Rain remained after Warm Up at the Sachsenring, the Moto3™ World Championship race at the GoPro Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland set to be a very wet affair. Having topped Warm Up and won a wet Argentina GP, Khairul Idham Pawi (Honda Team Asia) could hardly contain his smile on the grid. With rain continuing to hammer down, everyone on the grid knew it would be a long and hard race, staying safe and upright the key to a good result.
By the end of the first lap, Pawi had shot from 20th to seventh and was well and truly in the battle for victory. As lap five began he hit the front and as in Argentina, with clear track ahead of him he was able to fly and easily set times a second faster than those behind. As lap 14 began he ran off track, a clear warning sign to ease off. But he didn’t relent, growing his lead with each lap and crossing the line 11.131s ahead of second place. Pawi was the first Malaysian to win a Grand Prix and now becomes the first, and so far only, Malaysian to win two Grands Prix.
Andrea Locatelli (Leopard Racing) had a quiet opening lap but rallied as the race went on, battling for the podium. The Italian would be pushed back and found himself battling with John McPhee (Peugeot MC Saxoprint) for third, soon promoted to second by Hiroki Ono’s (Honda Team Asia) near-fall. He briefly came under pressure from Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing Moto3), but a solid rhythm saw him cross the line in second and take a career first podium. This was also Leopard Racing’s first podium of 2016 after claiming the lightweight class championship with Danny Kent in 2015.
Pole-man Enea Bastianini made an excellent start to the race and led into Turn 1, followed by Bo Bendsneyder (Red Bull KTM Ajo). The Italian lost several positions during the opening half of the race but gathered himself as the race went on, charging back into podium contention. He and John McPhee sparred for third in the treacherous conditions, soon joined by Jakub Kornfeil (Drive M7 SIC Racing Team). He was able to break the pair and get his second podium of the year, a little dissapointed by the wet conditions.
With Pawi powering away at the front, very few people noticed the charge of Jakub Kornfeil. He battled hard for the podium but was unable to match Bastianini in the last laps, taking fourth. Behind was Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Racing Team) who won a tight three-rider battle to complete the top five.
Further down the order, Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Jorge Navarro (Estrella Galicia 0,0) battled for seventh place, neither wanting to risk as much as the likes of Pawi with a championship on the line. Navarro would win the battle, crossing the line in seventh and gaining one point on Binder, who was eighth.
After their falls in Qualifying, both Maria Herrera (MH6 Team) and Niccolo Antonelli (Ongetta-Rivacold) were forced to miss the race. Herrera sustained a broken wrist while Antonelli broke his collarbone. Both will have the summer break to recover.
Complete results from the riveting Moto3™ race can be found here.
Championship standings after round nine are available here, can anyone catch Binder after the summer break?