2012 Le Mans Moto3 | Results

In the Moto3 race of the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France in Le Mans, it was Frenchman Louis Rossi who kept his nerve to take his first ever win in treacherous conditions in front of his home crowd.

In a race that started in extremely wet conditions, it was Blusens Avintia’s Maverick Viñales who got away best, with AirAsia-SIC-Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin also making a tremendous start from 10th into second. JHK T-Shirt Laglisse’s Efrén Vázquez, who was second on the grid, suffered mechanical issues on the out-lap and was unable to start the race.

There were crashes early on as RW Racing GP’s Brad Binder took out TT Motion Events Racing’s Niklas Ajo, which was followed up shortly after with IodaRacing Project’s Jonas Folger and local rider, Caretta Technology’s Alexis Masbou, sliding off into the gravel.

Back at the front it was Bankia Aspar Team’s Héctor Faubel and RW Racing GP’s Luis Salom that went into the lead, as Viñales dropped off the pace slightly. However the conditions continued to take their toll, as Team Italia FMI’s Romano Fenati suffered a similar fate to last race as he also lost control of his bike, putting an end to his first French race. Technomag-CIP-TSR’s Kenta Fujii repeated his morning warm-up crash, rounding out a less than ideal day for the Japanese rider.

With 18 laps to go, a five-some of Faubel, Salom, Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta’s Jakub Kornfeil, Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Miguel Oliveira and Viñales were involved in an entertaining battle for podium positions. In the following laps, further casualties of the weather were Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Danny Kent, Mahindra Racing’s Danny Webb, Ambrogio Next Racing’s Simone Grotzkyj and Caretta Technology’s Jack Miller, while Fenati’s teammate Alessandro Tonucci had to retire to the pits with a mechanical problem.

With 11 laps to go there was drama at the front as Faubel crashed out of first position, with Kornfeil crashing out of third a few seconds later, handing the first three places to Oliveira, Viñales and Rossi. Half a lap later, Salom followed suit as he slid off into the gravel in ever worsening conditions.

As a thrilling fight for fourth ensued between Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Sandro Cortese and Khairuddin, there was further turmoil at the front, as the surging Oliveira crashed out of the lead, handing the reigns to Viñales, who was being hunted down by Rossi.

This lasted for a lap only, as Viñales threw himself of his bike in the final corner, followed shortly by Khairuddin. The Malaysian managed to keep his bike going, while the race was over for the Spaniard. This left Frenchman Rossi in the lead by over 20 seconds, much to the delight of the home crowd, with Cortese and Bankia Aspar’s Alberto Moncayo in podium positions. Three laps before the end Cortese lost the front going into the first chicane, yet managed to keep the bike going to re-join in sixth, with Oliveira’s teammate Alex Rins slipping into third with San Carlo Gresini Moto3’s Niccolo Antonelli on his tail.

In the end it was Rossi who made the Le Mans grandstands cheer with delight as he took his first ever victory by a margin of 28 seconds in front of Moncayo and Rins. Antonelli could not quite challenge for the podium finishing fourth, in front of Red Bull KTM Ajo duo of Arthur Sissis and Cortese and Moto FGR’s Jasper Iwema.

2012 Le Mans Moto3 Results:

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1.	25	96	Louis ROSSI	FRA	Racing Team Germany	FTR Honda	122.5	49’12.390
2.	20	23	Alberto MONCAYO	SPA	Bankia Aspar Team	Kalex KTM	121.3	+27.348
3.	16	42	Alex RINS	SPA	Estrella Galicia 0,0	Suter Honda	121.3	+28.899
4.	13	27	Niccolò ANTONELLI	ITA	San Carlo Gresini Moto3	FTR Honda	121.1	+33.195
5.	11	61	Arthur SISSIS	AUS	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM	121.0	+36.989
6.	10	11	Sandro CORTESE	GER	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM	120.6	+45.312
7.	9	53	Jasper IWEMA	NED	Moto FGR	FGR Honda	120.1	+58.645
8.	8	89	Alan TECHER	FRA	Technomag-CIP-TSR	TSR Honda	119.8	+1’05.022
9.	7	21	Ivan MORENO	SPA	Andalucia JHK Laglisse	FTR Honda	119.7	+1’09.194
10.	6	30	Giulian PEDONE	SWI	Ambrogio Next Racing	Suter Honda	118.2	+1’45.751
11.	5	94	Jonas FOLGER	GER	IodaRacing Project	Ioda	116.0	1 Lap
12.	4	77	Marcel SCHROTTER	GER	Mahindra Racing	Mahindra	115.1	1 Lap
13.	3	86	Kevin HANUS	GER	Thomas Sabo GP Team	Honda	114.0	1 Lap
14.	2	19	Alessandro TONUCCI	ITA	Team Italia FMI	FTR Honda	109.6	2 Laps
15.	1	31	Niklas AJO	FIN	TT Motion Events Racing	KTM	100.6	4 Laps
Not Classified
		63	Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN	MAL	AirAsia-Sic-Ajo	KTM	121.4	7 Laps
		25	Maverick VIÑALES	SPA	Blusens Avintia	FTR Honda	122.8	8 Laps
		44	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	Estrella Galicia 0,0	Suter Honda	122.8	9 Laps
		39	Luis SALOM	SPA	RW Racing GP	Kalex KTM	122.3	11 Laps
		55	Hector FAUBEL	SPA	Bankia Aspar Team	Kalex KTM	122.6	12 Laps
		84	Jakub KORNFEIL	CZE	Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta	FTR Honda	122.6	12 Laps
		32	Isaac VIÑALES	SPA	Ongetta-Centro Seta	FTR Honda	119.1	12 Laps
		26	Adrian MARTIN	SPA	JHK T-Shirt Laglisse	FTR Honda	119.7	16 Laps
		8	Jack MILLER	AUS	Caretta Technology	Honda	107.4	16 Laps
		15	Simone GROTZKYJ	ITA	Ambrogio Next Racing	Suter Honda	120.2	17 Laps
		99	Danny WEBB	GBR	Mahindra Racing	Mahindra	101.9	17 Laps
		52	Danny KENT	GBR	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM	119.4	19 Laps
		5	Romano FENATI	ITA	Team Italia FMI	FTR Honda	113.6	22 Laps
		10	Alexis MASBOU	FRA	Caretta Technology	Honda	113.3	23 Laps
		51	Kenta FUJII	JPN	Technomag-CIP-TSR	TSR Honda	108.8	23 Laps
Not Starting
		41	Brad BINDER	RSA	RW Racing GP	Kalex KTM		0 Lap
		3	Luigi MORCIANO	ITA	Ioda Team Italia	Ioda		0 Lap
		7	Efren VAZQUEZ	SPA	JHK T-Shirt Laglisse	FTR Honda		0 Lap

2012 Moto3 Championship Point Standings (After four of 18 rounds):

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Nation	Points
1.	Sandro CORTESE	KTM	GER	67
2.	Maverick VIÑALES	FTR Honda	SPA	55
3.	Luis SALOM	Kalex KTM	SPA	49
4.	Romano FENATI	FTR Honda	ITA	45
5.	Alex RINS	Suter Honda	SPA	44
6.	Alberto MONCAYO	Kalex KTM	SPA	33
7.	Louis ROSSI	FTR Honda	FRA	32
8.	Niccolò ANTONELLI	FTR Honda	ITA	31
9.	Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN	KTM	MAL	29
10.	Arthur SISSIS	KTM	AUS	23
11.	Alexis MASBOU	Honda	FRA	18
12.	Danny KENT	KTM	GBR	16
13.	Alan TECHER	TSR Honda	FRA	15
14.	Hector FAUBEL	Kalex KTM	SPA	15
15.	Efren VAZQUEZ	FTR Honda	SPA	11
16.	Miguel OLIVEIRA	Suter Honda	POR	11
17.	Ivan MORENO	FTR Honda	SPA	10
18.	Jasper IWEMA	FGR Honda	NED	9
19.	Giulian PEDONE	Suter Honda	SWI	7
20.	Jakub KORNFEIL	FTR Honda	CZE	7
21.	Alessandro TONUCCI	FTR Honda	ITA	7
22.	Jonas FOLGER	Ioda	GER	5
23.	Brad BINDER	Kalex KTM	RSA	5
24.	Alex MARQUEZ	Suter Honda	SPA	5
25.	Marcel SCHROTTER	Mahindra	GER	4
26.	Niklas AJO	KTM	FIN	4
27.	Kevin HANUS	Honda	GER	3