Joan Mir takes dominant win to increase World Championship lead

Nineteen-year-old Spaniard Joan Mir (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) won a dominant Moto3 victory to increase his World Championship lead to 34 points after his closest title challengers, Romano Fenati (Marinelli Rivacold Snipers Honda NSF250RW) and Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini Racing Moto3 Honda NSF250RW) both crashed out.

The race was restarted after a mass pile-up on the second lap, caused by a rider who had fallen on lap one, then picked up his machine and continued, leaking oil onto the asphalt.

Fenati immediately took charge of the restart, chased by Martin and Mir. Martin was the first to fall, at La Chapelle hairpin, then Fenati went down at the Musee left-hander, as he came under increasing pressure from Mir. Those two tumbles left Mir out on his own, while a battle royal for second place raged some seconds behind him.

There were up to ten riders in this group, chopping and changing position through the Bugatti circuit’s many tight turns. The main Honda players in this game were Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda NSF250RW), Fabio Di Giannantonio (Del Conca Gresini Racing Moto3 Honda NSF250RW), Enea Bastianini (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda NSF250RW) and Jules Danilo (Marinelli Rivacold Snipers Honda NSF250RW).

During the final few laps the fastest of the group broke away from the others, the battle for the final two places on the podium eventually playing out between Di Giannantonio and Canet, who had been as low as ninth at one point. Jerez winner Canet won the duel by one tenth, Di Giannantonio climbing the podium for the second time in three races.

The result continued Honda’s unbeaten run of a one-two-three finish at each of the first five races of the season.

Bastianini’s hopes of a podium were spoiled by a big moment in the final stages. The young Italian held on to cross the line in sixth place, just over a second away from the podium and a fraction ahead of Danilo, who scored his best result of the season.

John McPhee (British Team Honda NSF250RW) and Nakarin Atiratphuvapat (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) also scored points in 12th and 13th positions. These were Thai rookie Atiratphuvapat’s first World Championship points.

Joan Mir

“This is a circuit I always liked, although I did not imagine this triumph after the first part of the race. When I fell, I thought it was because of a bad tire. Then I turned and saw all those behind falling in sequence: one of them struck. I picked up the bike and came back to the box but I was in a lot of pain. In the second race I paid a lot of attention going through Turn six. Martin himself slipped off there shortly afterwards. I did not go very well and after a few corners found myself dropping back: I was in a full battle. Meanwhile Fenati and co were pushing ahead, but I was calm because I knew I had a good pace. I just thought about pushing him to get him, he was on the limit.”

Aron Canet

“There was a big crash after the start because of an oil spill, and I was also affected by it. After that I tried to stay calm, since I always try to be a calm rider in such situations. On the second start I tried to ride with the front group, who had established a small gap, but it was hard to reach the front. I was rather far back, but I recovered ground and on the last lap I was up into third. A crash for another rider gave me second place. I didn’t want to be first in that group because there was a good chance of losing my position, but I knew I had to close off the gaps. This podium feels like a win, because I love this circuit. We hope that, working in this way, many more podiums will come.”

Fabio Di Giannantonio

“I had a fantastic start the first time and a terrible one at the restart. I chose not to take any risk on the first lap as everyone is so aggressive, then lap after lap I was able to make up some ground until I caught up with the group fighting for second place. I thought I could pull away so I decided to push a bit more, but a mistake on the last lap took away the chance for a second-place finish. Given our starting position, though, we can be happy with the result.”