Everyone woke up to rain in Argentina as thunderstorms took place through the night at the Termas de Rio Hondo. It was the Moto3 class who were scheduled to take to the track first. The warm-up was extremely wet but as they came to begin the race the track had started to dry out, yet it was still raining lightly; however a lot of riders had chosen to ride on slick tyres for the twenty-two lap race.
Some riders were penalised for overuse of the track and had been moved back a row on the grid; this list included Khairul Pawi (Honda Team Asia), Philipp Oettl (Schedl GP Racing), and Karel Hanika (Platinum Bay Real Estate).
Sky Racing VR46 rider Romano Fenati entered the first corner in the lead, RW Racing GP BV rider Livio Loi dived down the front and Fenati lost time as he teetered through the wet line. Pawi led on lap one on his 125cc Honda and began to pull away with Loi in tow; Loi was wearing wet tyres and was trying to stick to the wet lines on the track. Drive M7 SIC Racing Team rider Adam Norrodin also managed to pull away in pursuit of the two leaders and a group of five followed on ahead of a group of eight riders; meanwhile, Fenati fell back to eighteenth.
Pawi had a four second lead with nineteen laps to go and he continued to pull away increasing this to an eight second lead within one lap; his team were advising him to slow down on his pit board as he went down the start-finish straight.
Jorge Navarro broke away from the group on his Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda leaving his teammate Aron Canet to lead the group of five riders fighting for fifth position. Norrodin soon caught Loi and brought Navarro with him as the track continued to dry to the advantage of those who chose slick tyres.
With fourteen laps to go Pawi now had a twenty-second lead and the rain flag (white with a red cross) was put out by the marshals; Pawi was showing no signs of slowing down and was seen lifting out of his seat slightly in places. Navarro set the fastest the lap with eleven laps to go with a time of 1:58.173. Pawi soon responded to this on lap twelve as the track continued to dry. On lap sixteen Pawi broke through the 1:58 barrier setting the fast lap so far of 1:57.767 as his lead increased to twenty-two seconds.
Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Brad Binder made his way up to fourth with eleven laps remaining; soon after John McPhee made his way up to ninth when he came close to Locatelli whilst overtaking. Binder was soon caught by Andrea Locatelli (Leopard Racing) and then Canet took advantage leaving the pole position man in sixth with seven laps to go. With nine laps remaining Fenati and Alexis Masbou (Peugeot Saxoprint Motorcycles) came into contact but managed to stay on as they battled for twentieth position.
The battle continued between Norrodin and Navarro, as Norrodin looked set to overtake at any moment. They had just over seven second lead on the group of five that had reformed. Joan Mir (Leopard Racing) soon stole a place from Binder pushing him down to seven who fought back a few corners later. The usual antics continued from a group of Moto2 riders and they continuously switched places whether there was the space to do so or not.
On lap eighteen, Mir set the new fastest lap from fourth position as he now led the group, but again not for long as he ended up at the back of the group by the end of the next straight. He broke through the 1:57-minute barrier on the final lap setting a time of 1:56.365.
With three laps to go Pawi found himself among backmarkers and was starting to battle his way through. Canet lost it at Turn 7 crashing out; his bike, however, was left in the centre of the track for some time luckily the marshals were able to narrowly move in time.
It ended up Pawi won the Argentinian round of the Moto3 race with a lead of 26.170 seconds on second place Navarro. It was the rare moment that the Malaysian national anthem was played on the podium as he is the first Malaysian to win a Grand Prix; however judging by his performance on race day in Argentina it may not be long before we may hear it again.
Norrodin stole second place from Navarro before losing it on the final corner when he touched a damp patch, he was thrown from his bike and lost out on the second place position he had just claimed from the Spaniard. The brave Malaysian did not give up and he picked his bike up and ran with it despite injuring his leg to cross the line in eleventh.
It was Brad Binder who managed to claim third position adding vital points to his championship lead. He was followed by two of the Leopard Racing Team riders Andrea Locatelli and Joan Mir who now has the lap record for the Moto3 class. They were followed by Hiroki Ono and the fastest Peugeot as Brit John McPhee surprisingly had managed to fight his way through making it finish seventh. The fastest Mahindra ridden by ASPAR Mahindra Team moto3 rider Jorge Martin finished eighth.
Niccolo Antonelli who won in Qatar aboard his Ongetta-Rivacold Honda finished in tenth ahead of Juanfran Guevara (RBA Racing GP BV) and Fabio Quartararo (Leopard Racing). Maria Herrera, the only female in the class on the MH6 Laglisse, rode a strong race making her way up to fourteenth. Philipp Oettl was the last rider to claim points in fifteenth position. Loi finished just outside of the points in sixteenth following a brave ride as the only rider on wet tyres.
