Ivan Ortola took his maiden Moto3 World Championship victory in extraordinary style after recovering from almost being thrown off his bike on the opening lap to prevail in a thrilling and unpredictable sprint to the flag at Circuit of The Americas.

A first win for both the rider and the Angeluss MTA Team, Ortola's hopes of victory had looked dashed just two corners into the race when he got out of shape on the outside kerb at Turn 2, the Spaniard flicked into air by his bucking KTM.

However, after remarkably landing back on the bike and continuing on his way - albeit down in 22nd - Ortola carved his way through the field to rejoin the lead group in time for a breathless finish with three riders leading at some stage on the final lap.

It was Ortola though that led at the most important stage, crossing the line ahead of Jaume Masia - whose victory hopes were effectively dashed by having to dodge Ayumu Sasaki crashing out of the lead - while Xavier Artigas out-dragged Diogo Moreira to the finish line for third.

Indeed, it was quite the eventful race for Ortola as he bookended the 14-lap encounter with a flying finish at the end after what was very nearly flying to the moon moments after the start.

Having made the most of his maiden front row start to scramble into Turn 1 alongside pole sitter Jaume Masia, his broad line on the run downhill towards Turn 2 caused his front-wheel to wash out before snapping back and throwing him out of the seat.

On a weekend that has seen several riders suffer painful tumbles in the same circumstances, though Ortola endured an uncomfortable landing, he was able to keep it upright but was left with work to do to make up ground from almost the back of the field.

Up front, Sasaki relived Masia of the lead mid-way around the opening lap into Turn 12, the Leopard Racing rider seemingly happy to let his rival dictate the pace out front, which was enough to drag a lead group of five also consisting of Moreira, Artigas and championship leader Daniel Holgado.

However, it wasn't long before five became six as Ortola - spurred on by running lap record pace - executed his recovery all the way to sixth place, swelling the lead peloton with eight laps to go.

From here, Ortola picked his way past Artigas, Holgado and Moreira to resume the third place he'd started from behind Sasaki and Masia.

With the sextet clearly steeling themselves for push over the final laps, Masia made the first move with four laps remaining by out-braking Sasaki for the lead into Turn 12.

Sasaki returned the favour a lap later, but his race would last just one corner more when he high-sided his IntactGP Husqvarna on the exit of Turn 13. Pitching the Japanese into his second successive DNF, it also dragged the close-following Masia out wide in avoidance, promoting Ortola into a lead he'd hold coming into the final lap.

Behind him, Artigas and Moreira kept each other busy with multiple passes on one another, but it was the CFMoto rider that would take the fight to Ortola as they swept uphill to turn one for the final time, snatching the lead for the first time.

He held it until Turn 11 when a hard-charging Moreira dived from third to first coming onto the back straight, only to throw it away when it he reached the end of it by out-braking himself at Turn 12.

Giving Ortola back the lead, Moreira swarmed over the back of the KTM, but in doing so invited Masia - recovering from his earlier off via a tight three-abreast situation down the back straight - into the fight.

With Moreira off line, Masia struck for the inside into the final corner, successfully getting it stopped to win back second place and release Ortola to accelerate across the line for a truly remarkable victory.

Having led just eight corners from home, Moreira's woes were compounded further when he was out-dragged to the line by Artigas, the Spaniard giving CFMoto its first podium of the year, ahead of the Brazilian, while Holgado followed in fifth.

With almost ten seconds splitting the two lead groups, Deniz Oncu made late gains to grab sixth at the flag from 14th on the grid, ahead of David Salvador and the GasGas pair David Alonso and Ryusei Yamanaka, the quartet split by just +0.4s across the line.

Kaito Toba soldiered to 11th following his qualifying crash, with Mario Suryo Ali, Colin Veijer, Britain's Scott Ogden and Riccardo Rossi completed the points.

Beyond Sasaki, his countryman Tatsuki Suzuki - the winner last time out in Argentina - failed to finish after a huge high-side at Turn 5 early on, while Stefano Napa and David Munoz were in the hunt for a top ten result before retiring on the final lap.

While Ogden scored in 14th, his VisionTrack team-mate Joshua Whatley was a DNS after falling on the warm-up lap.

Full Race Report to follow