Moto3 Styria: Vietti storms to maiden win
Celestino Vietti left it to the final lap to take control at the front, with a perfect final lap handing him the win in the Moto3 Styria Grand Prix.
The Sky Racing VR46 rider broke clear at the front with Tony Arbolino after late crashes for the Red Bull KTM Tech 3 teammates - Deniz Oncu collected Ayumu Sasaki, with John McPhee out soon after which splintered the group.
It then became a battle between Arbolino’s superior set-up and pace and Vietti’s amazing ability to gain through the final corners with Vietti pulling clear on the apporach to the line to hand the KTM rider his first world championship win.
The Rivacold Snipers rider was equally pleased to be on the podium, the Italian spoke after the race of how badly his tyres had suffered from trying to hold the lead, his Honda wobbling as errors crept in when he made a final lunge for the win in the final corners.
The final podium spot went to Ai Ogura for Honda Team Asia. The consistent Japanese riders return to the podium moves him into second in the championship battle.
Pole man Gabriel Rodrigo (Kommerling Gresini) secured his best finish of the season in fourth ahead of Albert Arenas.
The championship leader had been at the back of the chasing group for Valresa Aspar, circulating around in or near tenth position for most of the race. His final push was enough to move into fifth and increase his championship tally to 106 points, but did not quite match his race winning performance around the Red Bull Ring last week.
Darryn Binder ran at the front in the lead group for much of the race before a few ambitious moves saw him run wide dropping the CIP Green Power rider to sixth.
The South African finished just ahead of fellow one time frontrunner Tatsuki Suzuki who crossed the line seventh for SIC58 Squadra Corse.
There was then an almost three second wait until Raul Fernandez took the chequered flag for Red Bull KTM Ajo.
He in turn had pulled out a gap over ninth placed Stefano Nepa, who only climbed into the points places in the final laps on the second Aspar entry.
Sergio Gargia paid attention to his track limits warning to keep within the rules and claim a top ten finish for Red Bull KTM Ajo.
Filip Salac climbed to eleventh late on for Estrella Galicia 0,0 with Dennis Foggia, the winner in Brno for Leopard, claiming twelfth after some strong late laps.
Sky Racing’s other rider Andrea Migno recovered from his long lap penalty, handed out for his collision with local rider Maximilian Kofler in qualifying, for 13th.
Jaume Masia (Leopard Racing) and Ryusei Yamanaka (Estrella Galicia 0,0) completed the points places in 14th and 15th respectively. Yamanaka was the best rookie finisher.
Riccardo Rossi was the first faller, exiting at turn ten on lap four. Jeremy Alcoba slipped out with ten laps remaining, while Kofler only lasted one lap longer. Kaito Toba crashed on the final lap.
After finishing 27th in warm-up John McPhee had his engine and electronics package changed between that session and the race. He fell on the penultimate lap while pushing to stay with the leaders.
Oncu’s crash with his teammate saw him leave the track on a stretcher and then attend the medical centre for further checks.
