Category: Moto3

The 2018 Moto3 World Championship arrives in Barcelona this weekend for round seven of this season, and to the old circuit layout – the two fast right handers ending the lap.

Coming into this seventh round, Marco Bezzecchi still holds a slim lead in the standings after his impressive start to the season for PruestelGP. Second place in Mugello was the best he could manage with the KTM on the limit with the front tyre for almost the whole race, in almost every corner. For sure, the KTM lost a lot of time in the corners, and Bezzecchi was the only rider who could manage that to be able to fight for the win, but the straight line speed advantage that appeared for the Austrian bikes in Le Mans was apparent once more, and that kept the Italian in the game. He would have been disappointed to miss out by so little – just 0.019 seconds in the end – in his home GP, but, really, did even he expect to be leading the World Championship after six rounds? It was only fourteenth for Bezzecchi in Catalunya last year, but of course he was on the CIP Mahindra and as in every other round it is difficult to read too much into Bezzecchi’s result last year. We will see what the number 12 has this weekend during Free practice.

It was Jorge Martin who took his third win of the season in Mugello. Both he and his teammate, Fabio Di Giannantonio, looked fabulous all weekend long and clearly had far superior pace in the main body of the lap compared to Bezzecchi. In fact, being able to hold off the number 12 KTM in the final run to the line was impressive in itself, and ultimately Martin deserved the victory. He probably also deserves to be leading the World Championship at the moment but the DNFs of entirely not his making in both Jerez and Le Mans have prevented that from happening. Jorge is surely the favourite this weekend, too; he lost out in the final corners to who else, but to Joan Mir in last season’s race[at Barcelona], the move of the eventual World Champion also costing Martin a place to Fenati. But what Martin showed in Mugello was that, even with the slipstream, he can break the pack. Sure, Diggia and Bez caught him, but only because they had pace to match him, not because of slipstream. If Martin can split the pack like he did in Mugello again in Montmelo this weekend, it will likely be the same trio from the Italian Grand Prix, joined by maybe a few others, who contest the win, and that will work perfectly for the number 88 who would be able then to exercise his pace better than in a twenty-bike group more typical of Moto3. With his Red Bull KTM Moto2 deal in his back pocket for next year, when he will replace Miguel Oliveira, Martin will be looking to confirm that the Austrian factory took the right decision in picking him by making a good weekend in Montmelo.

So Martin is the favourite, but after being denied his first win in Le Mans for absurd penalties and being, for the third time in three years, denied by less than one tenth from victory in his home GP, Fabio Di Giannantonio will be desperate to win this weekend. This could end in one of two ways: it could power him to victory, or it could leave him in the gravel. It was only seventh place last year for Fabio in Barcelona, so for the championship – in which he is only eight points adrift of the top spot – it will be important for him to better that result. In fact, considering the consistency of both Martin and Bezzecchi, it will probably be important for Diggia to find the podium,  and he is well capable of that.

Of course, in Spain, all the Spanish riders will want to do well, especially Aron Canet, who since his crash in Jerez which took three others with him has been quite under the radar. He was impressive in France but due to his grid penalty it only got him as far as eighth place, and in Mugello he was almost transparent again, only managing eleventh place. He is not out of this championship, sitting in fourth place, only 22 points away from Bezzecchi, but his results need to pick up quickly before the championship becomes out of reach for him.

In wildcard news, a common thread in Spanish races, Raul Fernandez will be in attendance for the Angel Nieto Team this weekend. In the week following the Barcelona round of the Moto3 Junior World Championship last weekend, there has been much said about Andreas Perez in light of his tragic accident last week, and there is no doubt that every rider will be thinking of Andreas this weekend, but perhaps especially Fernandez, who shared the grid of the CEV Repsol with him at the beginning of this season, so expect a passionate display from Raul, who first came to the attention of Grands Prix back in 2016 at Valencia where he made his debut in the World Championship. A difficult season last year with Aspar on the Mahindra kept him away from GPs, but now he is back atop the Junior World Championship standings and will be hoping to be in and around the fastest riders this weekend.

Featured image courtesy of hondanews.eu

The French Moto3 Grand Prix, round five of the 2018 World Championship, should have been all about Aron Canet – how quick could he get through the field and could he get to the leaders. The Spaniard was forced to start the race from last position on the grid following the crash he caused in Jerez and his incident with Makar Yurchenko in Argentina.

But instead Race Direction decided that it was they, who would cause the controversy in this race, and take all attention from the racing. They did this by enforcing penalties, ridiculous ones! They gave each rider who cut either the first chicane at turns three and four or the second one at turns nine and ten a penalty which, in their opinion, was equal to the time the rider had gained.

Jakub Kornfeil was the first to rack up a time penalty (of 1.3s), for going wide at turn nine and cutting turn ten when Jorge Martin came across him in the braking zone, which, to some extent, left Kornfeil with little solution but to go off. Kornfeil then cut the chicane at turns three and four for a similar thing, but no penalty was given for this incident. It was then Niccolo Antonelli’s turn to get penalised for cutting turns three and four, and he got 1.8 seconds compared to Kornfeil’s 1.3 seconds.

Then, critically for the race[result], it was Fabio Di Giannantonio who got three seconds added to his race time for cutting turns nine and ten. The most important thing to point out is that none of the riders gained any positions or time, nor did they hold onto positions unfairly, by cutting the track. The penalty for Di Giannantonio ultimately cost him the race, after he passed Marco Bezzecchi at the final corner on the final lap, and it was entirely unfair. Di Giannantonio gained no time, if anything he lost time, in cutting the chicane – he made sure of it. And if he did gain time it was not anything like three seconds. To give a comparison, Valentino Rossi went off track last year in Austin when Johann Zarco put an aggressive move on him at turn three in Texas and gained three tenths in that sector. Rossi was penalised three tenths, which was fair. The three seconds incurred by Di Giannantonio, the 1.8 incurred by Antonelli (who actually lost several positions when he ran off) and the 1.3 given to Kornfeil are not only unjust but also inconsistent with the precedent the Race Direction had already set in Texas last year. This means that a new precedent has been set, and it is a dangerous one. If something like this happened in MotoGP to, for example, Valentino Rossi, there would be complete uproar, and rightly so. Race Direction need to sort this issue out quickly, before it gets messy.

Thankfully, though, Race Direction did not steal the whole show. Jakub Kornfeil had the save of all saves, when he launched the PruestelGP KTM from the single “whoop” that Enea Bastianini’s crashed Leopard Honda had created in front of him, and somehow landed it in the gravel. Marc Marquez declared it the best save ever, and if Marc says so, on this topic it is true. Congratulations, Mr. Kornfeil, the only person to successfully ride MX on a GP bike.

After all the penalties had been handed out and Fabio Di Giannantonio had had a little, but well deserved cry, it was Albert Arenas who instead took his first Grand Prix victory. He did not deserve it, really, but either way it was a great moment for the Spaniard, although he will probably still want to win a race by crossing the line first. Anyway, it was nice to see the Angel Nieto name back on the top step of the podium.

The Nieto name was on step two, as well, thanks to Andrea Migno on the second of the Angel Nieto Team KTMs who followed his teammate home for second. Temporarily, Nicco Antonelli was third, but his penalty gave that position to Marcos Ramirez who took his second podium of the season after his third place in Jerez. Ramirez’ third place also gave KTM their second consecutive podium lockout. Back in Qatar, I likened this season, in prospect, to 2013, with three riders dominating. That has not been precisely true, but two KTM podium lockouts in two races? Now that is 2013.

Fabio Di Giannantonio ended up fourth, despite crossing the finish line first. He was eight tenths short of his first victory, but he and his team have maintained that he is the moral winner of the 2018 French Grand Prix. Somehow, the feeling is that in two weeks’ time in Mugello for the Italian Grand Prix, the Roman will have his first winner’s trophy, and probably the first of many.

Niccolo Antonelli’s penalty dropped him to fifth place, just in front of Jakub Kornfeil who returned from the French motorcycle show-jumping championships just in time to cross the line in sixth place. Tony Arbolino was seventh, ahead of Aron Canet who did well to recover so many positions without being penalised for running on, Tatsuki Suzuki and Jaume Masia who rounded out the top ten.

Darryn Binder took his best finish of the year with eleventh place, ahead of John McPhee who also made a decent recovery after he, like Canet, started on the back row. Makar Yurchenko was thirteenth ahead of Dennis Foggia who took his first points of the season, and Jerez winner Philipp Oettl, who has seemingly been unable to build on his debut win and in Le Mans completed the points finishers.

Ayumu Sasaki was sixteenth, in front of Kaito Toba, Kazuki Masaki, who himself had an unbelievable save on lap one at the first chicane, Alonso Lopez, Nakarin Atiratphuvapat and Livio Loi who was 21st and the last finisher.

Gabriel Rodrigo, Nicolo Bulega, Lorenzo Dalla Porta, Enea Bastianini, Adam Norrodin, Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi were the retirements.

Bezzecchi and Martin retired together on the final corner of the final lap. Di Giannantonio passed Bezzecchi on the inside, Bezzecchi tried to cut underneath to pass him back in the second part of the final corner, cracked the throttle and threw himself over the top. Martin had nowhere to go and was taken out for the second weekend in a row. Bezzecchi apologised after, at least on social media anyway, but anyway Jorge Martin knows enough about racing to know that Bezzecchi did nothing anyone else wouldn’t do in his position. They are both still well in the championship hunt, Bezzecchi is still leading the championship on 63 points, four clear of Diggia, seven clear of Canet, whilst Martin is eight back of the championship lead.

Featured image courtesy of Philip Platzer / KTM Media Library

Moto3 qualifying got underway in atypically warm conditions in Le Mans for the fourth round of the 2018 World Championship, but as had been the case across all three classes over the course of the weekend, it was crashes aplenty.

Avoiding falling was the rider who finally set pole position, Jorge Martin. The Spaniard is still carrying an injury this weekend, and perhaps not had the pace you might expect from him, but that did not stop him taking yet another pole position. With the way the first section of corners work at Le Mans, and with the number of Moto3 bikes entering them on lap one tomorrow, being on the front row is key to keep out of trouble, which is precisely what Martin will be hoping to do tomorrow considering his injury, and his championship ambitions – he can’t afford another DNF after Jerez.

It was a surprise in second place, with the Czech veteran, Jakub Kornfeil, setting the time fast enough for the middle spot in the front row. Row one was rounded out by the number 33 of Enea Bastianini, who had a monster high side in the early stages of the session at Musée, but got himself and the bike back in relatively good states, and his front row start tomorrow is just reward for his efforts. He will be hoping for his first win of 2018 tomorrow.

Marcos Ramirez built on his podium at home in Jerez two weeks ago to take fourth on the grid, and it looks like perhaps the Spaniard is beginning to return to form after his difficult start to the season. Fifth place on the grid tomorrow will be filled by Albert Arenas, who is sporting a Mike Wazowski helmet design on his HJC, who sponsor the French Grand Prix hence the one-off designs for their riders this weekend. Championship leader, Marco Bezzecchi, was another who crashed, but managed to recover to take sixth place, as he looks for his fourth successive podium in sunday’s race.

Row three will be headed up by Niccolo Antonelli, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio who has been tipped by his teammate Jorge Martin to be the Spaniard’s main challenger for the world title. Andrea Migno will be off the back of the third row.

Aron Canet set the tenth fastest time, but his part in the major crash at Jerez, combined with his incident with Makar Yurchenko, got him a back-of-the grid start for this race, so his qualifying position was irrelevant today.

So, it will be Lorenzo Dalla Porta who will stat tenth tomorrow, ahead of Philipp Oettl (also sporting a Mike Wazowski helmet) and Darryn Binder. Tony Arbolino will head up row five, in front of Tatsuki Suzuki and Nicolo Bulega, who seems to have made a step forward this weekend, building on progress which was apparently made at the private Aragon test last week.

Kazuki Masaki, last year’s Red Bull Rookies Champion, will start sixteenth, ahead of Alonso Lopez and Makar Yurchenko; whilst Jaume Masia will front row seven in nineteenth, ahead of Livio Loi and Dennis Foggia. Gabriel Rodrigo will start 22nd, ahead of Nakarin Atiratphuvapat. John McPhee set the 25th fastest time (he had a crash at the end which cost him a chance at a final attempt), which would have been good enough for 24th after Canet’s penalty, but John himself got a penalty for causing the crash on lap one at Jerez two weeks ago, which took out three other riders. That 6-place penalty would have put him last, but Canet’s penalty means the Scot will start second-last, in 27th. With penalities added this means Ayumu Sasaki will start from the back of row eight in 24th. Kaito Toba will start 25th, Adam Norrodin 26th, and then finally the two penalised riders, McPhee and Canet.

Probably the biggest thing to watch durring the race will be the speed at which Canet can come through the pack. If he keeps it clean, considering the closeness of the times this weekend, it is not impossible for the Spaniard to make the podium.

Featured Image courtesy of Redbull content pool

The Moto3 World Championship rolls into Le Mans this weekend for round five of the 2018 season, off the back of a dramatic fourth round two weeks ago in Jerez, which saw a new winner in the shape of Philipp Oettl as well as a pileup courtesy of Aron Canet.

It was Oettl who stole the headlines, though; as his win brought him and his father, Peter, into the same group as Stefan and Helmut Bradl, Graziano and Valentino Rossi and more, as a father-son pairing to have both won a Grand Prix. It was clearly particularly special for Peter, whose celebrations after the race were quite spectacular and who has run the team for which Philipp rides since he began in the World Championship back in 2013. We saw Brad Binder claim his first Grand Prix win in Jerez back in 2016, and go on to win the championship in the same year, will we see the same for Oettl?

There are 28 points between the German and the new; and first time championship leader, who is also riding a KTM this season. That is Marco Bezzecchi, the latest surprise from the VR46 Riders Academy, and what a start to the season he has had. A fall in the first race when he was battling for the podium now seems a long time ago; since then he has won in Argentina, finished third in Texas and then second in Spain. In two out of four races this season he has been the top KTM (Argentina, Texas) and Oettl is the closest KTM rider to him in the championship. In many respects, Bezzecchi is this season what Francesco Bagnaia was to Mahindra back in 2016 – the only differences lie in Bez’s apparent ability to fight for this year’s Moto3 World Championship title, and the KTM’s allowance for him to do so, although there is little doubt that the KTM is disadvantaged compared to the Honda. But three podiums in the last three races show that, whilst the Bezzecchi-KTM partnership might not be the outright fastest one out there. It is, at the moment, the most consistent, and consistency wins championships: Alzamora in 125cc, 1998, Hayden in MotoGP, 2006, Vinales in Moto3, 2013, are all prime examples. The KTM has always been strong on the brakes, with good stability, and such a trait is a helpful one at Le Mans with many stop-start sections, so maybe this weekend Bezzecchi will be able to get onto the podium once more, and maybe Oettl can join him there.

Furthermore, the weather in Le Mans is, certainly, uncertain. Whilst the forecast has been showing, for the most part, a completely dry weekend with decent temperatures, is would not be unlike Le Mans to throw some rain into the equation this weekend, and we know from last year as well as Argentina that Bezzecchi excels in low-grip and rain conditions – maybe the French weather will present an opportunity for the Italian.

Jorge Martin comes into this weekend lying second in the championship, but also injured, after the aforementioned Canet-caused mayhem in Spain. It is a wrist injury for Martin, but he is hoping to be fit for this weekend, and really it would be a surprise if he was not able to compete, but there is always the chance that, like Leon Camier at Imola last weekend, he is unable. It was a crash for Martin in Le Mans last year, with six laps to go, and it was the same the year before when he crashed on the final lap. So, perhaps not a great circuit for Martin, and with the injury he is carrying, this weekend could present an opportunity for his championship rivals to make an advantage to the Spaniard.

One such rival could be the person who caused Jorge’s injury, Aron Canet, who lies fifteen points off the lead, in the World Championship and seven from Martin. Canet fought for the podium in 2016, his rookie year, but nearly took his teammate out in the penultimate corner, trying to pass for third. As it was, they both stayed on, but considering that, in combination with Argentina FP1 and Jerez two weeks ago, a reputation is building for Canet, and not one he would like. Hopefully, this weekend his speed will be the main talking point, not his potential danger to the rest of the field.

Canet did take a podium last year, though, although a long way behind the victor, Joan Mir. The other rider on the podium, in third place, was Fabio Di Giannantonio, who will be coming into this weekend looking to make up for the missed opportunity in Spain, where he had the pace to win the race all weekend, but was unable to use it on Sunday, and ended up down the order in seventh place after he was caught in the second group due to a mistake in Dry Sack in the mid-portion of the race.

Enea Bastianini has a crucial round this weekend, too, after a 50% crash rate in the first four races. Admittedly, his second DNF of the season was entirely not his fault, as he was caught up in the incident with Canet, but the crash in Qatar looks like it is really hurting the Italian at this moment, as he is thirty points away from the top spot in the standings. Even if he could not challenge Martin or Canet in Qatar, he would have taken sixteen points for sure, which would put him just fourteen points off at this point in the season. At the end of the year we always look at the ‘ifs and buts’, and this seems like a particularly popular one for people to speak about with respect to the Moto3 class in November. But there are many races to go, and perhaps this will be the one where “La Bestia” turns his season around.

The Moto3 World Championship race at Jerez was set to take place under gorgeous Spanish sun, on the track bearing the name of Spanish motorcycle racing’s original hero, Angel Nieto. It was expected that Jorge Martin and Fabio Di Giannantonio would dominate proceedings, after showing superior pace over the course of the weekend, but of course all of the Spanish riders were eager to impress and make a good result at the ‘true’ Spanish Grand Prix. The action, like in qualifying, was immediate, as John McPhee torpedoed down the inside of turn two on the first lap, colliding with Lorenzo Dalla Porta, who sat up and hit Dennis Foggia. The three went down and did not continue. McPhee looked fairly unamused with what had happened, and the same can be said for Dalla Porta. All three riders got away okay, and will be looking to get back towards the front end of the field in Le Mans.

In the first few laps, it looked as though there could be a group of eight breaking away at the front, but a mistake from Fabio Di Giannantonio at Dry Sack dropped him through the pack, and he knitted the groups back together, to have an eighteen bike leading group.

Eventually, there was a split. With about ten laps to go, six riders began to get away at the front, mostly due to the robust defending of Kaito Toba who had fought his way up to seventh in an impressive ride. The Japanese rider was unwilling to let track position go, and the hard battling cost him and the people behind him a lot of time to the leaders.

But, finally, this battle would prove to be the battle for the final podium spot, when Aron Canet lost control of the #44 Estrella Galicia Honda NSF250R into Dry Sack corner, clattered into title rival Jorge Martin, who – unintentionally – ran into Tony Arbolino and Enea Bastianini, meaning the front group of six was now just two.

After the race, Martin said that he became angrier when he realised it was Canet. He implied that his increased anger was fuelled by his compatriot’s incident with Makar Yurchenko in Argentina, which Jorge claimed he believes was an intentional move by Canet. In fairness to Canet, after the race he seemed genuinely remorseful. He wanted to apologise to all the riders involved, but Martin would not let him apologise in person, or at least he would not accept Canet’s apology. This is a shame because it follows the precedent set by Valentino Rossi in Argentina: Marc Marquez went to apologise, but Rossi wouldn’t let him (despite himself going to apologise, famously, after taking out Casey Stoner at Jerez, 2011). In my opinion, Martin is following the example of Rossi, set in Argentina, when he (through Uccio) told Marquez to go away when Marc tried to apologise; this is the wrong example to follow. Martin should be using Rossi’s approach in Jerez 2011, and allowed Canet to apologise, as Stoner did on that occasion – everyone should be allowed the opportunity to apologise.

The incident left him in the lead and Marco Bezzecchi, who was at the back of the front group when the incident happened, out front, but with a one-second-or-more gap between them with four laps to go. Bezzecchi started immediately closing on Oettl, but ultimately was unable to make a pass one the German for the win. So, it was Philipp Oettl who took his first Grand Prix victory ahead of Bezzecchi, the German joining his father in ‘Grand Prix winner’ status. Oettl has taken his time to get there, I remember when he was in the podium fight riding a Kalex KTM in 2013 at Aragon, in a year where, unless you were riding a full KTM, you had no chance. To put it into perspective, in 2013, Oettl’s first year, Marc Marquez was a MotoGP rookie; the BBC were still broadcasting MotoGP; CRT was still a thing; Jonathan Rea was just ‘a very good Honda rider’ and Valentino Rossi was nearing the end of his career. A lot has changed since Oettl came onto the scene, and now it will be interesting to see whether he is able to build on this performance and result going forward into the rest of the 2018 season.

The second place of Marco Bezzecchi was very important, because thanks to the crashes of Martin, Canet and Bastianini, Bez is now the championship leader of the Moto3 World Championship. The media will continue to assert that Bezzcchi has lucked into his championship advantage, along with his podium today, but the fact remains that Bezzecchi is leading the championship and that is only the case, because he deserves to be. Had Martin have chosen a wet tyre in Argentina, he would probably be leading the championship. Will Bezzecchi be leading after Le Mans? Well, we know from last season and from Argentina that he likes the wet conditions, and we also know that Le Mans is not immune to some precipitation, but, realistically, it is only a matter of time before the likes of Canet, Bastianini and especially Martin begin to asset their authority on the championship.

The third-place battle that was left after Canet’s error was a lively one, but an intriguing one. Almost all of the people who looked to be in the running for the final podium spot seemed to be unlikely ones: Jaume Masia, Kaito Toba, Alonso Lopez and Marcos Ramirez were all in there. Di Giannantonio was too, but the former four seemed the more likely. Finally, it was Lopez who crossed the line third. Unfortunately for the Spanish rookie, he was forced to give up a place due to a penalty being applied after the race for exceeding track limits on the final lap. This was pretty heart-breaking for Lopez, in his first ever Spanish Grand Prix, but the penalty meant that the true paddock local boy, Marcos Ramirez, got the podium for the Bester Capital Dubai KTM team – his first of 2018, a year in which he has struggled to get on with the new KTM.

Lopez’ penalty dropped him to fourth place, which is still a stunning result considering that he was at one stage in the gravel on the outside of the Angel Nieto corner.  His first Moto 3 podium is surely not far away. Masia came across the line in fifth place, which again was a particularly stunning result considering he qualified down in 25th place. Tatsuki Suzuki took sixth on the SIC58 Squdra Corse, ahead of Di Giannantonio who will be disappointed with seventh place, Jakub Kornfeil in eighth, Toba who ended up ninth and Gabriel Rodrigo who had an anonymous race to round out the top ten.

Niccolo Antonelli looked strong early on, but in the end could only manage eleventh, ahead of Ayumu Sasaki who made good progress from a dismal qualifying, Andrea Migno who would have hoped for more in his team’s home event but after his qualifying penalty which landed him 18th on the grid it was always going to be a difficult task for the Italian. Makar Yurchenko took fourteenth place, and it was the wildcard Ai Ogura who took his first Grand Prix point on debut in fifteenth.

Adam Norrodin came over the line in sixteenth place, ahead of Nicolo Bulega in seventeenth – which in a somewhat saddening way is an improvement for the Italian. Livio Loi was eighteenth, Nakarin Atiratphuvapat nineteenth and Kazuki Masaki was the twentieth and final finisher on the RBA KTM.

There were many retirements. On lap one, the aforementioned waywardness of John McPhee claimed the races of Dalla Porta and Foggia, and Jeremy Alcoba, the second wildcard, got caught up in that incident too. Albert Arenas retired nine laps from the flag, and five laps later Canet cleaned out Martin, Arbolino and Bastianini.

Next, the Moto3 World Championship heads to France, and Le Mans, for round four of the 2018 World Championship, and the championship favourites will be keen to bounce back from their pointless weekends in Jerez.

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

Jorge Martin was sat on his tenth career pole position ahead of the 2018 Moto3 Grand Prix of the Americas, and alongside him on the front row were Aron Canet and John McPhee. Tatsuki Suzuki, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Enea Bastianini made up row two, whilst row three was a Japanese sandwich made with Italian bread with Dennis Foggia and Marco Bezzecchi lined up either side of Ayumu Sasaki for the seventeen-lap race which lay ahead.

It was a good start for Martin, who was one of two riders to run the harder rear tyre, the other being Bastianini. But, as is typical for Austin, there was a pileup at turn one, with Adam Norrodin, Kaito Toba, Kazuki Masaki and Jaume Masia all coming to blows.

Martin was away well, though, ad that was a worry for the opposition because the Spaniard had looked to have supreme pace all weekend. But Di Giannantonio had found his way into second position as the field made its way through the snake, and was turning on the magnets trying to catch his teammate ahead. In behind the Italian was Aron Canet, the rookie Dennis Foggia, Suzuki, Sasaki, Bastianini and Bezzecchi with a small gap behind the Italian back to Phillip Oettl.

Over the next laps, there was the usual early sparring that you get in Moto3, and a modestly-sized, for Moto3, front group of about twelve riders. There were surprises, though, as the likes of Foggia took a stint at the front – people who might not have been expected to be fighting right at the very front before the race. Foggia spent a lot of time in the early laps in the front four in the beginning of the race, which made his swift demise in the final seven or so laps all the more confusing. But it was a strong race for the Moto3 Junior World Champion, who should have even more confidence when the paddock heads back to Europe.

With ten laps to go, the race began to take shape, as the two Gresini bikes, led by the #21 of Di Giannantonio had found their way to the front with Bezzecchi in tow. Despite their best efforts, they could not escape the pack behind thanks to the series of long straights at COTA and the importance of slipstream in the lightweight class.

But what was missing was Aron Canet, who was struggling, battling with the likes of Andrea Migno for seventh, and not making any headway. It was a confusing situation, because he had been quite strong all through the weekend, but now was seemingly unable to put himself in a position from which he might be able to challenge in the last laps.

With seven laps to go the front group had definitely split. There was now a front group of five, with Bezzecchi, Martin, Diggia, Bastianini and Oettl; and then behind there was Livio Loi who had come from way back on the grid in 26th place to now be trying to bridge the gap between the front group and the chasers, and he was bringing Migno and Jakub Kornfeil with him.

With five to go the front group of five had almost become a sixteen-wheeler thanks to Migno, but more importantly Jorge Martin, with that harder rear tyre, had hit the front. Bastianini had seen the danger, but he was back in sixth place when it arrived. The Beast made quick work of Oettl and Bezzecchi, but already Martin was creating the gap. Enea made the move on Di Giannantonio with four laps to go at turn seven in the middle of the esses, but already the gap had grown to nearly a second.

Over the next three laps, Bastianini showed that he had the pace to match Martin, but could go no faster. Martin finally took the win because he made the move at the right time, and Bastianini could not challenge him because he was not in the right place to react. It is this apparent lack of race craft which has hindered Enea in the past and, even though he is clearly one of the fastest riders this season, it could once again cost him the championship if he doesn’t address it.

Either way it was a stunning piece of timing for Martin to escape when he did, and he made perfect use of his hard rear tyre. As mentioned, he was not the absolute fastest rider on the track; other riders could match his pace. but he had the superior race craft and the superior intelligence to make the most of what pace he did have, and it is that which gave him such a comfortable win.

The second place for Enea Bastianini was the first of his season, and also his first in Texas. With that in mind, you would have to say his championship challenge has now started, typically for Enea a little later than everyone else. Jerez will be an important round for the Italian, because he needs really to beat Martin to close the gap in the championship, and also announce himself as a contender.

Third place went to the Argentinian GP winner, Marco Bezzecchi, who did not look so spectacular this weekend, and in fact many people discounted him, implying that Argentina was a one-off due to the conditions. But Bez proved them wrong in the race, with a strong pace throughout which was only matched by one other KTM rider in the shape of Philipp Oettl who we know from past performances likes the Texan track a lot. In a track which for a lot of the weekend he had struggled, Bezzecchi still found the podium, and this could be the sign that he might be able to fight for this championship.

The podium was won for Bezzecchi in the final corner, where Fabio Di Giannantonio dive-bombed him, as you might expect in the final corner of a race. In doing so, Diggia ran wide, and that cost him fourth to Andrea Migno on the exit. Migno had produced some stellar pace in the second half of the race, and fought hard at the end to achieve his best result of the season. Had Migno qualified better, he may well have been able to beat Bezzecchi to the final podium spot.

Finally, it seems Andrea is starting to click with the Angel Nieto Team, who have their home race up next in Jerez, at the circuit which has been named after the late Spanish motorcycling legend after whom Jorge ‘Aspar’ Martinez named his team between the 2017 and 2018 seasons. A good result at such a venue would not go uncelebrated, that is for sure.

Di Giannantonio ended up fifth, but only after fighting for the lead for most of the race, that will come as a disappointment to the Italian. Sixth place went to Philipp Oettl who had by far his best result of the season and the same can be said for Jakub Kornfeil, the Czech rider finishing in seventh place. Aron Canet was disappointing in eighth, especially after the incredible pace he had in Austin last year, but the result evened out the championship a little bit, after Martin’s eleventh place in Argentina. Tatsuki Suzuki took ninth place, and in the end. Despite a promising pace towards the end of the race, Livio Loi could only manage tenth, but from third-last on the grid, that can be considered quite an achievement for the Reale Avintia Academy rider.

Ayumu Sasaki had a huge moment on the exit of the final corner early on in the race when he was in the leading group, but in the end could only muster the pace for eleventh place ahead of Gabriel Rodrigo, Darryn Binder – who was really quick when the circuit was slippery – and the KTM pairing of John McPhee, who had a difficult race from the front row and Albert Arenas who rounded out the points.

Dennis Foggia managed to somehow, lose 20 seconds in five laps, indicating either a destroyed tyre, maybe the rider running out of energy or just a lack of rhythm after he started to get overtaken. Whatever the case, the result does not represent in this case the performance of the rider because in this race Foggia could have been in the fight for the podium, and with five laps to go; he was. Maybe in Jerez, a track where he was quick at last season in the CEV, he will be in the fight until the end.

Four seconds behind Foggia, was fellow rookie and youngest rider in the paddock; Alonso Lopez. Who beat Lorenzo Dalla Porta to seventeenth after the Italian lost time by running on at turn twelve at the end of the main straight. Makar Yurchenko took nineteenth, ahead of a disappointing Tony Arbolino in twentieth on the Snipers Honda. Jaume Masia could not recover from his involvement in the first lap collision at turn one and finished 21st, ahead of the other riders who were involved and remounted Kazuki Masaki and Nakarin Atiratphuvapat, and also Niccolo Antonelli who ran into the back of Lopez at the end of the main straight on lap one.

There were four retirements: Marcos Ramirez and Nicolo Bulega, both of whom continue their horrendous starts to 2018. As well as Adam Norrodin and Kaito Toba.

After the first three fly-away races of 2018, the next six races in Europe, starting with Jerez in two weeks, offer an opportunity for the championship to settle, the cream to rise and the true championship contenders to show themselves as such.

Featured image courtesy of Redbull contentpool

For round three of the 2018 Moto3 World Championship, the lightweight class paddock goes to the Circuit of the Americas after two rounds which were not exactly what you might expect from a Moto3 race. Firstly, Aron Canet and Jorge Martin stormed away in Qatar to fight for the race win between themselves, six seconds ahead of the third-place scrap. Then, last time out in Argentina, the field was spread out by the mixed conditions which saw Marco Bezzecchi take the first win of his career in the World Championship and Jorge Martin make a tyre choice error but recover to score points.

Starting with Bezzecchi, it was a stunning ride from the Italian in Argentina. He could have been on the podium in Qatar too, but a crash on the last lap meant he could only manage fourteenth. It’s fair to say he made up for that two weeks ago, when he took the victory in tricky conditions – the type of conditions we knew he could excel in from last season, when he was riding the CIP Mahindra and would often appear towards the top of the time sheets when grip was scarce. With the KTM package underneath him for this season, there was always the possibility that he could make the next step to be a rider who could contend for the podium or even the victory on a regular basis, and so far he has proven that. There were some who questioned whether Bezzecchi can go on to fight for the title – the fortunes of other KTM riders at the moment might suggest otherwise, but maybe Marco is the rider to extract the most from the RC250GP. It can be said that we will learn a lot about the credentials of the Italian this weekend in America, where last year on the Mahindra he finished 19th and 26 seconds off the win.

Where there are doubts about the championship credentials of Bezzecchi, there are none about those of Aron Canet. In between his two second places from the first two races this season, he even managed to evade the mace of Race Direction after the moment of madness with Makar Yurchenko in FP1 last time out. That sort of luck might just be what he needs to put his name on the World Championship trophy at the end of the season. Also, let’s not forget that Aron Canet was lightning fast in COTA last season. In the first running of the race, he was running away, just as the times through the weekend has suggested he might, but after the red flag for a Kaito Toba crash, Romano Fenati managed to pressure Canet into a mistake which turned out to be a huge high side for the Spaniard. If Canet can find that type of pace again this year, it could well be a battle for second.

In conjunction with his luck with Race Direction, there was more luck in the race for Canet, whose championship rival, Jorge Martin, decided late on to run slick tyres on the wet-but-drying track in Argentina. This cost Martin, who spent most of the race off the pace, and by the time he had an advantage, it was only enough to get him to eleventh. This might seem like a good damage limitation job from the Spaniard, but it is true that if he did not make the switch to slicks at the end of the warm-up lap, Marco Bezzecchi may still be winless.

Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the podium in Argentina, and continued his decent start to the season after a sixth in Qatar. The Italian was on the podium in COTA last season, his tall frame for once coming in useful on a Moto3 bike in the fast changes of direction in the first two sectors. The same might be said for the likes of Nicolo Bulega, who finished fifth in COTA last season, but is yet to score a point in 2018, or Darryn Binder who is in a difficult moment with the KTM Ajo team.

After a crash in Qatar and a fourth place last time out, Enea Bastianini, despite being one of the fastest guys in both weekends so far, and throughout preseason testing, is only ninth in the championship, and still looking for his first podium of the season. It could come this weekend, as he tends to go fairly well at COTA, finishing fourth last year in a difficult season with Estrella Galicia Marc VDS, and has been in the top six at the Grand Prix of the Americas in all but one of his appearances there. Perhaps this is the weekend for La Bestia to get himself back into contention with Canet and Martin for the World Championship.

Dennis Foggia had a strong weekend in Argentina – much better than Qatar. He was in fourth or fifth place when he crashed, eyeing up the podium. It is positive to see a rider in just his second race as a full-time Grand Prix rider not being content with a top five in tricky conditions, but looking always for more. Of course, it didn’t do his championship much good, and he is still without a point in 2018, but Foggia kind of announced himself last time out, now he just needs to put it on paper.

That said, the Circuit of the Americas is a notoriously difficult track for rookies. The only rookie to win in COTA is, of course, Marc Marquez. The technical demand of the track is huge, with a stop into turn one which requires immense stiffness in the front suspension to be able to cope with the insane uphill gradient on approach, but then the many other big stops around the circuit, at turn twelve, thirteen and the final corner require softer springs so that there is enough weight transfer. This, in essence, means that the rider has to deal with the front forks bottoming slightly into turn one, so that they can have sufficient transfer in the other braking zones. In addition to that, there is the mass of direction changes between turn one and the main straight, all of which require something completely opposite: a nimble, agile bike which is quite unstable to be able to change direction as fast as possible. COTA is the ultimate in compromise, and for a rookie that is daunting.

On top of the demand of the track’s layout, there is the potential for rain this weekend, which could offer a surprise result similar to that of two weeks ago. Even if the rain does not arrive for the race, there could be a shortened race distance due to the shaving of the track to get rid of the bumps which the riders complained about so much last season, but in doing so a part of the surface has been exposed which is highly abrasive, which has the potential to tear up tyres. The effect might be less on a Moto3 bike compared to the top class, for example, but the potential is there for a shortened race, and adding the rain into that could create a difficult situation for the race organisers.

Between a variety of contenders, the potential for dominance from Canet, the abrasive track and the threat of rain, this weekend’s Moto3 Grand Prix of the Americas is looking as though it could be a particularly intense affair, but nonetheless exciting.