Category: Moto3

The Moto3 races in the Circuit of the Americas are often different from the rest. The circuit is so long, technical and demanding of both rider and bike that usually over race distance a few riders will be able to distance themselves from the rest of the field.

From pole position, Niccolo Antonelli (SIC58 Squadra Corse) failed to make the holeshot, as that honour went to reigning Junior World Champion Raul Fernandez (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team). However, it was not long before the Italian was back by his Spanish rival, and trying to pull away.

Unfortunately for Antonelli, though, the slipstream in the early laps was enough to keep the pack together, and he couldn’t get away. Instead, a typical Moto3 group fight broke out, with Darryn Binder (CIP Green Power) handing out the big blows, which was not to everyone’s liking.

When Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Squadra Corse) hit the front, he started to pull away. He achieved a gap of around one second, which was set on after by Aron Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team). Suzuki had endured a tough start to the weekend; his flight was delayed, so he only arrived at the circuit on Friday morning on four hours’ sleep. When he eventually crashed, just after Andrea Migno (Bester Capital Dubai) had taken second place away from Canet, Suzuki was clearly upset, and understandably so.

That gave Migno the lead, and brought Canet closer to him – the Spaniard keen to not allow his rival any time to breathe. By this point the pair had worked themselves a gap to the duelling Hondas of Gabriel Rodrigo (Kommerling Gresini Moto3) and Alonso Lopez (Estrella Galicia 0,0), who also had a gap behind to a group of five riders which included Jaume Masia (Bester Capita Dubai), Niccolo Antonelli, Raul Fernandez and Celestino Vietti (Sky Racing Team VR46).

By the penultimate lap, Masia had closed on the two Hondas ahead, bringing the rest of his ten-wheeler with him, whilst at the same time Rodrigo and Lopez had caught Canet and Migno. This prompted Canet to make his move in turn one with two laps to go. Canet was able to fashion a small gap for himself through the first sector which meant that no one was close enough to pass him down the long back straight. Instead, it was Rodrigo who slid through on Migno for second.

Canet, at the start of the final lap, once more created that gap between himself and his pursuers which put him almost out of range on the straight. However, a strong performance from Migno on the brakes in turn eleven saw him pass Rodrigo and close to within strong slipstream range of Canet, and the Italian was through before the braking zone.

In fact, it was this which cost Migno the race. Canet was then able to switch back to the inside, and force Migno out wide, reclaiming the lead and costing the Italian time in the process, which had the #16 defending from Rodrigo in turn thirteen. Migno’s defence forced Rodrigo wide, which allowed Masia through, and the Spaniard then passed his Bester Capital Dubai teammate, Migno, in the next corner. It was not a great move, though, by the Argentina winner, and it created an unrecoverable gap to Canet, letting the #44 off the hook for his first win of the season, his first with the Max Racing Team and KTM.

It was a smart race from Canet, pushing when he needed to, but allowing others to lead the way when he was not under pressure. It was the opposite performance to the one he produced in 2017, when he dominated the weekend but crashed in the restarted race, this time he was not only fast, but also calm, and most importantly he was intelligent.

The win also moved Canet into the joint lead of the championship, sharing it with Jaume Masia, the Spanish pair each having forty-five points.

Masia’s race was a fantastic comeback. At one point he was down in sixteenth place, seemingly out of contention. However, before long he was up in the top ten, and then closing down the podium fight, which became the leading fight almost as he arrived at it. Having been taken out of the opening race of the season, winning round two and then finishing a close second at the third round are results which have identified the young Spaniard as a championship contender.

Andrea Migno ensured it was Bester Capital Dubai who occupied both lower spots on the podium, despite his best attempts to throw it away in the final corner. It was Migno’s best race since his win in Mugello back in 2017, and perhaps even better. He led the race seemingly with ease, setting a fast pace that he was comfortable with. Perhaps the move away from the VR46 squad has been just what Migno needed to re-ignite his career.

Only 0.027 seconds back of Migno was Gabriel Rodrigo, who just missed out on his first podium for Gresini, finishing fourth, less than a tenth ahead of pole sitter Niccolo Antonelli. Antonelli made a good comeback after falling back in the middle of the race to finish fifth. Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers) who, like Masia, was way back in the pack at the beginning, but fought through, and arrived in the group with the eventual runner-up that brought him into the fight for the win, the Italian finally coming home in sixth.

Seventh place and top rookie went to Raul Fernandez, who had perhaps his most impressive performance in grand prix racing, as he stayed in the top ten for pretty much the whole race, and in the end was in the battle for the win.

Despite looking good for a podium three laps from the flag, the hard fighting that arrived in the final two laps saw Alonso Lopez shuffled back to eighth, ahead of another impressive rookie in the shape of Celestino Vietti who came home in ninth.

Tenth place went to Dennis Foggia (Sky Racing Team VR46) who cut through the pack with his teammate, Vietti, but couldn’t hold the #13’s pace. Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia) finished eleventh, ahead of Marcos Ramirez (Leopard Racing), Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing), John McPhee (Petronas SRT) and Darryn Binder who ended up rounding out the points.

Kazuki Masaki (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) finished sixteenth, ahead of Vicente Perez (Reale Avintia Arizona 77), Makar Yurchenko (CIP Green Power), Sergio Garcia (Estrella Galicia 0,0), Filip Salac (Redox PruestelGP) and Riccardo Rossi (Kommerling Gresini Moto3) who was the twenty-first and final finisher.

There were a whole host of retirements, the first of which was Can Oncu (Red Bull KTM Ajo). Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) was the championship leader coming into this race but a crash in turn eighteen leaves him fourteen points down on Masia and Canet at the top now. Jakub Kornfeil (Redox PruestelGP) and Romano Fenati (VNE Snipers) were the next to go down, Kornfeil getting caught up in Fenati crashing in turn eighteen – the Italian crashed as he passed the Czech, leaving him nowhere to go. Tom Booth-Amos (CIP Green Power) was the next to retire, before the aforementioned Tatsuki Suzuki; then it was Aleix Viu (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team) and finally Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas SRT) retired two laps from the flag.

Featured image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM

It has been two weeks since the Argentinian round of the 2019 Moto3 World Championship, the second round of the series, and now the paddock heads to Texas for the Grand Prix of the Americas.

After the first two rounds of the season it is Kaito Toba (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) who leads the championship on an incredibly low thirty-one points. Despite winning the opening round in Qatar, Argentina did not go quite so well for the Japanese – he was caught up in the incident with John McPhee (Petronas SRT) and Alonso Lopez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and dropped out of the leading group, so coming away with a tenth place was quite positive for the #27. The Circuit of the Americas, however, has not been a happy hunting ground for Toba in the past, and indeed he has not managed to finish a race in Austin in either of his two attempts.

Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing) has had a similar start to the season as Toba. The Italian finished second to Toba in Qatar, but was forced wide in turn five on the final lap in Argentina, finishing only seventh. Like Toba, Dalla Porta does not boast a fantastic record in COTA, and has never scored a point in Texas – something he will need to change this weekend after a low-scoring Argentina.

The third placed rider in Qatar, Aron Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team), also had a poor showing in Termas two weeks ago, finishing in a lowly twelfth. Now lying sixth in the championship, Canet needs a result in Texas to recover some ground in the standings. Fortunately for the Spaniard, COTA has proven to be a strong circuit for him in the past, as he dominated the 2017 Grand Prix of the Americas before a crash in the restarted race cost him what would have been his maiden win.

With all of the problems for Qatar’s podium finishers in Argentina, Jaume Masia’s (Bester Capital Dubai) victory was enough to see him rocket to third in the standings despite not scoring in Losail. Like Toba and Dalla Porta, Masia has never scored a point in Texas, finishing only twenty-sixth in his debut at the track last year.

Joining Masia on the podium in Argentina were Darryn Binder (CIP Green Power) and Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers). It was Binder’s second podium, and the first in the career of Arbolino, and both will be hoping to continue in that sort of form this weekend, on what is the most technically demanding track on the calendar.

There is only one rider in the Moto3 field who has won at Texas: Romano Fenati (VNE Snipers). The Italian won in 2016, in what was KTM’s third and latest win at the track, and then again in 2017, as he benefitted from Canet’s fall. Fenati needs a result, too. After looking very strong in preseason, the Italian has amassed just seven points from the first two races, after going 9-16 in rounds one and two.

Featured image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM

The first qualifying session for the Argentinian Moto3 Grand Prix got underway in overcast conditions which characterised the weekend.

From Q1, Andrea Migno (Bester Capital Dubai), Aron Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team), Vicente Perez (Reale Avintia Arizona 77) and Jakub Kornfeil (PruestelGP) joined the top fourteen riders from the three free practice sessions for the Q2 pole position shootout.

Disappointed to miss out on that Q2 shootout for Moto3 would have been Can Oncu (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Dennis Foggia (Sky Racing Team VR46), in particular, but a crash late on prevented Oncu from securing his place whilst his rivals continued to improve and Foggia took a late trip through pit lane – presumably to shake competitors from his tail – which cost him a vital slipstream on the main straight as well as through turn six, which is flat out on a Moto3 bike.

For the first five minutes of Q2, nobody left pit lane. When people did, they came straight back into the pits, not setting a time. The format of Moto3 qualifying may have changed but the games remain, and they are just as frustrating.

As frustrating as it was, the lack of activity in the first ten minutes of Moto3 Q2 meant that the final five were quite spectacular, with several riders vying for pole position in their final three or four laps.

It mostly came down to track position, and who was around. Jaume Masia (Bester Capital Dubai) almost fell foul of this, after having the final sector of his third-last lap baulked by traffic, before which he had been looking good for pole. However, the Spaniard regrouped for the next lap and set provisional pole, which two minutes later became Masia’s first pole position in Moto3. After such a difficult preseason for the Spanish youngster, with injuries which were affecting him even in Qatar three weeks ago, this result will be important for his confidence, especially for Sunday’s race where a first podium in the World Championship appears a real possibility.

Aron Canet took second place on the grid, in similar fashion to John McPhee (Petronas SRT) in Qatar who went through Q1 to qualify on the second row. Despite the speed of Masia in Q2, Canet remains a strong favourite for the win tomorrow, and will be looking to put an end to his dry run which stretches back to Silverstone 2017.

Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers) qualified on pole position last season in Termas, so it was not a surprise to see him round out the front row of the grid, and ensure some Honda presence at the very head of the field. Despite his good record from last year on Saturday, the Italian will not be hoping for a repeat of his Sunday performance of twelve months ago, as it then saw him mistakenly fit slick tyres, which ultimately cost him any chance of a good result.

Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing) will be content with his fourth place ahead of Sunday’s race, and will hope to be able to back up his round one podium from there. Joining the Italian on the second row are compatriots Niccolo Antonelli (Sic58 Squadra Corse) and Andrea Migno.

A fourth consecutive Italian lines up seventh, in the shape of VNE Snipers’ Romano Fenati, who had a typically average qualifying, joining round one victor Kaito Toba (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) and Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas SRT) on row three.

Raul Fernandez (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team) impressively rounded out the top ten in qualifying on his first visit to Termas, and will be joined on the fourth row by a disappointed John McPhee and Leopard Racing’s Marcos Ramirez.

Home rider Gabriel Rodrigo (Kommerling Gresini Racing), Tatsuki Suzuki (Sic58 Squadra Corse) and Ai Ogura (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) will make up fifth row, whilst row six will consist of Jakub Kornfeil, Alonso Lopez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Vicente Perez who was the slowest of the Q2 runners in eighteenth.

 

Featured Image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM

The opening round of the Moto3 World Championship in Qatar is the only twilight race of the year, and the 2019 edition of the race was spectacular in vistas, but even more so in on-track action.

Aron Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) made the holeshot, with fellow front row starters Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Kaito Toba (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) close in tow. When Albert Arenas (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team) made his way into fourth at the end of the first lap, there started to become a gap between the top four and the pack behind. This gap was soon closed, and a nineteen-rider front group proceeded to battle it out for the podium.

Over the course of the race it became clear that the Honda of Lorenzo Dalla Porta was particularly quick, as was that of Kaito Toba. In comparison, Aron Canet’s KTM could not live with the two riders who started alongside him on the front row when it came to the front straight.

As such, Canet’s time was completely made in the corners, his laps spent recovering positions he had lost on the straight, before losing them all again between turn sixteen and turn one.

After a mistake in qualifying that prevented him from having a final push at the end of Q2 for pole position, Romano Fenati (Snipers Team) made quite a poor start from the fourth row, and slipped towards the back of the top fifteen. Eventually, though, he started to make his way through the pack and towards the front, with tremendously adventurous lines, characteristic of his previous season in the lightweight class back in 2017, as he seemed to have the ability to ride around the outside of almost anyone at almost any time. Fenati also had the ability to carry seemingly significantly more corner speed than any of his rivals, especially those riding KTMs, and could turn tighter than even any of his Honda stablemates. He looked nailed on for the win, until he received a track limits warning with three laps to go, and proceeded to, by mistake, take the long lap penalty, putting him out of contention.

With Canet written off from the race win by virtue of his lack of straight line speed, the victory candidates were left at three: Kaito Toba, Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Marcos Ramirez (Leopard Racing) who had come from twentieth on the grid to fight for the win.

In the end, Dalla Porta entered the final corner first, and looked good for the win – such was his straight line speed – but Toba lined up turn sixteen beautifully to carry substantially more exit speed from the final corner than Dalla Porta. A small dose of slipstream from the Leopard rider ahead was then enough to take Toba into the lead, and despite tucking back into the Japanese’s slipstream, there was nothing Dalla Porta could do to stop Toba taking his first win in grand prix racing, as well as becoming the first Japanese rider to win a Moto3 grand prix.

Whilst it was ultimately defeat for Dalla Porta, second place was a good way for the Italian to begin his campaign, in which he will aim to fight for the championship. From this weekend he can take many positives, and if he can match the speed he showed in the opening race with the consistency of 2018, he is sure to be a formidable title contender.

That will not have gone unnoticed by Aron Canet, neither will his straight line disadvantage. Nonetheless, the Spaniard came home in third place, again a strong way to start his season, and will hope to build on that in the races to come. However, the speed of the Hondas will be a concern for him – when the straights are as long as they are on Moto3 bikes, straight line speed is critical. If you can’t stay in the slipstream of your rivals, you can find yourself defenceless.

Marcos Ramirez’s impressive fightback ended with fourth place – a good way for him to mark his return to the team with which he fought for the Moto3 Junior World Championship in 2016, a title which he ironically lost to his teammate, Dalla Porta.

Celestino Vietti (Sky Racing Team VR46) looked strong for the whole race, never slipping outside the top ten, and eventually finishing in fifth, where he had spent most of the race. Like Canet, Vietti had to battle with bikes which were faster than him in the straight, but he didn’t have the same speed in the corners to fight back. Nonetheless, fifth place is an impressive ride from Vietti, in his first race as a full-time GP rider.

Albert Arenas, like Vietti, had looked strong all race, and came home in sixth place ahead of his Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team teammate Raul Fernandez, who was also making his debut as a full-time grand prix rider, and impressed with seventh place – again, on an apparently under-powered motorcycle.

Niccolo Antonelli (Sic 58 Squadra Corse) had looked on for a podium for a lot of the race, but fell back towards the end and finally came home in eighth place, ahead of Fenati who only partially recovered after his apparently self-enforced long-lap penalty. Jakub Kornfeil (PruestelGP) rounded out the top ten.

Ai Ogura (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) was another impressive full-time debutant in eleventh place, and stayed amongst the leading group for the whole race, coming home just ahead of Alonso Lopez (EG 0,0 Monlau Competition), John McPhee (Petronas SRT), Andrea Migno (Bester Capital Dubai) and Gabriel Rodrigo (Gresini Racing) who completed the points.

There were several fallers. The first came on the first lap, with Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas SRT) and Jaume Masia (Bester Capital Dubai) getting caught up with Tom Booth-Amos (CIP Green Power) and Makar Yurchenko (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race). The latter two continued to finish last and second-last respectively.

Darryn Binder (CIP Green Power) crashed with seventeen laps to go in the second of the fast rights towards the end of the lap. The South African was joined on the side lines a couple of laps later when Dennis Foggia (Sky Racing Team VR46) was tagged by Rodrigo, fell and collected Kazuki Masaki (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) and Tatsuki Suzuki (Sic 58 Squadra Corse) on the way. Masaki continued to finish nineteenth, but Foggia and Suzuki retired on the spot.

Featured Image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM

Saturday in Losail for the first round of the Moto3 World Championship saw for the first time a segmented qualifying for the lightweight class. It would see the top fourteen riders from the combined free practice times compete in Q2 along with the four fastest riders from Q1.

The four fastest riders from Q1 were Celestino Vietti (Sky Racing Team VR46), John McPhee (Petronas SRT), Ai Ogura (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) and Raul Fernandez (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team). These would therefore fight it out for pole position in the second fifteen minute qualifying session, along with the fourteen fastest riders from the combined free practice times.
Although the new qualifying format for Moto3 was intended to reduce the amount of bunching on track, and to stop as many people waiting for a tow, the majority of the field – in both sessions – found themselves occupying the same 200 metres of track.

In the melee, Aron Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) managed to put together a strong lap, at the end of which he found a useful tow from Vicente Perez (Arizona Reale Avintia) with which he managed to set a time good enough for pole position. It was the perfect start to his partnership with Max Biaggi’s collaborative effort with Peter Oettl, and moreover the perfect way to start what he will hope to be a championship challenge.

Second fastest was Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing), just under two tenths shy of Canet’s time. The Italian has been largely under the radar for most of preseason and throughout the winter. However, let’s not forget that he took the first podium of his career in Qatar twelve months ago.

Completing the front row was Kaito Toba (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia), for his first ever front row start in grand prix racing, and has had a good weekend so will be hoping to fight for the podium tomorrow.

John McPhee took fourth place from Q2 to start from the head of the second row, after a difficult start to the weekend (hence he went through Q1) the Scot seems to have turned it around, and has a good shot at making a good result tomorrow.

Niccolo Antonelli (Sic58 Squadra Corse) has been fast this weekend, despite falling twice (the first crash being the first of any grand prix rider this year). Fifth place gives him a good starting position for tomorrow, and he will hope to capitalise on that on a track at which he won in 2016.

Rounding out the second row for the first round of the season is Albert Arenas (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team).

Seventh fastest in Q2 was Tony Arbolino (Snipers Team), and he will be joined on the front row by Celestino Vietti in his first race as a full time grand prix rider and Vicente Perez – who is in a similar situation to Vietti.

The top ten was rounded out by reigning Moto3 Junior World Champion Raul Fernandez after he passed through Q1. He will be joined on the fourth row of the grid tomorrow by Romano Fenati (Snipers Team) – who should have been on the front two rows at least, but for a miscalculation in sending him out for the final run meant he didn’t get a flying lap in at the end – and the injured Gabriel Rodrigo (Gresini Racing).

Kazuki Masaki (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) took thirteenth place, ahead (provisionally) of Jakub Kornfeil (PruestelGP) who was seen blocking Kaito Toba mid-session. Ai Ogura impressively rounded out the fifth row on his debut as a full-time grand prix rider.

Dennis Foggia (Sky Racing Team VR46) will be disappointed with sixteenth place in the opening qualifying session of the season, as will Andrea Migno (Bester Capital Dubai) who was up inside the top ten before his lap was deleted. 2018 Valencia GP winner Can Oncu (Red Bull KTM Ajo) rounded out the sixth row.

Featured image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM

The 2019 Moto3 World Championship gets underway this weekend at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar.

Since the inauguration of Moto3 in 2012, the Qatar round of the World Championship has been won five times by Honda riders, including the last four years. In fact, the only rider to have won in Qatar on this year’s Moto3 grid is Niccolo Antonelli (Sic58 Squadra Corse), who both won Qatar on a Honda back in 2016 and is riding a Honda this year.

Honda have had a lot of work to do over the winter to make up the ground they lost last year to KTM in the horsepower department. The KTMs last year had a particular habit of steaming past Hondas on the straights, especially after the French Grand Prix at round five and particularly in the hands of championship contender Marco Bezzecchi for PruestelGP. Reports from the riders would suggest that this work has been successful, John McPhee (Petronas SRT) commenting in Jerez that it is possible to use the low-down power of the Honda now to power out of a corner if you didn’t carry the corner speed.

Despite their 2018 speed deficit, Jorge Martin (with Gresini) ensured, that the Moto3 World Championship will be Honda’s to defend in 2019. As well as having made some progress with the bike over the winter, Honda have also got a very strong rider roster.

Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing) perhaps comes into this season as the championship favourite, after a strong and consistent 2018 which also featured his debut win at home – sort of – in Misano. Dalla Porta remains with the Leopard team for this year, and also stays aboard a Honda, and a strong preseason could mark him out as a favourite among favourites.

It will not be easy for Dalla Porta in 2019, he will have a lot of competition, and possibly primarily in the shape of Romano Fenati (Snipers Team). After a disgraced 2018, Fenati managed to get himself a ride back at the squad that fired him after Misano last year. Keen for redemption after last year, Fenati has wintered very quickly, ending the Qatar test last week two tenths clear of the field, lapping largely on his own. It seems Fenati has no intention to make his current stay in Moto3 as long as his last, and is by far the favourite for this weekend’s victory.

But Moto3 is never that simple and, even Dalla Porta aside, there will plenty of opposition from Fenati to overcome, starting with his own teammate, Tony Arbolino (Snipers Team), who was second fastest at the Qatar test last weekend and is coming off the back of an inconsistent 2018. Perhaps remaining in the same team for consecutive seasons will be a help for Arbolino, and after throwing away a chance at a first ever GP win last year in Valencia, the Italian will be keen to put that right at the first opportunity.

The main KTM challenge this year looks as though it will be coming from Sterilgarda Max Racing Team’s Aron Canet, who moves away from Honda and Emilio Alzamora after a number of years in that camp. Canet has been impressive throughout the winter – not spectacularly fast, but enough for consideration. Canet finished second in Qatar last season, but is without a win since 2017. Now into his fourth season in the Moto3 World Championship, it is time for Canet to make his mark.

Of course, the speed of Canet – riding for Max Biaggi’s team – will have come much to the annoyance of the Sky Racing Team VR46. Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi, of course, shared a famous rivalry in the early-to-mid-2000s, and that rivalry will in some ways be reignited this year with both of them in the Moto3 World Championship as team owners. Rossi’s Sky VR46 squad has been winless since it picked up KTM’s only win of 2017 with Andrea Migno in Mugello, and coming into this season would have been hoping for Dennis Foggia to be fighting for wins regularly and to make a charge for the title. In testing, however, Foggia has not shown that pace, and it looks like it is going to take a fairly large turnaround in fortunes for Rossi’s squad to end that winless run this season, and especially this weekend.

Featured Image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM