Ongetta Honda’s Nico Antonelli bounced by from a heavy practice crash to steal the win in today’s Qatar Moto3 round by just 0.007s as he timed a slipstream on KTM’s Brad Binder to perfection and cross the line with a fractional winning margin.

Antonelli had shadowed the South African for the whole of the final lap but had another five bikes behind him all with the same idea. As they exited the last corner, the Italian just tucked in behind the Red Bull Ajo rider to catch the draft and then swung across the track to stop anyone getting in his tow to steal victory.

Mahindra’s Francesco Bagnaia bagged third place after some bumping and boring with Sky VR46’s Romano Fenati. The poleman had been in for the win right until turn one of the final lap where he made an error on the brakes, ran wide and was demoted to sixth place.

Fenati then fought his way back past rookie team-mate Nicolo Bulega, who had also led with three to go, and then last year’s championship runner-up Enea Bastiannini in order to take fourth, three-tenths off the win. Bastiannini got the better of Bulega for fifth but the reigning Spanish Moto3 champion must be happy with his first-ever grand prix.

Jorge Navarro got busted back from the leading pack and slipped back to seventh, one place ahead of young Belgian Livio Loi who had been fastest through most of free practice. Philipp Oettl and Jakub Kornfeil rounded out the top ten with Scotland’s John McPhee down in 27th.

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