By Lisa Lewis
Sandro Cortese took victory by 0.467 seconds in the San Marino round of the Moto3 championship at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on Sunday.
Red Bull KTM's championship leader Cortese maintained his amazing record this season with his third win and eleventh podium from twelve races.
The German said in parc ferme that he “put in the last laps 200% risk and tried to pull away”, as he did not want to be caught up in a pack in the dash to the line, which he managed with a small gap seeing him home in first while the chasing group scrapped it out to the line just behind.
Luis Salom was the best of the rest, muscling his way to second for RW Racing on his Kalex KTM. Romano Fenati, who had enjoyed a race long duel with Cortese for the lead, found himself looking at an off-podium finish after being caught by the group of Rins, Salom and Vinales, but found a way back to third for Team Italia FMI.
Alex Rins, who started 17th for Estrella Galicia, equalled his best ever result crossing the line in fourth, as he did in
Jerez from pole, Rins muscled fellow Spaniard Maverick Vinales onto the grass to take the position.
Vinales, who dropped down to 15th by the end of the first lap, pushed the Blusens Avintia bike hard to gain places as the race progressed, forcing his way back to the frontrunners only to then be pushed back to fifth by the move from Rins approaching the line, increasing the gap to Cortese in the championship to 46 points.
Jonas Folger, who won last time out in Brno, converted his season best qualifying into a solid sixth place for Mapre Aspar. Efren Vazquez finished just behind in seventh for JHK Laglisse.
After running near the front early on Niccolo Antonelli crossed the line eighth for San Carlo Gresini with Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira finished in ninth for Estrella Galicia 0,0. Arthur Sissis was tenth for Red Bull KTM.
Zulfahmi Khairuddin finished eleventh for AirAsia KTM and after a strong start Danny Kent ended up down in twelfth for Red Bull KTM.