Sergio Garcia scored his first ever Moto3 victory as he snatched away the lead from Andrea Migno at the final corner in an interrupted Valencia encounter.
Garcia ran within the leading group of five riders in the closing stages of the shortened 15 lap race following a nasty crash for several riders on the initial getaway.
Dennis Foggia’s VR46 KTM machine was left in flames after a horrifying crash at the exit of Turn 11 on the third tour, the Italian getting hit and collected by several riders behind-leaving Foggia initially knocked out in the middle of the circuit and debris everywhere.
The race was red flagged as a result, with the distance reduced to 15 laps when the race was restarted around 20 minutes later.
Front-row man Marcos Ramirez had built up a significant lead before the red flag was shown, and immediately shot back into the lead as the race was restarted ahead of pole-man Migno.
He then continued to lead the pack for the majority of the remaining laps, before being passed by Garcia’s Estrella Galicia machine at Turn 1 heading into the final stages of the race.
Xavier Artigas-the 16 year-old making his Moto3 world championship debut with the Leopard squad- was having an inspired ride meanwhile and snatched the lead away with only six laps remaining, going on to set the fastest lap of the race next time round and seemingly beginning to stretch away from his pursuers.
The group closed him down again though, and soon it looked as if Migno had done enough to secure victory as he possessed a small lead on the final lap as Garcia was forced to fend off the attacking Artigas.
Garcia set his sights forwards though, and heading into the final few corners was right on the rear wheel of the WorldWide Racing KTM.
He then dived down the inside into the final turn with a well-executed block pass, getting an exit just good enough to hang on to his maiden light-weight class success by just 0.005 ahead of Migno.
Artigas meanwhile managed to find a way back past Tatsuki Suzuki-again at the final corner-to secure his first ever world championship rostrum in his first ever grand prix ahead of the Japanese rider.
Filip Salac rounded out the top five to bag his best ever Moto3 world championship result, while Aron Canet got the best of the fading Ramirez to secure sixth on the final lap.
Celestino Vietti took the chequered flag eighth from 28th on the grid ahead of Makar Yurchenko, with Ai Ogura completing the top ten finishers on his Honda Team Asia machine.
Recently crowned world champion Lorenzo Dalla-Porta meanwhile suffered only his second DNF of the season after high-siding on the exit of Turn 4, his ensuing crash collecting the chasing John McPhee, Tony Arbolino and Alonso Lopez-causing all four to retire from the final Moto3 contest of the season.
Arbolino’s incident did though allow Ramirez to squeak into third in the overall riders standings behind title-winning team-mate Dalla Porta and Canet.
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