British Moto3: Flawless Fenati dominates for Silverstone victory

Romano Fenati continued his dominance at Silverstone with a controlled performance from the front to win the Moto3 British Grand Prix, round twelve of the championship, in style.

The race soon split into three distinct groups, all with very different but exhilarating performances. Championship leaders Pedro Acosta and Sergio Garcia featured in the last of the groups after a poor qualifying for the pair.

The Sterilgarda Max Racing rider saw off a brief look from Gabriel Rodrigo on the first lap, and, as expected, his superior pace - which saw him top every session in which he featured, with a new lap record coming in FP3 - saw him soon pull away at the front.

That caused a breakaway, with compatriots Niccolo Antonelli and Andrea Mingo able to go with him. When his Rivacold Snipers bike failed on lap six, Migno left the group, pulling out of the race onto the grass.

That left only Antonelli to give chase, which given his early return from injury, racing for Avintia VR46 Academy with a still fractured and very sore right hand, he did with a determined performance.

Fenati then pulled the pin on the penultimate lap, which proved too much for his fellow Italian, seeing the number 55 claim his first win of the season for Husqvarna with a flawless performance.

Antonelli was 1.679s behind for KTM after staying in touch for so long and came under late pressure from the duo chasing behind.

Dennis Foggia and Izan Guevara had pulled away from the second group and attempted to chase down the duo up front. The pair swapped position several times as they tried to reel in Antonelli, with Foggia holding on through the final sector to complete an all Italian podium for Leopard and Honda.

Though a rostrum finish was within his grasp, fourth still marks a new high for Guevara in his rookie season with GasGas Aspar. The Spaniard also prevented Fenati from getting a perfect racing set at Silverstone after setting a new in-race lap record when he took the fastest lap of the race.

Tatsuki Suzuki made up for qualifying down in 13th for SIC58 Squadra Corse and fought hard to lead the next half of the splintered group over the line in fifth.

Jaume Masia wasn’t far behind in sixth for Red Bull KTM Ajo. In turn, he just held off Petronas Sprinta rider Darryn Binder in the run to the line. The South african made big moves in the race to recover from his 16th place start.

Eighth went to Deniz Oncu for Red Bull KTM Tech 3, with Riccardo Rossi the last of the pack in ninth for BOE Owlride.

After several changes Carlos Tatay took charge at the font of group three on track, he held positon to complete the top ten with Avintia Esponsorama.

John McPhee saw his home race get off to the worst start possible - qualifying 15th saw him need to fight his way up from the start. Forced to sit up on his Petronas bike right at the beginning of the race he was last after the first few corners.

Undeterred, and with the third group bringing all the classic Moto3 action away from the breakaway up front, McPhee was able to fight back, catch up and run as high as tenth in the race. Crossing the line eleventh the British rider was demoted a place for exceeding track limits on the final lap.

That saw championship leader Acosta promoted to eleventh, though his almost race long battle had been with main title rival, Garcia. The Spanish rookie extends his lead with a total of 201 and Garcia ran out of the points on his Valresa GasGas Aspar on the final lap - he finished 17th but was moved up a position after Stefano Nepa (BOE Owlride) was also demoted a positon for running wide in the groups final lap battle.

Ayumu Sasaki picked up places late on to climb to 13th on the second Red Bull KTM Tech 3 entry. The remaining points went to Filip Salac (CarXpert Pruestel GP) in 14th and the newly announced Moto2 bound Gabriel Rodrigo in 15th for Gresini.

Yuki Kunii was handed a long lap penalty for irresponsible riding after taking out his fellow countryman Kaito Toba in FP1.  The Japanese rider finished 24th but Toba went on to be the only faller in the race.

Andi Farid Izdihar is not at the British Grand Prix, after he experienced issues with getting a visa to the UK. There was no replacement rider at Honda Team Asia.