Britain's Danny Kent scrapped his way to a debut Moto3 podium at Assen this morning but had to fend off team-mate Sandro Cortese who seemed intent on nerfing the youngster off in his effort to get the win.
In one of the closest-ever finishes to a grand prix race, the leading group were together as they went into the final turn, Maverick Vinales leading while Cortese went up the inside of the chicane but Louis Salom braked too hard, allowing Cortese and Kent to get good drive to the line.
Cortese bagged second behind Vinales while Kent and Salom had to wait for race direction to consider video evidence before awarding the final podium spot to the British rider by one one-thousandth of a second.
It was an all-action race with Kent leading for half of the first lap. The action never settled down with Hector Faubel and Nicki Ajo also in the mix for the first half of the race. But it came down to Vinales, Cortese, Kent and Louis Rossi for the rostrum positions.
Kent took the lead on the penultimate lap but Vinales fought back. Cortese could see his title rival was in the lead and basically ran into the side of Kent on the fast left-hander before the chicane and Kent was lucky to stay on.
Salom also took advantage but Kent was able to re-group and charged back as they approached the final brace of corners. He could do nothing about Cortese on his inside but both the Red Bull Ajo bikes were able to cross the line ahead of Salom, who was distraught about having to vacate parc ferme after the stewards made their minds up.
