David Alonso looked nailed-on to win the Moto3 Spanish Grand Prix even before it started. H was fastest by almost one second in both of Friday’s dry practices, and the only rider within a second of him in qualifying was David Munoz, the #64 using the two of Alonso to get within two-tenths of the Colombian.

It was Munoz who made the holeshot in Jerez, but when Alonso took the lead at turn six on the first lap it felt immediately like the race would be for second place. But then Alonso crashed at turn 13 - possibly (although not obviously) on one of Jerez’ now-infamous damp patches that proved so perilous in the Spanish MotoGP Sprint - and the race was blown wide open.

Munoz assumed the lead, but he was quickly overcome by Collin Veijer, who led for the majority of the race. Under the Dutchman’s leadership, five riders - Munoz, Ivan Ortola, Ryusei Yamanaka, Joel Esteban, and Joel Kelso - were able to separate themselves to make a front group of six. 

Just after half-distance, Esteban and Kelso dropped off the back of that leading pack. Then, as the race entered its final three laps, Yamanaka dropped off the back and out of contention, leaving only Veijer, Munoz, and Ortola to decide the podium places.

Veijer led from Munoz onto the last lap, and defended perfectly, not missing an apex and not giving an inch on the brakes to the Spaniard behind. Munoz’ biggest weakness was his corner speed through the high-speed right-handers of turns 11 and 12, which meant he was never able to be close enough to Veijer to attack at the final corner.

Veijer’s first victory of the season was accompanied by a first podium of the season for Munoz, while Ivan Ortola rounded out the top three.

Ryusei Yamanaka took what in the end was a fairly lonely fourth place, five seconds clear of the battle for fifth behind.

Esteban and Kelso, having dropped off the lead group in the middle of the race, had fallen into the clutches of the pack that had been fighting for seventh throughout. Esteban led Kelso into the final corner at the head of that fifth-placed battle, but made it two crashes for the CFMoto Aspar team at turn 13, handing fifth to Kelso.

Adrian Fernandez took sixth place, ahead of Dani Holgado, who was fortunate. The biggest winner of the Spanish GP in terms of the championship was Veijer, but he is still 28 points behind Holgado, and although Alonso recovered to 11th the #96 still extended his points lead to six over the #80.

Nicola Carraro was eighth, ahead of his MTA teammate Stefano Nepa, and Angel Piqueras completed the top 10 ahead of the aforementioned Alonso.

Full Moto3 results from the Spanish Grand Prix are below.