The last lap full of crashes allowed Yuki Kunii to win his first CEV race. Fernández and Viu are also on the podium, Pagliani is 5th.
The first CEV Moto3 race on Sunday gave us many unexpected turns of events, especially thanks to what happened in the last corners: Yuki Kunii managed to win his first race in this championship, crossing the finish line ahead of the current CEV leader Raúl Fernández. Aleix Viu got the 3rd step on the podium. Manuel Pagliani finished 5th due to a crash involving Sergio García and Ai Ogura, both forced to leave the race early. But he is only 37 points away from the head of the ranking, so the game is not over yet. The action in Jerez will restart at 2 PM with Race 2.
On the starting grid, the poleman García kicked off amazingly but the battle to gain a podium position fired up almost immediately. Some riders tried to run away, but we lost some of the leading characters in this race almost immediately: Chantra fell while racing against the leading group, but also Wongthananon and Tatay crashed. In the meanwhile, Ogura and García managed to gain a large advantage over their rivals (more than 2 secs)., while Fernández, Pagliani and Kunii must work hard to win some positions back. Rossi (who lost some positions on the starting grid due to a penalty) and Kofler touched each other, luckily with no serious consequences despite the fact that both went down and had to withdraw from the competition. The same happened to Montella, in a different crash.
Just a few laps before the end, 5 riders grouped ahead and began an amazing battle for the victory. But the real turns of events came on the last few corners: García made a mistake and fell down, taking Ogura with him and forcing Pagliani to take a large detour on gravel. Yuki Kunii crossed the finish line 1st, winning over the championship leader Fernández, and with Aleix Viu taking up the last position on the podium.
Jeremy Alcoba finished 4th, followed by Manuel Pagliani, who managed to re-enter the race and get some points. Can and Deniz Öncü crossed the finish line 6th and 7th respectively. Ryusei Yamanaka finished in 8th at his first race with Team 3570 MTA, while the last positions in the top 10 went to Filip Salač and Bruno Ieraci.
The ranking
