Moto3: Navarro takes first win in front of home crowd
As the rest of the lead group raced each other, Jorge Navarro took advantage of his position at the front to pull out a slender 0.564s lead to secure his first world championship win in front of his home crowd at the Moto3 Grand Prix of Catalunya.
With emotions running high, all the podium finishers joined the Honda rider in dedicating their performances to the late Luis Salom.
The Estrella Galicia 0,0 riders strong performance, mastering the track layout changes and setting record laps in race, means that no rider has won from pole this season.
Pole man Brad Binder considered himself lucky to finish after a run in with Gabriel Rodrigo in the closing stages, but the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider rallied, passing two riders simultaneously to pull back up to second , but by the Navarro was just out of reach.
The South African fought chatter all the way to keep his championship lead with second, losing just five points of his advantage, now 44 ahead of Navarro overall.
The final podium spot went to Gresini's Enea Bastianini, who lead briefly as he found his pace in the final laps of the race before being pushed back to third.
Romano Fenati was also a one time race leader in the lead group before crossing the line in fourth, the top finisher for the Sky Racing VR46 Team.
His team-mate Nicolo Bulega was just behind him at the finish line for fifth, and was top rookie.
Aron Canet on the second of the Estrella Galicia 0,0 bikes took sixth and was the last of the lead group to finish, as the rest of the group crashed out over the final laps.
That meant Fabio Quartararo was able to gain places for Leopard Racing, finishing seventh ahead of his team-mate Joan Mir in eighth.
Mir, Jorge Martin and Jakub Kornfeil were all penalised during the race for exceeding track limits, dropping a place each.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was penalised before the race, dropping five grid places for his riding during qualifying, but rallied to take points again after his podium finish in Mugello for Gresini in ninth.
Kornfeil recovered to race back to a top ten finish for the Drive M7 SIC Team.
Bo Bendsneyder secured his best finish since joining the world championship with Red Bull in eleventh, while Darryn Binder picked up his first world championship points in twelfth for Platinum Bay Real Estate and was the first Mahindra to take the chequered flag.
The remaining points went to Juanfran Guevara for RBA in 13th, Tatsuki Suzuki for CIP in 14th and British rider John McPhee, who fought hard in the pack and against his bike issues for 15th for the Peugeot MC Saxoprint team.
Stefano Valtulini collected Alexis Masbou on the first lap, ending their race on lap one, with Adam Norrodin also finding the gravel shortly after.
Maria Herrera was next to exit on lap three, and was joined by Hiroki Ono, who took Jules Danilo with him at turn two.
The crashes didn't end there with Juanfran Guevara losing control and collecting Francesco Bagnaia on his way out with Andrea Migno sliding out of tenth a lap later at turn ten, though he rejoined.
Nico Antonelli had his third crash of the season at turn 15 with seven laps left to run. The final Aspar bike exited one lap later when Martin hit the deck.
The fallers kept coming with Andrea Locatelli falling and rejoining before Khairul Idham Pawi tried to go wide around Gabriel Rodrigo only to end up off, with the Argentinian kicking the gravel in a tantrum just moments later, both had been in the lead group.
Albert Arenas (MRW Mahindra Aspar) returns for his second wild-card appearance this season, but also failed to go the distance. Davide Pizzoli (Procercasa - 42 Motorsport) also returned only to fall on the final lap with Karel Hanika.
