Moto3 Catalunya: 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 f𒆙irst world championship win in fron𓆉t of his home crowd at the Moto3 Grand Prix of Catalunya.
With emotions running high, al꧒l the podium finishers joined the Honda rider in dedicating theꦅir 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 ꧙rider has won from pole this season.
Pole man Brad Binder considered himself lucky to finish after a run in with Gab♐riel 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 ju💫st out of reach.
The South A🐽frican 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 hi🌸s pace in the final laps of the race before being pushed back to thir🃏d.
Romano Fenati was also a one time race leader in the lead group before crossing t🐠he line in fourth, the top finisher for the Sky Racing VR46 T𓆉eam.
His team-mate Nicolo Bulega was just behind him at the fin🐓ish line for f🅘ifth, 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 res𓄧t of the group crashed out over the final laps.
That meant Fabio Quartararo was able to gain place꧙s for Leopard Racing, finishing seventh ahead of his team-mate Joan Mir in eighth.
Mir, Jorge Martin and Jakub Kornfeil were all penalised during tꦍhe race for exceeding track limits, dropping a place each.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was penalised before the race, dr♔opping 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.
Th🌺e 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 h🦂is 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 sꩵhortly 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 oᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚut of tenth a lap later at turn ten, though he rejoined.
Nico Antonelli had hiಞs 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 fa🌳llers 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.
