Moto3 Losail: Vinales wins the first race of the season ahead of the excellent Fenati

Maverick Vinales takes the first race of the 2012 world championship and of the new Moto3 category, which from this year replaces the eighth liters which retired at the end of 2011. The Spaniard from Team Blusens Avintia, after a less than perfect start, went on to win in front to an amazing Romano Fenati, Rookie of Team Italia FMI, who immediately went to the podium in his debut in the world championship. The European champion and Italian 125 GP vice-champion was a great protagonist and went on the podium together with Sandro Cortese.

Race report

First race of the season for the newly formed Moto3 class, a category which from this year replaces the eighth-litre classes, which went into "retirement" at the end of 2011 and which saw Nico Terol triumph. In pole position at Losail, in Qatar there is Sandro Cortese, riding the KTM of Team Red Bull Ajo. The German rider will be joined by the Spaniard Maverick Vinales, riding the FTR Honda of Team Avintia and the Frenchman Louis Rossi, also riding a Honda FTR, but of the Racing Team Germany. First of the Italian riders is Romano Fenati, sixth with the Honda of Team Italia. Problems for Luigi Morciano's Ioda but he manages to line up. The traffic lights go out, the fastest at the start is Romano Fenati, driver of the Italia team.

The driver from the Marche region is followed by Sissis, Cortese, Rossi, Vinales, Khairuddin, Oliveira, Salom and Ajo. Fenati takes the lead, trying to take advantage of the excellent start while behind them they battle to move up. Meanwhile, the other rider of the Italia team, Alessandro Tonucci, falls after being touched by another rider.

The first lap ends with Fenati in the lead, followed by Sissis, Cortese, Vinales, Rossi, Salom, Oliveira, Khairuddin, Ajo and Binder while Niccolò Antonelli with the Team Gresini Honda is fourteenth.

Vinales is going very well and after passing Cortese he sets out to chase Fenati with the Honda of Team Italia FMI. Meanwhile, Antonelli is twelfth while Morciano is twenty-seventh. Behind Fenati and Vinales it's a battle between Cortese and Salom who are in turn followed by Oliveira, Sissis and Rossi.

Vinales takes the lead, taking advantage of the slipstream and a more powerful engine on the straight to pass Fenati. However, the European champion and Italian 125 GP vice-champion does not give up and remains in the wake of the Spaniard from Team Blusens Avintia. The two have accumulated an advantage of over five seconds on Salom who is still at loggerheads with pole man Cortese and Oliveira.

Halfway through the race Vinales and Fenati continue to battle with the Team Italia rider who doesn't give up an inch and actually takes the lead. The two continue to extend their lead, at the moment their advantage over Cortese exceeds seven seconds, an abyss! Unless there are any shocks, the victory will be up to these two drivers. Meanwhile, Luigi Morciano withdraws with the Ioda. Behind them there are seven fighting for the podium, given that the group made up of Cortese, Salom, Oliveira, Khairuddin, Sissis, Rossi and kent has regrouped and is putting on a show with overtaking. Niccolò Antonelli meanwhile is eleventh with the Honda of Team Gresini.

Meanwhile, Vinales regains the lead with six laps remaining in the first race of the 2012 world championship in the new Moto3 category. He tries to extend the Team Blusens Avintia rider who puts tenths after tenths on Fenati who however tries not to give up on the Spaniard to put pressure on him until the end. His gap is now 1.402, but the advantage over third is abysmal, over ten seconds.

The last lap begins, Vinales now has the green light and goes on to win the first race of the new Moto3 category, which from this year replaces the eighth liters. On the podium a great Romano Fenati, Honda Team Italia and Sandro Cortese. Niccolò Antonelli on the Team Gresini Honda finishes seventeenth.