Gabriel Rodrigo scored a controversial victory in the inaugral Moto3 VirtualGP contest at Jerez as contact with then-leader Raul Fernandez caused him to crash out.
Rodrigo-who started from pole position- made a poor start and dropped through the pack on the run to Turn 1, but took advantage of a multi-rider crash that caused Deniz Oncu to go down to move back into the podium positions by the end of the opening tour.
He soon found himself second after leader Dennis Foggia disconnected from the game with internet issues, moving Fernandez into first by just 1.5 seconds over Rodrigo.
The Argentinean racer quickly reduced the leading gap and was right on the back of the KTM as the race ticked past mid-distance, but struggled to get close enough to make a pass for the lead.
He managed to get a run on Fernandez down the back straight with just a few laps remaining though, diving down the inside into the Pedrosa hairpin.
The result was a small amount of contact at the apex that was just enough to cause Fernandez to lose the front of his machine, going down and dropping to third behind Albert Arenas.
This allowed Rodrigo to have an untroubled run to the flag, eventually taking the chequered flag 4.347 seconds clear of Arenas, who managed to keep the recovering Fernandez at arms length across the closing stages to secure the position by less than a second.
Oncu managed to fight back through the field after his Turn 1 incident to take fourth ahead of Tony Arbolino-who crashed out from a podium position early on- while Niccolo Antonelli was sixth.
Alonso Lopez brought his MAX Racing Husqvarna home seventh ahead of Sergio Garcia’s Honda, the nine finishers being rounded out by Riccardo Rossi.
