Moto3 Misano: First win for Dalla Porta, Bezzecchi falls to lose lead
Lorenzo Dalla Porta claimed his first world championship win in a hectic Moto3 San Marino Grand Prix in Misano which saw Jorge Martin retake the points lead as Marco Bezzecchi crashed out.
The Italian rider celebrated victory on home soil after holding off Martin in the run to the line on his Leopard Racing Honda for his maiden win in the series after 48 races.
Pole-sitter Martin has still retaken the lead despite missing out on victory with a superb second, and now holds an eight-point lead over Bezzecchi.
The Spaniard almost missed out on second place following his attack at final chance for the win when he wheelied at the start line, which is metres before the finish line on the track, but maintained his momentum to see off team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio in a photo finish.
Martin was also lucky to still be in the race at all as he miraculously held on after running into the back of Bezzecchi’s crashing KTM as he dramatically fell at the end of the penultimate lap.
Gabriel Rodrigo was in the lead group from start to finish and was unlucky not to reach the podium, finishing fourth for RBA - the top KTM finisher behind an all-Honda top three.
The front five had broken free following a huge crash at Turn 16 at the end of the second lap, triggered by a huge moment for Jaume Masia. His tumbling bike collected Aron Canet, Enea Bastianini, Ayumu Sasaki and Nicolo Bulega.
Following the crash both Sasaki and Canet were taken to the medical centre for check-ups.
That meant Jackub Kornfeil was a very distant fifth, following his team-mate Bezzecchi’s exit from the lead group, leading the chasing pack over the line 6.553s behind.
Albert Arenas moved into sixth despite having to drop a place in race for exceeding track limits on his Angel Nieto machine.
Dennis Foggia (Sky Racing Team VR46) finished the race as top rookie performer after he won his battle to the line with Darryn Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) for seventh. Binder also had to give back a place during the race for going outside the track limits.
Andrea Migno (Angel Nieto Team) held off a late charge from Nico Antonelli (SIC58 Squadra Corse) as he completed the top ten finishers at his team’s home track.
Tony Arbolino was next to see the chequered flag in eleventh for the Marinelli Snipers, with Adam Norrodin moving up to twelfth for Petronas Sprinta Racing.
The remaining points went to Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia)in 13th, Vincente Perez (Reale Avintia Academy 77) in 14th - his first points this season – and RBA’s Kazuki Masaki in 15th.
Wildcard Yari Montella (SIC58 Squadra Corse) came home in 19th, while fellow one-off rider Kevin Zannoni (TM Racing Factory) was the first to exit on lap two but got back on to finish 20th one lap down.
After the huge incident which followed there were no further fallers until John McPhee slipped into the gravel with 14 laps remaining, while Tatsuki Suzuki also fell in the closing stages.
Philipp Oettl missed the race after being declared unfit following his qualifying crash which left him with concussion.
