Cortese wins as Sissis stars at home

Moto3 world champion Sandro Cortese sealed his fifth win of the season in the Australian round at Phillip Island, as his Ajo team-mate Arthur Sissis wowed his home crowd in third.

With Cortese having wrapped up the series’ inaugural title at Sepang a week ago, the pressure was off at Phillip Island.

When the lead battle was broken up by a spate of ride-through penalties for false starts – with frontrunners Jonas Folger, Luis Salom and Louis Rossi among those transgressing – Cortese and Monlau’s Miguel Oliveira managed to break away.

Oliveira enjoyed a brief spell in the lead, but Cortese had matters in hand. He hit the front for good with three laps to go and duly clinched another victory, as Oliveira secured a career-best runner-up spot.

For the ecstatic crowd, the real hero was Sissis.

The young Australian clung on at the front of an incredible battle for third position to take his maiden world championship podium in the best possible place.

Sissis fended off rivals Alex Rins, Danny Kent, Romano Fenati, Alessandro Tonucci and Efren Vazquez by just fractions of a second at the line after a frantic last few laps.

Maverick Vinales had been in the thick of this battle on his return to the series but crashed seven laps from home.

Sepang podium finisher Zulfahmi Khairuddin led for a few laps early on before drifting back to the tail of the podium dice and then falling when a mechanical problem struck his Ajo KTM.

Results – 23 laps:
 
Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                   Time/Gap
  1.  Sandro Cortese       Ajo KTM                   38m20.014s
  2.  Miguel Oliveira      Monlau Suter-Honda          + 2.108s
  3.  Arthur Sissis        Ajo KTM                     + 5.031s
  4.  Alex Rins            Monlau Suter-Honda          + 5.084s
  5.  Danny Kent           Ajo KTM                     + 5.107s
  6.  Romano Fenati        Italia FMI FTR-Honda        + 5.109s
  7.  Alessandro Tonucci   Italia FMI FTR-Honda        + 5.374s
  8.  Efren Vazquez        Laglisse FTR-Honda          + 5.894s
  9.  Alex Marquez         Ambrogio Suter-Honda       + 30.783s
 10.  Isaac Vinales        Ongetta FTR-Honda          + 30.911s
 11.  Jonas Folger         Aspar Kalex-KTM            + 32.803s
 12.  Adrian Martin        Laglisse FTR-Honda         + 33.302s
 13.  Jakub Kornfeil       Ongetta FTR-Honda          + 33.479s
 14.  Brad Binder          RW Kalex-KTM               + 34.102s
 15.  Luis Salom           RW Kalex-KTM               + 43.749s
 16.  Alan Techer          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda    + 43.827s
 17.  Alberto Moncayo      Laglisse FTR-Honda         + 49.394s
 18.  Armando Pontone      Ioda Italia              + 1m06.551s
 19.  John McPhee          Caretta KRP-Honda        + 1m06.588s
 20.  Louis Rossi          Germany FTR-Honda        + 1m08.801s
 21.  Jack Miller          Caretta Honda            + 1m08.908s
 22.  Kenta Fujii          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda  + 1m10.030s
 23.  Giulian Pedone       Ambrogio Suter-Honda     + 1m10.411s
 24.  Lincoln Gilding      K1 Honda                 + 1m33.510s
 25.  Sam Clarke           Fastline Honda               + 1 lap
 
Retirements:
 
     Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Ajo KTM                      19 laps
      Toni Finsterbusch    Germany Honda                16 laps
      Maverick Vinales     Avintia FTR-Honda            14 laps
      Niklas Ajo           TT Motion KTM                11 laps
      Luca Amato           Aspar Kalex-KTM               8 laps
      Riccardo Moretti     Mahindra                       1 lap
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/cortese-wins-as-sissis-stars-at-home

Nico Hülkenberg Denny Hulme James Hunt Jim Hurtubise Gus Hutchison