PODIUM FOR MARTIN AS DIGGIA CRASHES OUT OF #AUSTRALIANGP
After the eighth pole position of the season, Jorge Martin took his seventh rostrum finish of the year today at Phillip Island – his first top-3 race result in almost two months (the previous one was at Silverstone on August 27th).
The rider of Team Del Conca Gresini Moto3 showed great speed on the Australian circuit as he battled hard at the front of the field, with the usual Moto3 slipstream battle mixing up positions in each and every lap (he once even went all the way back from first to eighth place). Despite the many tight moves of what was surely a hard-fought race – with the number 88 strenuously defending his position from Guevara before coming together first with Ramirez and then with Bastianini – Martin was still in contention for the win with six laps to go, but as the red flag was deployed due to the arrival of rain, he could do nothing but accept a third-place finish.
Fabio Di Giannantonio crashed out of the race early on after losing control of his Honda machine at turn 2, with 19 laps still to be contested. The Italian rider was already with the front-runners after starting the encounter from 11th place on the grid. A slightly wider line getting into the first left turn of the lap on a dry but still cold track led to a highside which cut his hopes for a good race short.
Today’s third place by Martin resulted in the twelfth podium finish for Team Del Conca Gresini as the Madrid-born re-takes fourth place in the championship from his team mate Di Giannantonio. Moto3 action will resume in less than five days with the penultimate round of the 2017 edition.
3rd – JORGE MARTIN #88
“Today we had the speed for something more, but the red flag prevented us from trying. It is what it is, though. I would like to congratulate Joan (Mir) for the title, he deserved it. I’m happy with this third place in what was such a difficult race with many coming together and I can’t wait to return to the track in order to give another try for the win – we’re getting really close and we still have two races left this year.”
N.C. – FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO #21
“Let’s start from the fact that I got away from the crash uninjured, which is the most important thing. It’s such a shame for how the race ended because I think we really had a great pace and we could have done well today. I made a mistake while trying to get past Martin: I was already on the outside of him and had to go even wider, so I ended up on the dirtier part of the track. I really wanted to make it to the chequered flag after last year’s DNF here, but now I need to clear my mind from today’s race and fully focus on Malaysia.”
