Moto3 qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, the fourth round of the 2018 World Championship, got underway in gorgeous sunshine on Saturday, and the drama was immediate, as Darryn Binder collided with Livio Loi on the exit of turn four in the opening minutes of the session. Binder was taken to the medical centre where he was diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder and ruled unfit to continue in this weekend’s action. Hopefully the South African can return in Le Mans. Binder’s absence means tomorrow’s Moto3 race will be the first to be run with no Red Bull Ajo KTMs.

Finally, it was Jorge Martin who took pole position, which is unsurprising considering the championship leader’s prowess over one lap. He was keen to play down its importance, though, as he knows only too well – last year Martin went from pole to tenth in the race. But Jorge’s pace this weekend has been outstanding, and it would be a huge surprise if he wasn’t in the battle for the win at the end of the race tomorrow.

Philipp Oettl took second place with a lap done early in the session, which is quite typical of the German, who celebrated his 22^nd birthday earlier in the week. The front row was rounded out by Fabio Di Giannantonio to give Gresini Racing a double front row start. Diggia, too, has had stunning pace all weekend and has looked supremely calm in the process. A first win for the Italian could be on the cards tomorrow.

Fourth place went to Niccolo Antonelli, ahead of Argentina winner Marco Bezzecchi in fifth, and Andrea Migno, on a big weekend for the Angel Nieto Team, to make it an all VR46 Rider Academy row two.

Alonso Lopez took by far, his best grid position of his Grand Prix career to date with seventh place, ahead of Enea Bastianini in eighth and the second Leopard Racing bike of Lorenzo Dalla Porta in ninth, whilst Tatsuki Suzuki heads up row four and rounds out the top ten qualifiers. Kaito Toba had his best qualifying of the season in eleventh place and Dennis Foggia put himself in a decent position for tomorrow in 12^th.

Makar Yurchenko had a good qualifying – notably at the first track of the season the World Championship has visited this season that the Kazakh rider has visited in the past. Unfortunately, at his home Grand Prix, the same cannot be said for Aron Canet, who will go from fifteenth tomorrow. It will take an almighty comeback from the Spaniard to be able to beat his main title rival, Martin, in tomorrow’s race, but in Moto3 anything is possible.

Jakub Kornfeil was sixteenth, ahead of  disappointing rides by both John McPhee in seventeenth and Marcos Ramirez in eighteenth. Ai Ogura will be disappointed, too, to have ended the session down in nineteenth place, after spending much of it within the top ten. The Japanese wildcard has shown promise this weekend, but will need to make a good first lap if he is to fight at the front in tomorrow’s race. Gabriel Rodrigo had a big crash in turn four, and could only manage twentieth, but ahead of an extremely disappointing Tony Arbolino – the Italian set an unofficial lap record at Jerez in pre-season and has looked decently quick in free practice, but was unable to convert that into a good qualifying result, and will have to fight well tomorrow to make a good result.

At one point there was half a sign that Nicolo Bulega’s fortunes might be turning, but it turned out to be another qualifying outside the top twenty for the Italian – 22^nd fastest in the end for ‘Bulegas’. Whatever issues Bulega is having at the moment, they need to be sorted quickly, because he is currently drifting further and further away from the wonderful prospect he jumped onto the GP scene as back in 2016 – at this very track!

Ayumu Sasaki, another disappointment (there seem to be a lot of those today) in twenty-third, ahead of Albert Arenas, about whom a similar thing could be said, and equally so for 25^th fastest Jaume Masia. Jeremy Alcoba will start 26^th on his Grand Prix debut tomorrow, which is not what he would have expected after spending stints of the practice sessions near the top of the times. Yet more disappointment, as Adam Norrodin starts 27^th, ahead of Livio Loi and Nakarin Atiratphuvapat.

From the perspective of many riders, today’s qualifying session has been a disappointment (I think I have written that word a record number of times for one article), but perhaps that shows just how competitive Moto3 is in 2018, more than anything else.

Featured image courtesy of Redbull Content pool

After three fly-away races to open the season, the 2018 Moto3 World Championship heads to Europe, Spain, and the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, which sits on one of the three points of the “sherry triangle”, which any European wine named and labelled as sherry must come from, as per European law. In fact, jerez translates to sherry, so I guess you could call Jerez the sherry capital of the world. Furthermore, turn six, “Dry Sack”, the hairpin at the end of the main straight and the main overtaking spot on the track, is named after a vineyard which lies just behind the run-off area on its outside. But, for this weekend Jerez is not the sherry capital of the world, or anything to do with wine – because Grand Prix motorcycles have arrived, and for three days there won’t be a corner to turn or a street to walk without something to tell you that MotoGP is in town.

This weekend will be a special one, though, as it will be the first Spanish Grand Prix to be held since the tragic death of Angel Nieto last year and, whilst there have been Grands Prix in Spain in that time, none have been the “Spanish Grand Prix”, and that is important, considering Spanish politics. Furthermore, since the 12+1-times World Champion’s passing, the circuit in Jerez has had a rebranding, so it is now named after the grandfather of Spanish motorcycle racing – the “Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto” is the track which will be lit up this weekend, and firstly by Moto3, which seems correct considering Nieto’s expertise on the smaller capacity bikes. And with that in mind, how much of a fairy-tale would it be for either Andrea Migno or Albert Arenas to pick up a podium or even a win, riding for the Angel Nieto Team? Considering Migno’s pace in the last race at COTA, where he finished fourth, and that Jerez was the circuit where Arenas picked up his first Moto3 Junior World Championship victory back in 2015, perhaps such a story is not so difficult to imagine.

Perhaps it is equally as fitting that a pair of Spaniards head the lightweight class World Championship coming into this weekend, with Jorge Martin ahead of Aron Canet in the standings by seven points. Moreover, there are positive omens for the pair coming into this weekend, with it being the track where last year Martin took his second pole position of the 2017 season, and that at which Canet became a Grand Prix winner. The 2017 race was not as smooth for Martin, who struggled to a lowly ninth place, and that is certainly something he will want to rectify for this season’s race, with the world title at stake for the Gresini Racing rider this year.

As mentioned, though, it was a victory for Canet the last time Moto3 raced in Jerez, and after a disappointing result last time out, the number 44 will very much be looking to bounce back well and reclaim the championship lead he lost after Austin.

The surprise package of 2018 so far has been Marco Bezzecchi, who has made the most of the KTM machinery underneath him for this season with the PruestelGP team to land his first GP win in Argentina, and now lie third in the championship, just twelve points off the lead. Austin was a very important race for Bezzecchi, who took the opportunity to prove that he can be fast in the dry, as well as the mixed conditions which proved so fruitful in Termas. But Jerez is a circuit where the group can be quite big for the whole race, so it will be yet another test for the number twelve, who now needs to prove he can fight at the head of the front group for the full race distance.

Dennis Foggia put in a good performance in Austin, although perhaps he did not get the result that he would have hoped for. But now, with the Championship’s return to Europe, we will be able to judge Foggia on tracks he knows, starting this weekend with Jerez. In addition to this, he is one of the few riders on the grid who have raced on Jerez’s fresh surface, which is new for this year, but was raced on in 2017 by the CEV Repsol championships, which is the umbrella under which the Moto3 Junior World Championship (of which Foggia is champion) sits. With that in mind, there could be an early advantage for the rookie, as well as for the likes of Jaume Masia, Kazuki Masaki, Alonso Lopez and Makar Yurchenko, fellow graduates from last year’s JWC. In fact, it was Lopez who won the first of the two races held in Jerez last year for the Junior World Championship, when he beat Foggia (2nd) and Masaki (3rd) to the line.

The second race last year was won by Ai Ogura, who was then a graduate from the Asia Talent Cup, which he nearly won, but narrowly lost out to in the final round when Somkiat Chantra was crowned the 2016 champion. This year, Ogura is wildcarding in Jerez for his debut Grand Prix appearance. Since his time in the ATC, he has stood out to me, I remember watching the Sepang round in 2016 and seeing how late he was on the brakes into turn one and turn four, and being quite impressed. He is definitely one that people should be keeping an eye on this weekend, like Foggia in Aragon last year. Ogura is coming into this weekend on decent form, too, as he took his first podium of the 2018 Moto3 Junior World Championship last weekend in Valencia, with a third place on the Asia Talent Team Honda.

There will be one other wildcard rider, Jeremy Alcoba, in the Estrella Galicia Junior Team. Alcoba was once the teammate of Jaume Masia before Masia was unceremoniously booted out of the Monlau programme. Since then the pair have gone their separate ways, and Alcoba has seen himself beaten to the ride Enea Bastianini vacated at the end of 2017 by one of his teammates from last year, Alonso Lopez. In addition, Alcoba had to sit back and watch his teammate, Sergio Garcia, romp to victory in the first Moto3 in Valencia last weekend. This is Jeremy’s opportunity to rekindle his chances with Monlau and Emilio Alzamora.

The return to Europe is often the point at which the championship starts to really take shape, and this season will likely be no different. This weekend we will begin to get an idea of who truly can fight for the World Championship.

Featured image courtesy of RedBull Contentpool

Three races down in the 2018 Moto2 World Championship, and it is Francesco Bagnaia who leads the pack as the paddock arrives in Jerez for the first European round of the season. A win in the opening round of the season in Qatar, where he won a last-lap battle with his flatmate Lorenzo Baldassarri, saw Pecco take the immediate lead in the championship, but a ninth place in Argentina meant that he had to bounce back well in Austin. He did that – winning the race comfortably in the end after Alex Marquez led the early laps. Thinking to Jerez, it is the place where Bagnaia took his first Grand Prix podium back in 2016 on the Aspar Mahindra, and again last year he took his first Moto2 podium at the Spanish track. With that in mind, it could take a particularly special performance to beat the number 42 this weekend, but there are plenty lining up to do just that.

Firstly, Alex Marquez. The Spaniard has had the pace to at least be on the podium in all three of the opening fly-away races. In Qatar he somewhat fulfilled that, although an overheating rear brake cost him a chance to fight for the win in the season opener. Argentina went a different way for the Marc VDS rider, though, as he made a mistake in the closing stages of the race when trying to pass Baldassarri for fourth place, and that cost him a chance at the Argentine podium – fifth in the end for the 2014 Moto3 World Champion. Last time out, in Austin, Marquez was the pre-race favourite, and early on it looked as though he was going to take his first win of the year, but it was not meant to be as Bagnaia’s tyre conservation proved superior, and Marquez was left to fight off the late charge of Miguel Oliveira for second place. But Marquez won this race last year, and you could argue that it was only so because his teammate and eventual World Champion Franco Morbidelli crashed out in the early part of the race, but equally it is possible to say that it was the pace of Marquez early on that brought the mistake out of Morbidelli, handing Marquez a comfortable victory. Will it be quite as simple for the home favourite this year? Probably not. The KTMs are stronger and in bigger numbers this year, and there are a number of Kalex riders who look strong at this early phase of the season. But do not discount Marquez, he will be there.

But perhaps this weekend will finally be the coming of the KTMs. Qatar never materialised for the Austrian marque, the two ‘factory’ riders, Oliveira and Brad Binder, had average qualifying performances, and even more average first laps, and Sam Lowes on the Swiss Innovative Investors KTM had a false neutral issue, which eventually caused him to crash midway through the race at the final corner. Argentina should have been Miguel Oliveira’s win, but the determination of Mattia Pasini proved enough to deny the Portuguese, who took his first 2018 podium in the end with third place. Once more, Austin should have seen the Portuguese flag lifted above the top spot on the rostrum, but another poor qualifying for both Oliveira and Binder, coupled with average-at-best opening laps for the pair, and a bizarre crash early on for front-running Sam Lowes meant that once again there was nothing that anyone on a KTM could do about the win. But, finally, in Austin we saw the KTMs excel where we expected, late in the race, with supreme tyre management. Oliveira’s pace once he got some open asphalt in front of him was only matched by Joan Mir when he too cleared the train that had formed from third place down to about twelfth or thirteenth. With that in mind, and with the nature of Jerez, even with the new surface, the KTM riders will once again be in with a good chance to take the victory.

Jerez is a good circuit for some of the KTM riders, too, with Brad Binder picking up his first Grand Prix win back in 2016 when he started from last, and Sam Lowes dominated the Moto2 race the same year when he was riding the Gresini Kalex. Also, it is the first race of the season to be held at a race track known by Iker Lecuona, who has shown good progress so far this season on the #27 SII KTM (he is Sam Lowes’ teammate), and yet he had not been to any of the three tracks the World Championship has so far visited in 2018. Could a first Grand Prix podium be on the cards for the young Spaniard?

Mattia Pasini has already claimed one win this season, and started it much better than one year ago. In 2017, the opening races of the season for Paso were a demonstration in how to throw away good positions in the middle of races, but in 2018 he finished fourth in Qatar, first in Argentina and seventh after a tyre choice mistake in Austin. Pasini took until Jerez last year to turn his sharp-end pace into a sharp-end result, when he finished fourth, just beaten by Oliveira at the end of the race as the KTM rider came through with, you guessed it, better rear tyre life. Pasini has no option but to eye the championship this season, and will be aiming for the win this weekend – as we saw in Argentina (and Mugello last year), when Paso can win, he is very difficult to deny.

It would also be a mistake to discount Joan Mir this weekend. He had the pace for his first podium in Moto2 in Texas, but he got caught up in an incident with Domi Aegerter on the first lap which cost him the chance ultimately. Maybe at his home race, Mir can do as Bagnaia last year, and claim his first intermediate class rostrum.

Two riders will not be in attendance this weekend: Domi Aegerter and Remy Gardner, both of whom injured themselves in training crashed – a broken hip for Domi and a pair of broken legs and an ankle for Gardner will keep the pair out for Jerez and maybe also Le Mans (in fact that is almost a certainty for Remy). Gardner will be replaced by Hector Garzo this weekend, who replaced Xavi Vierge last year in Germany, and qualified on the front row, although he crashed out of the race and has so far been out-performed (at least out-paced) by his teammate in the CEV Moto2 European Championship, Lucas Tulovic, but it is a big opportunity for Garzo on a circuit he knows. But it will be Tulovic who replaces Aegerter at Kiefer Racing, which is an opportunity similar to that of Garzo – a big one on a track he knows.

Normally, this would be the point in the season where we really start to see who can compete for the championship, because everyone knows Jerez, and also because it shares similarities with almost every other track on the calendar. However, this weekend is perhaps a little bit different for the Moto2 class, because the field is so competitive. But that just means that we should be in for a classic Moto2 battle, right?

Featured image courtesy of Redbull Contentpool