MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

Argentina delivered a typical Moto3 race with action from start to finish and the main protagonists were the two quickest men on the front row alongside the championship leader. Although poleman Matteo Bertelle led a good chunk of the race, he eventually missed out on the trophies in a frantic final lap, which saw Angel Piqueras come out as the most determined of the lot and take victory. An opportunistic Adrian Fernandez climbed into second place at the last corner, while Jose Antonio Rueda stays in control of the championship standings with third place. 

A decent start from the poleman got completely eclipsed by a rapid Ryusei Yamanaka, who briefly flew into the lead at turn 1, before David Almansa relegated him at turn 5. Alvaro Carpe joined Rueda and Piqueras in the early top five, with Bertelle immediately relegated to 6^th at the start. The next rider to take a shift at the front was rookie Carpe, who took advantage of a mistake from Almansa at turn 1 to have a go at leading a Moto3 race for the first time – although Almansa swiftly fixed his mistake to return to the front by the end of lap 2. The exchanges at the front did not slow down the leaders in the slightest, as a group of 11 riders seemed to stretch a bit of an advantage – including Almansa, Carpe, Rueda, Riccardo Rossi, Taiyo Furusato, Bertelle, Piqueras, Valentin Perrone, Fernandez, Stefano Nepa and Yamanaka, the latter losing some ground after the excellent start. Joel Esteban and Scott Ogden were leading the pursuit around seven tenths of a second back by lap 4, while Joel Kelso had dropped out of the top 10 all the way down to 25^th after serving his double long lap penalties.  

After a brief interruption from Piqueras on lap 4, Almansa continued to lead the way but there were plenty of moves behind the duo, which helped the sizeable pursuit bridge the gap – bringing almost all of the field back together by lap seven. David Muñoz was the only one to miss out, getting punished by his pitlane start and he was circulating around 14 seconds behind the field at that stage. 

By lap 8, Almansa was in very familiar company, as teammate Fernandez caught up with him at the front and briefly challenged him for the lead one lap later. While the Leopard riders traded places, poleman Bertelle decided it was time to rejoin the top 3 and Rueda was a consistent presence in the top 5. However, the list of contenders continued to be lengthy, with 17 riders covered by only two and a half seconds at the halfway point of proceedings. 

Case in point, Furusato was next in line to lead on lap 11 and Rueda had a go on lap 13, but Bertelle decided it was time to return to prime position for the final handful of laps and took control of the field, setting a hot pace at the front. So hot that the leading group was finally starting to reduce, with Bertelle, Rueda, Furusato, Carpe, Fernandez, Piqueras, Almansa and Lunetta extending a one second gap to the next group led by Kelso, who had impressively recovered to 8^th position. 

Although the overtakes behind him kept us well entertained, Bertelle was not interested in taking part and tried to extend a bit of a gap at the front, which got as high as half a second with two laps remaining. Furusato tried to keep the gap under control but the men behind him decided he wasn’t doing a good enough job at that and Piqueras took over as main challenger. The Spaniard immediately closed in on the leader, bringing Rueda with him, and demoted Bertelle at turn 7 on the final lap. Rueda further relegated the poleman at turn 9 and started squabbling with Piqueras until the finish line. Rueda was leading at the penultimate corner, but Piqueras took the final opportunity on offer to get ahead and crossed the finish line first. Although the victory was briefly under doubt as the Spaniard touched the green on the final lap, it seemed that the lost position was punishment enough and he soon climbed onto the top step of the podium. Fernandez took advantage of the late shenanigans between his compatriots and snuck into second place ahead of Rueda.  

Despite leading the way for a considerable amount of time, Bertelle got demoted to 5^th place on the final lap but then inherited 4^th after Furusato had to drop a position for exceeding track limits on the final lap. Almansa faded to 6^th in the closing stages, but it was still a career best for the Spaniard, ahead of Lunetta in 7^th. Next was a solid recovery to 8^th from Kelso – helped by an unfortunate last-lap crash for Alvaro Carpe, with Yamanaka and Nepa completing the top 10. 

Rueda’s podium placement helps him stay in control of the championship standings by 5 points ahead of Fernandez, with Piqueras climbing significantly into 3^rd, 12 points behind the leader. Bertelle and Carpe complete the top 5, 17 and 21 points back respectively. 

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