Sky Racing’s Romano Fenati narrowly won the Moto3 race at Mugello, but there was a photo finish for second with Calvo’s Isaac Vinales edging Estrella’s Alex Rins by a thousandth of a second. The lead changed multiple times during the race, with SaxoPrint-RTG’s John McPhee getting to the front in the early stages of the 20 lapper.
The Scot led a Grand Prix race for the first time in his career, but a crash in the early stages put a massive dent on his race winning ambitions and firmly out of contention for a finish on the rostrum in Tuscany.
Championship leader Jack Miller got the hole-shot over Rins on the opening lap. It was a good start for McPhee going into eighth on the first corner from the fourth row. After two laps Marquez went into first at Rettilineo. A lap later Rins went to the front. But with 17 laps to go McPhee snuck in on the starting straight and went around the outside to over take Miller and Rins to take the lead.
But seconds later McPhee went wide allowing Rins and Marquez to go on ahead. But the Australian, Miller was able to get in the slip stream of Marquez and went into the lead at Bucine, pushing McPhee down to fifth.
Fenati then decided to join the party and was able to edge ahead of the leading trio of riders on lap five. But as things were going well for McPhee in fourth place he crashed unhurt at Correntaio, ending his chances of a possible podium finish.
With McPhee out of contention 16-year-old Italian Bastianni from out of no where fought through the pack and ended up getting the better of Miller to take the lead. The more experienced pairing of Rins and Marquez were not going to let the young local lad take the spoils and soon overtook the Go&Fun bike to go back to the front of the pack.
With six laps remaining a total of seven riders were all vying for the win with Vinales going in front at Bucine, followed by Miller and Fenati. Two laps later, Marquez the younger took the lead once again, with his Estrella team-mate in tow. On the penultimate lap Fenati went back to lead the seven bike pack, but on the final lap the battle for the top spot on the podium really heated up.
But Miller and Marquez became tangled and both fell into the gravel at Borgo San Lorenzo with Bestianni, ending their chances of clinching maximum points. The Aussie rider still leads the championship but now by only five points. Red Bull Husqvarna’s Danny Kent came across the finishing line in 15th, taking home a point for his team.
