Category: Moto3

Austria was one of those rare occasions, something you don’t often see. In this case, it was a lights-to-flag victory for Marco Bezzecchi, the second of his career, and his second of the season.

Bezzecchi capitalised on Jorge Martin’s broken radius well to be able to extend hi championship advantage to 12 points, and with eight rounds to go he is still right there in the championship fight, despite his low number of wins. The key to Bezzecchi’s success has been consistency. Admittedly, his consistency has been relative to him finishing compared with the three DNFs. However, when Bezzecchi has finished – that’s eight times so far this season – he has finished on the podium on all but one occasion, and the one time he failed to make the podium in those eight races was in Brno, where he recovered from a poor weekend to come home sixth on the Sunday. Like Luca Marini in Moto2, Bezzecchi this year has erased the importance of previous years’ form in tracks. For example, his best finish last year was fourteenth, bar a podium in Japan. On that basis, it might not be reading too much into his 19th place at the British Grand Prix last year, but maybe this will be the weekend which we look back on and determine as the point where Bezzecchi lost the 2018 Moto3 World Championship.

That said, the KTM should suit the fast Silverstone layout quite well. Should its pilots be able to negotiate the eighteen corners adequately, the power of the Austrian 250cc single should be able to keep them in the game down the long straights: Hangar and Wellington. Furthermore, with Jorge Martin still recovering from his broken radius from Brno, this could even prove to be another prime opportunity for Bezzecchi to take advantage in the championship.

Silverstone could even prove to be quite the disaster for Martin, with the bumps – supposedly made worse by the resurfacing which took place over the winter – perhaps bringing Martin’s injury renewed problems. That said, the softer Honda chassis you would expect to deal with the bumps better than the stiffer KTM frame. A softer frame might not help Martin directly, at least not with his radius, but the more rigid KTM could be significantly hindered by the surface condition, which could make Bezzecchi, not Martin, the one on a damage limitation job.

Regardless of whether any of the above proves true, Bezzecchi could be on the defensive anyway, such was Martin’s pace in Austria. The Spaniard should have recovered more since the previous race, and as such could once more be the speed benchmark this weekend. Also, unlike Bezzecchi, Martin had a great result in Silverstone last year, when he finished third, a tenth off the win. A couple of places better this year could just put the “J” of Jorge on the championship trophy.

It was Aron Canet who took the win last year, in an Estrella Galicia 1-2 as Enea Bastianini finished second. The pair will still be considering themselves in the mix for the championship, but right now they are very much minor ingredients, sitting 40 and 41 points off the championship lead respectively, and with a lot of work to do to get properly back in the fight. Canet, for a start, could do with picking up where he left off last year in Silverstone, as he is still without a win in 2018, and had a very disappointing race in Austria to boot.

Bastianini faces a different issue, that of finding speed in the first laps. Bastianini’s recovery in Austria was quite spectacular, arriving with his teammate, Lorenzo Dalla Porta, in the final two laps to fight for the podium, and eventually finishing second despite a poor start. If he can find some speed in the early stages and if things go his way, Bastianini can definitely still fight for the title, it’s just that those are two fairly large ‘ifs’.

Fabio Di Giannantonio had a nightmare in Austria, seemingly with no pace at all. He was reasonably fast in the middle of the race, but struggled a lot at the end, and a late dive on John McPhee for seventh punted the pair of them out of the top ten. It was not the way the Italian would have liked to respond to his debut Grand Prix victory, and now at a 38-point deficit to Bezzecchi, he too has work to do in the championship, and Silverstone could prove a critical round for the #21.

John McPhee, having been taken out of the top ten by Diggia in Austria following a brilliant fight back through the pack from stone last on the grid to eighth. McPhee is coming into this weekend with perhaps his best ever chance to win his home Grand Prix and after the disappointment of that Austrian race, he will be intent on returning to his pre-summer break form, when he was regularly contending for the podium between Mugello and Germany.

McPhee is not alone in riding his home Grand Prix this weekend in the lightweight class, as Tom Booth-Amos and Jake Archer are both wildcarding. Booth-Amos has had a tricky year, stepping up to the Moto3 Junior World Championship. He has had good speed, but crashes and injuries have hampered his season massively. On the positive side, he is riding this weekend as a third Leopard Racing entry, in the reigning World Champion team – it simply could not get any better for the Brit this weekend.

Archer, on the other hand, is riding his RS Racing City Lifting KTM which he races in the British Motostar Championship, which he is currently leading.

Featured image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM

Lights-to-flag victories are uncommon to say the least in Moto3, but that is precisely what Marco Bezzecchi achieved in Austria on Sunday. He made the holeshot, and apart from one moment with four laps to go where Jorge Martin overtook him, Bezzecchi was never passed. It was a supreme ride by the Italian, one well-deserving of his second ever Grand Prix victory. It also meant he extended his championship lead, of course, which now stands at twelve points. Other than that, it is difficult to say much about Bezzecchi’s ride, because it was pretty much faultless.

A poor qualifying and a worse start gave Enea Bastianini a lot of work to do – again. It is becoming a regular thing now with Bastianini, that he cannot start. Like Vinales in MotoGP, his starts have cost him a handful or two of points, and you have to say a few GP wins as well, because his late-race pace – also like Vinales – has been superlative pretty much all season. He recovered to second this time, though, keeping his championship hopes alive, although he is very distant at this stage, with eight rounds left, the deficit stands at 41 points.

By far the standout performance, though, of the 2018 Moto3 Austrian Grand Prix was that of Jorge Martin. Just eight says after he broke his radius in Brno, he qualified second on the grid behind Bezzecchi, and a day later he fought until the end to finish third in the race. It really was a superhuman effort by Martin, and even though the conditions of the race played a little into his hands, you can’t take anything away from his ride. All of his time was made in the two left handers in the middle of the lap, as he consistently took ten bike lengths out of his KTM rivals in those two corners alone. That is impressive enough, but is made even more so considering it was his left radius that is the injured one. Coming into the weekend, Martin was expecting a damage limitation job at best, but instead he rode beautifully to take yet another podium, and drop only nine points in the championship, leaving him just twelve back in the standings to Bezzecchi, who was sure to offer his hand in congratulation and admiration to Martin after the race.

Austria represented Albert Arenas’ best performance since his win in Le Mans back in May, as he took fourth place, ahead of Lorenzo Dalla Porta who bridged the gap to the leaders with Bastianini in the closing stages. The Leopard pair had been working together quite well all weekend, and it seemed almost destined that they would end up helping each other into podium contention.

Jaume Masia was in second place until the penultimate corner, where he ran slightly deep and allowed Enea Bastianini through. Jorge Martin was also able to sneak underneath and as the #5 rider tried to hang on round the outside of the #88, he also lost fourth and fifth places to Arenas and Dalla Porta respectively.

A disappointing qualifying for Ayumu Sasaki left him with a lot of work to do to be able to achieve a decent result. He achieved the work as well, coming from 23^rd on the grid to finish seventh in what might be his best World Championship ride to date.

After running with the front guys for a large portion of the race, Gabriel Rodrigo could only manage to come home in eighth place, ahead of Tony Arbolino and Aron Canet who disappointingly completed the top ten, when he really should have been fighting for the victory.

Eleventh over the line was Fabio Di Giannantonio, who had been fighting with Bastianini and Dalla Porta, but then slowed, and ended up shoving a huge late dive on John McPhee in the final corner to try and salvage seventh, but he ran them both wide. McPhee came home twelfth, but it was still an impressive ride from the Scot after qualifying stone last.

He may have been on the podium at his home race last week, but in Austria Jakub Kornfeil could only manage thirteenth, but was ahead of Philipp Oettl and Marcos Ramirez, who rounded out the points.

Kaito Toba crossed the line in sixteenth, ahead of Adam Norrodin, Tatsuki Suzuki and Darryn Binder, whilst Ai Ogura rounded out the top twenty in his fourth wildcard of the year.

Twenty-first went to Kazuki Masaki, whilst Niccolo Antonelli and Nicolo Bulega had difficult races in 22nd and 23rd respectively. Alonso Lopez also struggled, and finished down in 24th place, but ahead of Dennis Foggia who was 26th. Fellow CEV graduate, Vicente Perez was sandwiched between Lopez and Foggia in 25th spot over the line. Stefano Nepa was 27th, ahead of Nakarin Atiratphuvapat and Max Kofler who was the 28th and final finisher.

In a somewhat surprising turn of events, there was only one retirement in the Moto3 race in Austria, and it was Andrea Migno at the final corner 12 laps from the flag.

Featured image courtesy of Gold and Goose /KTM

After scoring pole position on Saturday, his first in Moto3, Jakub Kornfeil went into Sunday’s Moto3 Czech Grand Prix with hopes of delivering his home crowd a top result.

From the off, it looked as though it would be on the cards, as the most experienced rider in the lightweight class field got to turn one first, and duly scarpered, pulling a second on the field in the first lap. Kornfeil managed to hold that gap, too, for a small while, but after a couple of laps, the pack pulled their respective fingers out, and quickly closed erased the advantage the pole sitter had built in the initial stages of the race.

At this point, it looked like a normal, chaotic, Moto3 race, with all fifteen points scoring positions, plus a few more, locked together in the fight for the win.
This was good for several people, especially the likes of Marco Bezzecchi and Enea Bastianini who were looking to take advantage of Jorge Martin’s absence, but were having to do so from poor grid positions, fourteenth for Bezzecchi and tenth for Bastianini.

On the other hand, Aron Canet appeared at one stage as though he would have the pace to break the pack or at least split the group, setting several fastest laps on his early charge through the field to the front, but once he arrived at the head of the pack, he could do nothing about their attention.

It was a similar story for Fabio Di Giannantonio, who should have been on pole before all of the mistiming occurred on Saturday afternoon. The Italian was at the front for less than half a lap before he started to pull away, along with Gabriel Rodrigo, but a mistake for the number 21 Gresini rider at turn ten made all that work null and void, as he was sucked back into the group.

Further back through the field, but still in the front group, there were many changes of position, riders climbing up the rankings, only to steadily fall back again, whilst some hung around the same spot, unable to advance their standing. It was the most “Moto3” Moto3 race of the season, the group stayed together for almost the whole race, and when it split in the closing stages, there were still ten riders in victory contention.

Especially, though, it was Di Giannantonio, Kornfeil and Canet who were looking likely to take the top step, all looking for firsts of some kind: both Di Giannantonio and Kornfeil were looking for their first Moto3 World Championship victories and Canet was in search of his first of 2018.

This doesn’t always happen – especially in races as frenetic, confusing and chaotic as Moto3 group races – but on this occasion it did, the fastest riders over the course of the race being the ones fighting it out for the victory.

Finally, it was the should-have-been pole sitter, Fabio Di Giannantonio who righted the wrongs of Le Mans – where the Race Direction committed daylight robbery – and took his first (official) Moto3 World Championship victory.

Twenty-two years on from Valentino Rossi’s first Grand Prix victory in Brno, back in 1996 in the 125cc class, there are of course many comparisons to make between the nine-times World Champion and Di Giannantonio – ironically one of the Italians not associated with the VR46 empire. However, on a weekend where the shadow cast by the biggest stars of Grand Prix motorcycle racing is under particular scrutiny, it seems like a bad moment and, after all, this is Fabio’s first win, perhaps he might even deserve all of the attention for this one.

Either way, Di Giannantonio’s ride was sublime, with some stunningly tough moves on both Kornfeil and Oettl in the middle of the stadium section. His confidence was immense, and ultimately undeniable. Furthermore, Di Giannantonio spent a lot of time in the front five positions, a crucial thing if you want to fight for the victory, and a sign of a rider with a good feeling, because it means they are always able to respond, even to their fastest rivals. Now we have to see whether this victory will act like Jorge Martin’s first win, and open the floodgates for Diggia, who moved to second in the championship and just 17 points off the top spot. All of a sudden he is right back in the championship hunt, and could prove to be Martin’s biggest threat for the title.

Aron Canet was second over the line, little over a tenth behind Di Giannantonio. It was a strong ride from the Spaniard, perhaps his best of the year and his strongest challenge for victory since Qatar. Like Diggia, he stayed pretty much in the top positions for the whole race, losing out only through the strength of Di Giannantonio, and no fault of his own, something from which he can take big motivation and confidence into the next races. Also, Canet is now only 21 points back on the championship lead, and like Di Giannantonio is still right in the title fight.

Whilst a dream would have been the dream of Kornfeil going into Sunday, he had to make do with third place, whish is still far beyond what probably anyone expected him to achieve. KTM had a new frame for this weekend, a softer one to try to negate a little bit the problem they have been having in trying to get the bike turned, especially mid-corner. It seemed to work a treat for Kornfeil, as he had his best weekend of the year, and fully deserved the podium position he walked away with, and no doubt he brought a lot of smiles to the faces of the Czech fans who were out in their droves to watch Sunday’s action.

Fourth over the line was Enea Bastianini, who passed Gabriel Rodrigo on the final lap to demote the Argentine to fifth, but was too late to mount an assault on the podium. Again, it was an important points haul for Bastianini who now lies 36 points off the championship lead, and is not entirely out of contention. But if he wants to take the lightweight class crown in what will probably be his final year in Moto3 he will need to have a strong run of races in the coming rounds.

Behind fifth-placed Rodriog was the new championship leader, Marco Bezzecchi, who recovered quite well from a poor weekend to take sixth spot. It was the first race in which Bezzecchi has finished, but not inside the podium places. However, he did perhaps more than was expected after Saturday, when he qualified fourteenth, and gave KTM the championship lead going into the Austrian manufacturer’s home race in a weeks’ time, a round where he will hope to return to the podium, and maybe even win at a track which on paper should suit his bike and style quite well.

Seventh place went to Marcos Ramirez, who continued his good form from Sachsenring; Philipp Oettl was eighth, ahead of Albert Arenas and Lorenzo Dalla Porta who rounded out the top ten.

Niccolo Antonelli had one of his best races in recent times, but in the end could only manage eleventh, ahead of compatriot and fellow VR46 academy rider, Dennis Foggia who was running strongly all race but dropped back in the final two laps. Thirteenth over the line was Kazuki Masaki, ahead of Tatsuki Suzuki and Tony Arbolino who was the final points scorer.

Nakarin Atiratphuvapat took sixteenth spot, whilst Jaume Masia was seventeenth, ahead of Alonso Lopez, Nicolo Bulega and Andrea Migno who completed the top twenty. Vicente Perez took twenty-first place, in front of Ayumu Sasaki, Darryn Binder and Filip Salac.

There were only four retirements: Kaito Toba, John McPhee, Stefano Nepa and Adam Norrodin.

The Moto3 World Championship is back from its ‘summer break’, three weeks after Jorge Martin took victory (again) in Sachsenring. And, of course, it is Martin who is leading the championship coming into the second half of the season, and with Brno being a circuit where the rider can make so much difference, Martin will be the favourite for this weekend.

But, can anyone challenge Martin? Well, possibly. Marco Bezzecchi has been the surprise of 2018, perhaps across all classes. From fighting for the last point last year to fighting for the title this, is some progression and although he hasn’t won since Argentina (his only career win), he is still right in this title fight. Also, in Sachsenring Bezzecchi continued his quite impressive statistic of this year which is that he has not finished a race and then not climbed the steps to the podium. The only races where he has not picked up a cup are Qatar, Le Mans and Assen all three being DNFs. He has been the best KTM rider this year, and it’s showing. Perhaps the biggest surprise now is that Moto2 teams aren’t – at least very publicly – bashing his door down and demanding his signature. Maybe now Martin is signed up for Red Bull KTM Ajo in Moto2 for next year, the attention will start to come the way of Bezzecchi.

Aron Canet is the only rider who made the podium in Brno last year to be in the Moto3 field this year, but the first half of the season has not gone to plan for the Spaniard. He was supposed to challenge for the championship, but like almost everyone else who was supposed to be fighting for the title things haven’t gone his way, and some mistakes have crept in too. Only three podiums in the first nine races of 2018 mean Canet comes into the second half of the year with much to improve upon. Thirty-eight points is not an insurmountable gap that Aron suffers to the top of the championship, but – like with Marquez in MotoGP – the critical part is that Jorge Martin is plain stronger at the moment, not just compared to Canet but compared to the whole field.

Sachsenring was a disaster for Enea Bastianini, as he crashed out and probably said goodbye to the final slither of an opportunity that he had for the championship. That said, his form has been quite good recently, and whilst his crash came in a bad moment for the championship, Bastianini could be well in the fight for the podium this weekend.

 

Marcos Ramirez was back on form in Sachsenring as he took fourth place, his best result since his most recent podium in Le Mans at round five. It was only seventh in the wet Czech GP last year for Marcos, but with a decent result to keep him upbeat over the summer he could be in the front fight this weekend.
John McPhee has come back to form in recent races. The first half of the season proved to be one of mixed fortune for John, as he suffered from a lack of testing preseason. He finally got to test post-race in Mugello, and since then has fought for the podium in every race, finally making it in Germany despite his crew chief being absent. It will be interesting to see whether the, albeit short, summer break will stall his momentum at all.

Last year’s Czech GP was the Grand Prix debut for Dennis Foggia, and he scored two points. Unfortunately for Dennis, things have not progressed much this year. He had several impressive wildcards last year, but the reigning Junior World Champion has struggled this season in his first full-time campaign in the World Championship. Combined with the disastrous season suffered by his teammate, Nicolo Bulega, who has only scored seven points this year, you have to wonder whether there is something happening inside the team to make both riders suffer so much, because the riders have talent and speed but right now they are not comfortable at all. Maybe the summer break has provided them with the reset they need ahead of the second half of the season.

Of course, the weather could play a part this weekend, with the forecast in Brno never being completely reliable, and the skies are usually up for a bit of a drizzle. Rain might be the only thing that can stop the race-winning train that is Jorge Martin this weekend, and with that in mind his championship rivals will be hoping the clouds prepare for the lightweight class battle on Sunday morning.

Featured Image courtesy of hondanews.eu

Jorge Martin is a special rider. He began the 2018 Dutch TT weekend with a big crash in FP2 on Friday, which saw him have to use an altered right boot for the rest of the weekend. But that did not prevent him from taking his fifteenth pole position in Grand Prix racing, and from that pole (a Moto3 record breaker) he went on to take his fourth win of 2018. Not only that, but once again he displayed pace in the early part of the race which was enough to split the pack.

Finally, it was a five-rider group which fought for the win, with Martin, Enea Bastianini, Marco Bezzecchi, Aron Canet and John McPhee. All riders showed strength at some point in the race, they all looked like they could win at some point, but it was Martin who timed his bolt to perfection in the final stages to put himself out of reach of the chasing riders. It is possible to say that we have never seen in Moto3, a pace advantage of one rider like the one Martin has over the rest of the 2018 crop and his speed warrants a title, but he needs to match it with consistency if he wants to make that a reality.

Aron Canet took second place from Enea Bastianini in the final chicane, which represented the end to a podium drought stretching back to Argentina for the Spaniard. He lies now twenty four points behind the top of the championship, which is now occupied by Jorge Martin, but if he can continue this podium form there is still a championship opportunity for the number 44.

Enea Bastianini took the final podium position, to move himself twenty-one points away from the lead of the championship. It was the first time Bastianini has taken consecutive podiums since Misano and Aragon 2016 and finally it looks like he has found the form most people expected him to have from the word go. I guess you could say the same thing about Canet but in last year’s championship winning team and in his fifth season in the World Championship it is perhaps more expected of Bastianini to perform at the front week in, week out.

Fourth place went to Jaume Masia, his best result of the season, who led the chasing pack across the line ahead of Jakub Kornfeil, Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Darryn Binder who also enjoyed his best 2018 finish with the KTM Ajo team. Eighth place went to Gabriel Rodrigo, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio who did his championship hopes few favours with such a result. The top ten was rounded out by Marcos Ramirez.

Nicolo Bulega has transformed his first front row start since Sachsenring last season, to a typically poor start and first lap, and finally ended up in eleventh place, although at least he finally has some points on the board. It has to be said that the ability of Martin to split the pack did Bulega no favours in this race, but you would have thought that after nearly two-and-a-half seasons of starting badly he and the Sky Racing Team VR46 would have been able to rectify the problem. As it is, work still needs to be done, but anyway it is good to see Bulega back on the pace. Sachsenring was his best race last season, so hopefully the Italian can continue this form at the circuit on 15th of july.

It was Bulega’s teammate, Dennis Foggia, who took twelfth place. It was perhaps Foggia’s best weekend of the season, and at some points in the race he was one of the fastest riders on track. Unfortunately for Foggia, the twelve place grid penalty he got for riding slowly cost him any chance of a top ten, but the signs are positive for the Italian with a view to the future.

Tatstuki Suzuki was thirteenth, ahead of Le Mans winner, Albert Arenas, and Niccolo Antonelli, who had a tough time all weekend, rounded out the points.

Sixteenth place went to Kaito Toba, ahead of Tony Arbolino, Philipp Oettl, Ayumu Sasaki and Kazuki Masaki who completed to top twenty. Twenty first went to Adam Norrodin, ahead of Nakarin Atiratphuvapat, wildcard Ai Ogura, Livio Loi, Alonso Lopez, Andrea Migno, Makar Yurchenko’s replacement Stefano Nepa, and finally Ryan van der Lagemaat who was the only rider to finish a lap down.

Marco Bezzecchi and John McPhee both crashed out in the final stages of the race. They were the only retirements and the only KTM riders in the front group, which perhaps says something about the motorcycle, most notably that it wears the tyres and especially the front tyre, at least from observation, as both riders seemed to be struggling in the twisty sections of Assen, the Austrian motor keeping them in contention. The crash for Bezzecchi was a particularly important one, as it ensured he gave up the championship lead to Jorge Martin. A slightly twisted positive for Bezzecchi, though, is that he has still not finished a race outside of the top three. Furthermore, Bezzecchi has proven in the first races this year that he can fight for the title, his consistency proving his biggest strength. With that in mind, Marco has to ensure that this is his final unforced error of this season, otherwise he has no chance to beat Martin’s outright speed.

Featured image courtesy of HondaNews.eu