Ono started alongside team-mate Kent in 32nd and fought his way up into the points in 11th. A very strong day for the Japanese rider who has been somewhat outclassed by his two highly rated team-mates. Juanfran Guevara rode to 12th despite contending with a shoulder injury, whilst Livio Loi, Zulfhami Khairuddin, and Stefano Manzi completed the points paying positions. The French crowd had been treated to a pole position from their new darling, but the dream of home success was cruelly snatched away from them. Fabio Quartararo kept his nose in the hunt for the opening 2/3 of the race, but crashed exiting turn four with seven laps to go. His team-mate Jorge Navarro and Leopard Racings' Efren Vazquez did the exact same thing earlier in the race. RBA Racing rider Gabriel Rodrigo and Red Bull KTM Ajo's Brad Binder made contact heading into turn three on the opening lap, and their race ended there. Remy Gardner was also caught up in that incident. They were joined on the sidelines by: Alexis Masbou, Jules Danilo, Niklas Ajo, Darryn Binder, Alessandro Tonucci, Matteo Ferrari and Jorge Martin. In the end only 20 riders finished the race. Race Top 15: 1st Romano Fenati, SKY Racing Team VR46 KTM 2nd Enea Bastianini, Junior Gresini Team Moto3 Honda 3rd Francesco Bagnaia, Mapfre Mahindra Team 4th Danny Kent, Leopard Racing Honda 5th Niccolo Antonelli, Ongetta-Rivacold Honda 6th Jakub Kornfeil, Drive M7 SIC Racing Team KTM 7th Isaac Vinales, Husqvarna Factory Laglisse 8th Miguel Oliveira, Red Bull KTM Ajo 9th Andrea Migno, SKY Racing Team VR46 KTM 10th Philipp Oettl, Schedl GP Racing Team KTM 11th Hiro Ono, Leopard Racing Team Honda 12th Juanfran Guevara, Mapfre Mahindra Team 13th Livio Loi, RW Racing GP Honda 14th Zulfahmi Khairuddin, Drive M7 SIC Racing Team KTM 15th Stefano Manzi, San Carlo Team Italia Mahindra

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