The Moto3 race ended in tragedy for Maverick Vinales (Blusens Avintia FTR Honda), the young Spaniard who crashed in the final turn sequence while going for victory. Vinales had been in the thick of the fight for most of the race, while waiting until the end to make his grab for glory. But the he ran wide in the penultimate corner and onto a dirty section of the track, causing his tyres to wash out. Vinales could not re-start his motorcycle and scored no points.
The race was won by KTM rider Luis Salom, the Spaniard getting his first victory with Sandro Cortese (KTM) second and Jonas Folger (KTM) third.
Miguel Oliveira (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Suter Honda) narrowly missed out on the final podium spot by taking fourth; the gap was .127s. In his first visit to America, Romano Fenati (Team Italia FMI FTR Honda) was a very close fifth, with Oliveira’s teammate Alex Rins finishing seventh.
Cortese continues to lead the championship with 184 points to 155 for Vinales.
Miguel Oliveira, Estrella Galicia 0,0 – Suter Honda: 4th
“It was a hard race. We knew we had the pace to be with the leaders and that's how it was. Maybe the grid position didn't help too much but we made up the places quickly. I knew that in the second half of the race the tyres would suffer and even though I made up more positions I couldn't get to the front. We've started the second half of the season well though and I'm pleased with myself and for my team.”
Alex Rins, Estrella Galicia 0,0 - Suter Honda: 7th
“It was a pretty action-packed race. In the first half I was part of the lead group and I saw that I definitely needed to start pushing. When I did, Khairruddin caught back up with me at the end of the start-finish straight, so I had to push the tyres a lot. That affected the second half of my race with all the wear to them. I wasn't able to go any faster and obviously this affected me. Now we have to focus on the good points about the weekend and look ahead to the Czech Republic."
Estrella Galicia 0,0 Press Release
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