A victorious Italy in Thailand, with Fabio Di Giannantonio gaining his second success of the season ahead of Lorenzo Dalla Porta and rookie Dennis Foggia. Bezzecchi is out after Bastianini hits him, with many thanks from Martín, who is even more leader.
The first Moto3 race at the Chang International Circuit turned out to be full of crashes. But it was also an exciting one, thanks to the many riders who fought hard for the podium up until the chequered flag. All podium’s steps eventually went to Italian riders: Fabio Di Giannantonio crossed the finish line 1st ahead of Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Dennis Foggia (25th on the starting grid, this is his first podium in a World Championship). Marco Bezzecchi had to swallow a bitter pill though, as Enea Bastianini cut him down on the last turn. The current World Championship leader Martín can only thank, as he end in 4th place that takes him further up in the overall ranking.
The big news is that Jorge Martín, who had some serious health issues having troubles moving his left arm due to an ill-treated neuritis at the Clinica Mobile, got a new glove (see pic) specifically made for him in order to facilitate his movements. After some doubts, he eventually decided to take his place on the starting grid today, even though he had to start from grid 13th and had a very difficult race.
Bezzecchi performed an excellent start, closely followed by Masaki, Masiá, Arbolino, Di Giannantonio and Binder. In the meanwhile, the current World Champion immediately went out of the track, making his own race even more complicated. As usual in Moto3, the battle for the top positions fires up from the very beginning, but with many crashes too. Binder got hit by Arenas on Turn 8 (the crash is under investigation of the Race Direction) and bot risked crashing against López, on the ground on the same turn. But the crashes didn’t end there, and we also witnessed an accident between teammates Suzuki and Antonelli on Turn 12 (both riders had to withdraw from the race) together with another fall on the same area suffered by local hero Atiratphuvapat, who eventually had to pull out from the competition after slipping again on Turn 5.
Despite all this, the leading group of riders stayed compact, creating a long 18-riders train, all very close to each other. All of them were battling for the 3 top positions, but for a while, the top 5 remained in the hands of Bezzecchi, Dalla Porta, Sasaki, Foggia and Di Giannantonio. The Japanese rider’s amazing race ended too early though, as he slipped on Turn 5. His fellow countryman Masaki fell a few turns after, crashing against Martín (the second accident to be under investigation of the Race Direction) who however managed to re-enter the race. John McPhee, who was still suffering from an accident during FP, left the race just some laps before the end because of a crash. But the really unexpected turns of events happened on the last turn before the finishing line: Bastianini made a mistake and fell, taking Bezzecchi down with him!
Nonetheless, the first podium on the Buriram track belongs to Italy. Fabio Di Giannantonio is 1st ahead of Lorenzo Dalla Porta and rookie Dennis Foggia. Jorge Martín can definitely smile at his 4th place, considering that this is taking him further up in the overall World Championship ranking. Rodrigo got the 5th place ahead of Vicente Pérez and Nicolò Bulega, with Marcos Ramírez 8th followed by the wildcard Somkiat Chantra (a great result for this rider, in top 10 in front of his local fans!) and Jakub Kornfeil.
The ranking
