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Race report

Malaysian Moto3: Mir beats Martin, Bastianini to claim 10th win

Newly-crowned Moto3 champion Joan Mir came out on top in a three-way fight with Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini to win the penultimate race of the season in Malaysia.

Podium: race winner Joan Mir, Leopard Racing, second place Jorge Martin, Del Conca Gresini Racing Moto3, Third place Enea Bastianini, Estrella Galicia 0,0

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Romano Fenati, Marinelli Rivacold Snipers
Jorge Martin, Del Conca Gresini Racing Moto3
Jorge Martin, Del Conca Gresini Racing Moto3
Aron Canet, Estrella Galicia 0,0
Niccolo Antonelli, Red Bull KTM Ajo
Aron Canet, Estrella Galicia 0,0

Martin made a better getaway than polesitter Mir and sprinted to the lead, immediately establishing a buffer for himself to break away from the slipstream.

His lead stood at the best part of two seconds at one point, before Mir broke away from a fight with Bastianini and Loi and wiped away Martin's advantage completely in a span of seven laps.

On lap 10, the Leopard Racing rider made a simple pass at Turn 9 to move to the lead, but Martin stayed on his tail to keep the race alive.

A couple of laps later, Mir ran wide at the final turn to hand over the lead to Bastianini, who had rapidly closed in on the battling pair.

The trio traded positions for much of the remainder of the race, before Mir made a decisive slipstream-assisted pass with three laps remaining and and went on to claim his 10th win of the season.

Martin and Bastianini, however, continued to battle for position till the very end, with the Spaniard holding to the second spot by just 0.039s.

Livio Loi finished fourth ahead of John McPhee and lead KTM rider Andrea Migno.  

Romano Fenati was classified a disappointing seventh while Aron Canet could only manage eighth, his worst race finish since April’s Argentina round.

Fabio di Giannantonio was ninth while Bo Bendsneyder, who at one point was running in second, completed the top 10.

Local hero Adam Norrodin rose as high as fourth before falling at very low speed at Turn 1. He rode back to take 11th. 

Race results:

Pos.#RiderBikeGap
1 36 spain Joan Mir  Honda 40'14.545
2 88 spain Jorge Martin  Honda 0.724
3 33 italy Enea Bastianini  Honda 0.763
4 11 belgium Livio Loi  Honda 6.868
5 17 united_kingdom John McPhee  Honda 11.051
6 16 italy Andrea Migno  KTM 11.090
7 5 italy Romano Fenati  Honda 11.238
8 44 spain Aron Canet  Honda 11.671
9 21 italy Fabio Di Giannantonio  Honda 11.959
10 64 netherlands Bo Bendsneyder  KTM 12.062
11 7 malaysia Adam Norrodin  Honda 12.572
12 71 japan Ayumu Sasaki  Honda 13.581
13 58 spain Juan Francisco Guevara  KTM 14.885
14 19 spain Gabriel Rodrigo  KTM 18.736
15 96 italy Manuel Pagliani  Mahindra 21.986
16 65 germany Philipp Ottl  KTM 23.365
17 42 spain Marcos Ramírez  KTM 23.524
18 41 thailand Nakarin Atiratphuvapat  Honda 25.908
19 12 italy Marco Bezzecchi  Mahindra 26.173
20 27 japan Kaito Toba  Honda 40.612
21 84 czech_republic Jakub Kornfeil  Peugeot 40.772
22 14 italy Tony Arbolino  Honda 43.110
23 4 finland Patrik Pulkkinen  Peugeot 1'00.918
24 6 spain Maria Herrera  Mahindra 1'01.104
Ret 9 malaysia  Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin  Honda 1 lap
Ret  48 italy Lorenzo Dalla Porta  Mahindra 2 laps
Ret  8 italy Nicolo Bulega  KTM 3 laps
Ret  23 italy Niccolo Antonelli  KTM 10 laps
Ret  95 france Jules Danilo  Honda 13 laps
Ret  40 south_africa Darryn Binder  KTM 15 laps
Ret 24 japan Tatsuki Suzuki  Honda 17 laps

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