Oliveira Takes Historic First Win In Italian Thriller

May 31, 2015
3 min read

Miguel Oliveira took a sensational maiden Grand Prix win after a titanic 15-rider scrap for the win in Mugello. The Red Bull KTM Ajo fought his way from 11th to lead at the start of the ninth lap and held onto that lead for the next few laps. Slipping to 2nd on the final lap, the Portuguese rider passed Roman Fenati at turn ten and managed to eke out just enough of an advantage over the rest coming out of the final corner, Bucine, to take a long overdue win for himself and the team this season. Miguel now also becomes the first ever Portuguese rider to win a World Championship Grand Prix.

Danny Kent came home 2nd after a race that saw him rise and fall through the field. The Leopard Racing Honda rider was down in 15th at ons stage of the race, and it looked like maybe he'd made an error as the leading pack began to break away. But the Briton managed to reel them back in and was 3rd at the start of the final lap. He tried his best to get as close to Oliveira at the final turn as he could to try and two his way past the KTM, but it wasn't enough. Kent does now extend his lead in the standings to 44 points, so not a bad day at all. This is also his first 2nd place finish in the World Championship and his tenth podium overall.

Romano Fenati took the lead on lap four and tried to do a repeat of Le Mans as he strived to build a gap. But he too fell down through the field as the race wore on. The Italian took the lead again into turn one on the final lap, but had to settle for 3rd.

Francesco Bagnaia had another stellar race on the Mpafre Mahindra. The Italian kept his nose in with the leading group for the entire contest, taking the lead at several points in the race. He was very unlucky to miss out on a second successive podium finish by just a few-thousandths of a second on the line. Enea Bastianini completed the top five on the Gresini Honda.

Niccolo Antonelli looked very quick throughout practice and started his home race from a decent 5th. But, as so often is the way with the Ongetta-Rivacold Honda rider, he was unable to keep up the pace of some of the others around him and managed just 6th in a race he really should have been on the podium.

Jorge Navarro finished his first race at Mugello ina decent 7th, but his team-mate didn't enjoy his day just as much. Fabio Quartararo had made a good start to the race, getting as high as 9th in the first half of the race. But, for the second weekend in succession, the French youngster crashed. Quartararo lost the rear-end of his Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda at the final turn at the end of the ninth lap and tumbled into the gravel. He was unhurt. Juanfran Guevara crashed his Mapfre Mahindra at turn three, whilst Team Italia's Stefano Manzi crashed heavily at turn eleven. Karel Hanika and Efren Vazquez came to blows on the final lap also. All were unhurt.

2015 Moto3 Grand Prix of Italy Result:

1st Miguel Oliveira, Red Bull KTM Ajo

2nd Danny Kent, Leopard Racing Honda

3rd Romano Fenati, SKY Racing Team VR46 KTM

4th Francesco Bagnaia, Mapfre Mahindra Team

5th Enea Bastianini, Junior Gresini Team Moto3 Honda

6th Niccolo Antonelli, Ongetta-Rivacold Honda

7th Jorge Navarro, Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda

8th Isaac Vinales, Husqvarna Factory Laglisse

9th Alexis Masbou, Saxoprint-RTG Honda

10th Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Ajo

11th Hiroki Ono, Leopard Racing Team Honda