KTM Ajo’s Jose Antonio Rueda earned a commanding victory over the Moto3 field to win the first race of the season at the Chang International Circuit.
The Spanish rider won the race by over seven seconds from teammate Alvaro Carpe to continue his momentum from pre-season.
It was Rueda who got the strongest start and was able to take the lead going into Turn 1.
Polesitter Matteo Bertelle was able to recover from being overtaken on the start and pulled a move on Rueda in Turn 3, but the Spanish rider regained the lead later in the first lap.
The final corner saw the first collision of the race as rookie Cormac Buchanan crashed in the final corner and took out Eddie O’Shea.
The pack continued to grow with the leading group consisting of 15 riders in the first three laps as David Munoz made his way through to second.
A gap started to open between the top six riders and the rest of the field as Adrian Fernandez and the returning Dennis Foggia jostled for seventh.
Bertelle made his way back through on Munoz for second as he looked to follow Rueda at the head of the field.
Leader Rueda ran wide which allowed the group behind to close in as Luca Lunetta made contact with Munoz.
The Spanish rider then rode into the side of Lunetta, which pushed the Italian off track and ended any chances of him getting onto the podium.
Yamanaka crashed out from third soon after, which promoted Adrian Fernandez into the podium positions.
Despite being under investigation for his incident with Lunetta, Munoz continued with his momentum and challenged Rueda for the lead, but the KTM rider returned to the front of the pack.
Munoz was then awarded a long lap penalty as he and Rueda continued to fight for the lead, but the IntactGP rider then crashed out of second to end his chances of race victory.
Piqueras made a mistake which saw him crash into the back of Kelso as the Australian exited the race, while Foggia had to take avoiding action and was pushed down into seventh.
Rueda went largely unchallenged for the rest of the race and took the chequered flag to win the race by a margin of 7.276s.
The final lap saw the battle for the podium heat up, with Stefano Nepa running wide as he seeked his first top-three finish, allowing Fernandez and Carpe running through.
It was Carpe who stole second place to ensure a 1-2 for the KTM Ajo team, as Fernandez completed the podium.
Nepa took fourth place, while polesitter Bertelle ended the race in fifth position.
Foggia finished sixth on his return to Moto3, while David Almansa made contact with Scott Ogden in the last corner to take seventh, as the Brit crashed out of the race.
Riccardo Rossi was eighth ahead of Joel Esteban in ninth, as Lunetta recovered from his incidents with Munoz to finish inside the top ten.
South African Ruche Moodley was 11th on his Moto3 debut, seven seconds ahead of the rejoining Piqueras in 12th.
Marcos Uriarte earned a 13th position on his debut with the MLav Racing team, with replacement rider Adrian Cruces taking 14th.
Buchanan recovered from his early incident and took the final points position in 15th.
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