Kent Conquers German GP

Jul 12, 2015
3 min read

Danny Kent dominated the 2015 Moto3 Grand Prix of Germany after breaking away from an early race scuffle to storm off into the lead by nearly eight seconds. The Leopard Racing rider didn't get the best of starts; his initial launch was good, but he didn't quite get the momentum into turn one which saw him drop back to 3rd behind the Red Bull KTM of Karel Hanika and Leopard team-mate Efren Vazquez. Enea Bastianini soon joined the fray and a small moment from Kent exiting the penultimate turn on lap two suggested a difficult race ahead. But Kent regained the lead on the following tour and pulled the pin. From then the gap rose almost instantly, pulling the gap to a second by the tenth lap and continuing to extend his advantage all the way to the line.

This is Kent's fifth win of the season and it sees him go 66 points clear in the championship standings. In front of the team's home crowd as well, Vazquez' 2nd makes that the fourth Leopard Racing Honda 1-2 of the season. It's also the first time since Marco Melandri sixteen years ago that Honda have won a lightweight race at the Sachsenring, and the first time since 1969 that a Briton has won in Germany in the lightweight class since Dave Simmonds did so back in 1969 on a Kawasaki.

Though the race stagnated at the front, the battle for third erupted between Bastainini, Romano Fenati, Karel Hanika, Brad Binder, Alexis Masbou and Andrea Locatelli. The battle went right down to the wire; Fenati clambered his way from outside the top ten to take 3rd at turn thirteen, but Bastianini used the grunt of his Honda up the hill to just claim the final podium spot from his compatriot.

Brad Binder enjoyed one of his best ride of the season in 7th, but will be disappointed not have done better considering he nearly won this race last year on a Mahindra. Team-mate Kare Hanika looked in contention for a podium, but the Czech rider dropped all the way back to 13th. It's clear that Hanika is having issues running the pace of the front runners for an entire race distace, which is something he needs to work on over the summer break.

Alexis Masbou had his best race since early season in 8th, and the Frenchman was very close to 3rd in the closing stages. This result will hopefully renew the Qatar winner's confidence heading into the second half of the season. His team-mate John McPhee was a lowly 17th after showing real promise in practice. The Scotsman has failed to show any real progress since Qatar despite some alterations made to his Saxoprint-RTG Honda prior to the Catalan race.

Niklas Ajo completed the top ten, with Philipp Oettl 11th in his home race. Jules Danilo completes the points finishers in 15th.

Fabio Quartararo's race looked good in prospect after qualifying his EG 0,0 Honda on in 4th (3rd after penalties for riders were applied). But, as has been the case on a few occasions this year, his race ended early after a bid crash exiting the final corner on lap six. Team-mate Jorge Navarro was one such rider handed a three-place grid penalty for dangerous riding on Saturday but recovered from 11th to claw his up to 6th.

Tatsuki Suzuki crashed out at turn twelve whilst running in 14th, whilst Maria Herrera and Ana Carrasco came to blows at the final corner in the closing stages. Hiroki Ono and Max Kappler also crashed out of the race. Francesco Bagnaia was forced out when his Mahindra broke down on the sixth lap.

The Moto3 World Championship reconvenes at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on August 9th.

Race Top 15:

1st Danny Kent, Leopard Racing Honda

2nd Efren Vazquez, Leopard Racing Honda

3rd Enea Bastianini, Gresini Racing Team Moto3 Honda

4th Romano Fenati, SKY Racing Team VR46 KTM

5th Niccolo Antonelli, Ongetta-Rivacold Honda

6th Jorge Navarro, EG 0,0 Honda

7th Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Ajo

8th Alexis Masbou, Saxoprint-RTG Honda

9th Andrea Locatelli, Gresini Racing Team Moto3 Honda

10th Niklas Ajo, RBA Racing Team KTM