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Sachsenring Moto3: Pawi gives another wet-weather masterclass

Khairul Idham Pawi dominated a wet Moto3 race at the Sachsenring, coming from 20th on the grid to cruise to an untroubled second victory of his Grand Prix career in torrential conditions.

Khairul Idham Pawi, Honda Team Asia

Khairul Idham Pawi, Honda Team Asia

Toni Börner

The Malaysian, who also took a straightforward win in similar weather in Argentina, was unstoppable once he hit the front of the pack on the fourth lap.

Pawi brought along his Honda Asia teammate Hiroki Ono with him initially, as the pair established a one-two at the head of the field ahead of John McPhee, Andrea Locatelli and poleman Enea Bastianini.

But Ono dropped to fifth when he had a huge moment that he did brilliantly to save, the Japanese going wide into the gravel but staying mounted on his bike and rejoining safely - although he crashed out for good some laps later.

That gave Pawi a four-second advantage over Locatelli, who had picked off McPhee for second, which he had stretched to 12 by the time the leader suffered a small scare at Turn 1, running wide into the gravel.

The incident barely put a dent in Pawi's lead though, as he went on to cruise to his second win in the first nine races of his Moto3 career by a margin of 11 seconds.

Locatelli was able to break away from his pursuers to score his first ever Grand Prix podium in second, two seconds clear of Bastianini, who passed McPhee and pulled away to seal his second top-three finish in three races.

McPhee was then demoted a further two places by Jakub Kornfeil and rookie Fabio di Giannantonio, the latter beating the Scottish rider to the line by 0.078s.

Seventh went to Jorge Navarro, back from injury after sitting out Assen, the Spaniard cutting Brad Binder's points advantage by one as the South African finished just behind in eighth.

Binder's Red Bull Ajo KTM teammate Bo Bendsneyder starred in the early stages, dicing with Bastianini for the lead prior to Pawi's arrival at the front, but couldn't maintain his pace, the Dutchman slipping to 12th.

Aron Canet, Navarro's Estrella Galicia Honda teammate, also went backwards from his front row grid slot, claiming the final point in 15th - three places ahead of Romano Fenati, who suffered a miserable race.

Crashes for Andrea Migno and Niccolo Bulega rounded off a low-key day for the Sky Racing VR46 team.

Race results:

ClaDriverBikeTime/Gap
1  Khairul Idham Pawi  Honda 47'07.763
2  Andrea Locatelli  KTM 11.131
3  Enea Bastianini  Honda 13.359
4  Jakub Kornfeil  Honda 18.541
5  Fabio Di Giannantonio  Honda 20.620
6  John McPhee  Peugeot 20.698
7  Jorge Navarro  Honda 20.910
8  Brad Binder  KTM 23.333
9  Jules Danilo  Honda 30.318
10  Francesco Bagnaia  Mahindra 31.095
11  Tatsuki Suzuki  Mahindra 37.688
12  Bo Bendsneyder  KTM 45.005
13  Gabriel Rodrigo  KTM 47.793
14  Livio Loi  Honda 48.073
15  Aron Canet  Honda 56.921
16  Alexis Masbou  Peugeot 1'10.787
17  Philipp Ottl  KTM 1'13.873
18  Romano Fenati  KTM 1'14.813
19  Maximilian Kappler  KTM 1'15.203
20  Stefano Valtulini  Mahindra 1'15.434
21  Tim Georgi  KTM 1'23.906
22  Danny Webb  Mahindra 1'38.548
23  Fabio Quartararo  KTM 1 Lap
R  Nicolo Bulega  KTM 13 Laps
 Adam Norrodin  Honda 15 Laps
 Hiroki Ono  Honda 16 Laps
 Jorge Martin  Mahindra 17 Laps
 Andrea Migno  KTM 17 Laps
 Darryn Binder  Mahindra 19 Laps
 Juan Francisco Guevara  KTM 19 Laps
 Lorenzo Petrarca  Mahindra 20 Laps
 Joan Mir  KTM  

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