Livio Loi tyre gamble wins Moto3 race

Aug 9, 2015
3 min read

It was a completely unexpected result, but rain and a slick tyre gamble allowed Belgian Livio Loi to take his first win at Indianapolis.

Between the MotoGP warm-up and Moto3 race, rain fell and wet the entire track. However, the rain ceased prior to the start of the Moto3 race meaning the majority of riders opted to start on wet tyres. However, John McPhee pitted opted to take his bike into the pits before the formation lap to change to slicks and as a result would start from the back of the grid instead of his 18th place.

As the race got underway, Oliveira made a great start to lead ahead of pole-sitter and championship leader Danny Kent. As the riders made their way around the first lap, it became clear the track was drying very quickly and with no rain falling slick tyres were the right tyre to be on.

At the end of lap 1, Masbou led from Vazquez and Oliveira pitted immediately. McPhee was down outside the points and Kent was just 4th before pitting at the end of lap 2 for slicks and rejoined down in 33rd as unlike MotoGP the riders only have one bike so full tyre change required. The other leaders stayed out for one more lap, but Vazquez rejoined ahead of teammate Kent into 31st place.

Whilst all this was happening, Livio Loi quietly crept into the lead and it soon became clear Loi had opted to start the race from slicks having set fastest lap after fastest lap. He soon established a comfortable lead over John McPHee who had progressed on his slicks into P2 but the gap was already over 18 seconds by lap 7.

Danny Kent soon became the fastest man on the track but running down the order in 27th and over a lap adrift, the main focus was to limit the damage to his title ambitions and try to get into the points. Unfortunately, Kent was unable to score a point and eventually finished in 21st place. Luckily for the Brit, teammate Efren Vazquez crashed out and nearest title rival Bastianini only closed the gap by 10 points with his 6th place finish.

Meanwhile, the large gaps at the front meant that only an error or heavy rain would change the order. As it proved, Loi comfortably led the rest of the field ahead of McPhee and Oetll. Migno was running a spectacular 4th until he stalled his bike after colliding with Dalla Porta into turn 10. This allowed Fenati to take P4.

Livio Loi held on and strolled across the line to record the first win for a Belgian in Moto3 and was Loi's first podium in the class thanks to his fantastic tyre gamble before the race. Also recording their first podium was John McPhee in second and Philipp Oettl in third (who scored his maiden podium 19 years after his father Peter Oettl was last on the podium).

The result leaves Danny Kent out front in the championship by 56 points from Enea Bastianini as the paddock heads to Brno next weekend for round 11.

Moto3 Race Top 10:

WINNER - Livio LOI, RW Racing, 40:50.747

SECOND - John MCPHEE, SAXOPRINT RTG, +38.860

THIRD - Philipp OETTL, Schedl GP Racing, +57.781

4th - Romano FENATI, SKY Racing Team VR46, +1:15.290

5th - Isaac VINALES, RBA Racing Team, +1:19.810

6th - Enea BASTIANINI, Gresini Racing Team Moto3, +1:23.800

7th - Niccolo ANTONELLI, Ongetta-Rivacold, +1:24.580

8th - Brad BINDER, Red Bull KTM Ajo, +1:24.650

9th - Jorge NAVARRO, Estrella Galicia 0,0, +1:25.290

10th - Jorge MARTIN, MAPFRE Team MAHINDRA, +1:35.100