EG 0,0 Honda rider Aron Canet stormed to a maiden grand prix victory, after snatching the win away from Romano Fenati in a thrilling Moto3 contest in Jerez.
The action was relentless from the off in Spain, pole man Jorge Martin nailing his launch to take the holeshot into the first corner. As the race wore on, the battle for the lead was a 10-rider affair, first changing hands every single lap.
For a time, the Platinum Real Estate duo of Marcos Ramirez and Darryn Binder led the charge, though the South African dropped out of contention when he crashed at the final corner at mid distance.
Coming into the final lap, Austin winner Romano Fenati led the way, with championship leader Joan Mir, Canet and Ramirez in close attention. At the final corner, Canet seized the opportunity and dived up the inside of both Fenati and Mir.
The pair ran line astern on the run to the line, but it was Canet who held on by just 0.03s to put the heartbreak of the Americas Grand Prix behind him. Mir opened up his championship lead to nine points in third, with Ramirez a close fourth after a slight moment at the final turn.
Fabio Di Giannantonio put on a late charge to become a factor in the lead fight, but had his hands full with countryman Andrea Migno. The Gresini rider held sway in their duel to complete the top five, with Bulega narrowly missing out on sixth to his Sky VR46 team-mate.
Enea Bastianini remained largely anonymous during the 23-lap contest and crossed the line eighth, with pole man Martin a disappointing ninth. Juanfran Guevara was able to build a sizeable buffer to the chasing Bo Bendsneyder in 10th, Jules Danilo, Gabriel Rodrigo, Albert Arenas and Ayumu Sasaki completing the points paying positions.
British Talent Team’s John McPhee saw his championship challenge take a massive blow when he slid into retirement at Turn 1 with nine laps to go. The Scotsman had made made a good start from 25th and was running close to the top 10 when he crashed.
McPhee joined Marco Bezzecchi, Adam Norrodin, Tatsuki Suzuki and Vincente Perez on the sidelines, whilst Philipp Oettl failed to make the start after fracturing his left collarbone in a crash in qualifying.
