Antonelli Dominates Wet Moto3 Race

Oct 11, 2015
2 min read

Niccolo Antonelli secured his second win of the season with a controlled and comfortable win in wet conditions at Motegi.

There was heavy rain at the Japanese circuit in the early hours which delayed the schedule as the medical helicopter was not able to fly. After confirming travel arrangements should a rider need to go to the local hospital, the organisers halved the warm-up to 10 minutes once it finally got underway and shortened the race to just 13 laps.

Fenati had started from his first ever Moto3 pole position, but it was Antonelli that took the lead immediately into turn one. Miguel Oliveira followed him through into second whilst there were great starts from Ono, Loi and Khairuddin. Fenati dropped to 9th whilst Kent struggled early on and dropped down the field to 16th place whilst his title rival Bastianini ran in the top 10. Ono then made some great moves on Olivieira and Loi to take second place but crashed out on lap three. Fenati also went down in a separate incident but rejoined at the back of the field.

The crash for Ono and battling between Loi and Oliveira allowed Antonelli to use his pace that he has shown all weekend to establish a strong lead of over three seconds in just three laps. Meanwhile, title contenders Bastianini and Kent remained down the field without making any significant progress. Indianapolis GP winner Livio Loi crashed out from a promising third place as he applied the power through turn three.

Antonelli's lead then stabilised as Oliveira was being pursued by his teammate Brad Binder. However, Binder too crashed out promoting Vinales to 4th until he too came off his bike. Vinales was able to recover and amazingly only lost one place to Navarro but that was for the final podium position. Kent gradually made progress up through the field and with just three laps remaining would find himself closing in on rival Bastianini for sixth. On the final lap, Kent managed to get through and take sixth place and crucially extend his championship by another point.

Antonelli held on for his second win in a truly dominant performance with Oliveira taking second and Navarro third. Vinales was fourth and a very impressive ride from Malaysian rider Khairuddin fifth having started 15th. Kent was sixth ahead of Bastianini and some other great results from Hanika, McPhee and Vazquez completing the top 10.

The result means the championship rumbles on for another round to Phillip Island next weekend where Kent could clinch the title if he finishes ahead of Bastianini and doesn't lose more than 15 points to Oliveira.

Moto3 Japanese Grand Prix Race Results Top 10:

WINNER - Niccolo ANTONELLI, 28m03.391s

SECOND - Miguel OLIVEIRA, +1.053s

THIRD - Jorge NAVARRO, +8.529s

4th - Isaac VINALES, +11.074s

5th - Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN, +13.043s

6th - Danny KENT, +15.224s

7th - Enea BASTIANINI, +15.873s

8th - Karel HANIKA, +17.563s

9th - John MCPHEE, +18.153s

10th - Efren VAZQUEZ, +20.892s.

Full Moto3 Race results available here: http://resources.motogp.com/files/results/2015/JPN/Moto3/RAC/Classification.pdf?v1_c84e11dc