For the first race of the 2018 Moto3 World Championship, there was an air of familiarity about the first six laps. The 2013 season saw three in a league of their own: Luis Salom, Alex Rins and eventual series champion, Maverick Vinales. That season all three were on KTMs, the dominant package at the time, and shared all bar one of the wins of 2013 between them (Alex Marquez won the Japanese Grand Prix when both Rins and Salom crashed). This year, the three riders who have shown themselves to be a step ahead of the rest of the field are Jorge Martin, Aron Canet and Enea Bastianini, all on Honda machines.

This weekend, Martin looked almost in a class of his own, with only Bastianini regularly challenging him, but The Beast qualified down in tenth, and with Canet down in seventh on the grid, it looked like Gresini Racing’s Martin would have a chance to break from the group early on in Sunday’s eighteen lap race. This is what he tried to do – by the time Bastianini arrived at the head of the chasing group, in second place, Martin was already 1.5 seconds in the lead, and to make things more difficult, Bastianini would have to negotiate Canet at the same time as closing the race leader. Nonetheless, within two laps, the chasing pair had caught Jorge, and Bastianini hit the front at the beginning of lap five, breaking Martin’s leadership for the first time in the race. Entering lap six, though, and the two Spaniards re-passed Enea, and in his ambition to stick with Martin, the Italian crashed out of the race at turn six, losing the rear initially, which sent him a little offline, and then folding the front. La Bestia was unable to re-join, and so leaves the first race of the season already way off the pace in the championship.

Canet and Martin continued their private battle for the lead, and throughout the race made it increasingly more exclusive, stretching out a gap of nearly seven seconds to the chasing pack by the end of the race.

The younger of the two, Canet, made a very curious race, almost never leading, despite failing to detach himself from his compatriot’s rear tyre from the moment he gained contact. Canet would sit up at the end of the straight every lap, roll off the throttle so as to not pass Martin, and not show his hand. The one time when Aron did take over the leadership of the race, it was due to a mistake from Jorge, who ran wide at turn one, but after one lap the Gresini Honda had re-passed the Estrella Galicia Marc VDS version.

Canet was clearly waiting for the final lap, to slipstream Martin to the line, and there is a question mark over whether Canet was failing to pass his fellow Spaniard by the line on purpose to try to trick last year’s Valencia race winner into a false sense of security. Either way, the plan for Canet did not work, as Martin edged the victory by 0.023 seconds to deny Canet’s slipstream attempts. Perhaps Canet’s race was ruined by the Honda, which seems to give very little slipstream to the rider behind – this seemed visible in the race, and also through practice.

It was not just the battle for the front that was very unusual for Moto3 – the battle for the final spot on the podium was distinctly unpopulated, with only six riders fighting for third for most of the race. The six were Lorenzo Dalla Porta, polesitter Niccolo Antonelli, Gabriel Rodrigo, Jakub Kornfeil, Ayumu Sasaki and Marco Bezzecchi, but were then joined by John McPhee, Kaito Toba and Fabio Di Giannantonio in the final laps. The fight was fierce, and it was inevitable that at least one of the riders would unfortunately not make the finish. John McPhee was the victim, clipping Sasaki’s Honda in the penultimate corner, taking him out of the race.

Marco Bezzecchi also had an undeserved crash earlier in the lap at the dreaded turn six, where he folded the front. Fortunately for the big Italian, though, he was able to remount and took two points for fourteenth on his debut for the Pruestl GP team.

Lorenzo Dalla Porta won out in the battle for the podium, beating home compatriot Nicco Antonelli in the run to the line by 0.045 seconds on the 2016 Moto3 Junior World Champion’s debut for the Leopard Racing Honda team, a welcome gift after the disaster of Bastianini.

As implied it was Niccolo Antonelli who was the first of the non-podium finishers to cross the line – a positive result on his SIC58 Squadra Corse debut, and one he will hope to build from in the future.

Gabriel Rodrigo was the first KTM home in fifth, which shows the continuation of 2017’s trend of Honda dominating the lightweight class.

Fabio Di Giannantonio fought back well from a poor qualifying and underwhelming start to take sixth place, 0.030 seconds ahead of Honda Team Asia’s Kaito Toba, who sort of arrived in the battle for the podium from nowhere, but nonetheless fought well to take what is by far his career best finish.

Toba beat home fellow Japanese Ayumu Sasaki who finished seventh, ahead of the KTM of Jakub Kornfeil, who made a return to the top ten after a couple of difficult seasons with the Sepang International Circuit team.

The top ten was rounded out by another KTM (although that is still only three Austrian bikes inside the top 10 compared to seven Hondas), this time belonging to Andrea Migno, who made a decent debut for the Angel Nieto Team, finishing under one second away from the podium. He was followed sensation Jaume Masia.

2017 Red Bull Rookies Champion Kazuki Masaki took home three points on his Grand Prix debut and finished only 8.829 seconds off the win. As previously mentioned, Bezzecchi finished fourteenth, with Marcos Ramirez taking the final point in fifteenth place.

Dennis Foggia ended his full time Grand Prix debut 0.069 seconds off the final point, but will be disappointed to be 26 seconds off the win, nonetheless. Tony Arbolino was a further 6.5 seconds back of Foggia, with Nakarin Atiratphuvapat and Makar Yurchenko rounding out the nineteen finishers.

That leaves seven riders unclassified: John McPhee, rookie Alonso Lopez, Livio Loi, Nicolo Bulega who is still struggling with his ankle injury from last season, the aforementioned Bastianini, Philipp Oettl and Darryn Binder, who made contact with the German.

Whilst the opening round of the 2018 Moto3 season was by no means a classic, it perhaps did show the pattern the season will follow: three riders a step ahead of the rest of the field fighting for the championship. For sure, the other riders will be fighting also at the front of the races, but it will be Jorge Martin, Aron Canet and Enea Bastianini who will fight for the world title, and their battle will continue in Argentina in three weeks’ time.

Words by Alex Whitworth

The conditions for today’s Moto3 qualifying session were difficult for all the riders, as a relatively thick cloud of sand descended on the Losail International Circuit. Visibility was quite poor on track, and to add to that the wind was very strong, and the track was extremely dirty.

The rider who best dealt with the conditions was Jorge Martin. He had pole in the bag, his lap was about as good as it could have been in those conditions, but he only managed second place on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Niccolo Antonelli snatched pole position at the very end to take the SIC58 Squadra Corse’s first pole position in the World Championship, and he did it with the assistance of a perfect tow down the front straight – it was this that set his and Martin’s lap apart, by the gaping chasm of 0.001 seconds. The pole position was a welcome dose of enjoyment for the team, especially after Tatsuki Suzuki had to pull out of the weekend after injuries sustained from a crash on Friday morning.. Of course, Antonelli’s most recent victory came in Qatar back in 2016, when he was considered a championship contender, but even still it is probably Martin who enters tomorrow’s race as the favourite, having been the most consistently fast rider throughout the weekend.

Gabriel Rodrigo will begin his 2018 Moto3 World Championship from third on the grid, and it must be said that his lap was not a fluke – he has been quite fast all weekend, and all through qualifying. If he can keep his right hand in check tomorrow, he could be on for a maiden podium.

The second row is headed up by Ayumu Sasaki on the Petronas Sprinta Honda. Last year, Qatar was Sasaki’s first race of his full-time Grand Prix career (he debuted at Sepang 2016, replacing Enea Bastianini at Gresini), and he looked good too, finishing inside the points and ahead of the likes of Nicolo Bulega, so tomorrow could be a very good day for the young Honda star.

Kaito Toba enjoyed his best career qualifying with fifth place. The Japanese had a tough rookie season in 2017, but looks to have started his second season in Grand Prix racing in a much better way. If he can manage to stick with the leading group tomorrow, he could learn a lot about racing at the front against the best riders in the world.

Marco Bezzecchi impressed with sixth place. The Italian has flown a little under the radar coming into this season, after a quiet 2017 aboard the CIP Mahindra, but has been floating around the top five all weekend and could provide a real upset tomorrow.

Aron Canet fronts row three in seventh place. A relatively lowly qualifying position for Canet is not the end of the world for him, considering the amount of slipstreaming that is likely to occur on the pit straight tomorrow, but he has left himself in a dangerous position for turn one tomorrow, especially with it being the first race of the season.

Eighth place is occupied by Philipp Oettl, who not for the first time paid the price for his preference for riding alone, instead of in a group. The final piece of the row three puzzle is Lorenzo Dalla Porta, who might have been higher if his teammate Enea Bastianini didn’t hit his rear wheel on the entry to turn one.

That contact between the two Leopard teammates left Bastianini without a final attempt at improving his lap time and down in tenth place with a tough first few laps ahead of him for tomorrow. Jakub Kornfeil and John McPhee join Bastianini on row four.

Jaume Masia makes his full-time Grand Prix debut from thirteenth on the grid. We know from his performances last year that Masia can be a threat at the front in the race, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him battling for the top positions tomorrow. Andrea Migno lines up in fourteenth for the first Grand Prix of the season, and in the middle of a Bester Capital Dubai KTM sandwich on row five, as Marcos Ramirez goes off of P15.

Fabio Di Giannantonio disappointed with sixteenth place, but expect to see him climb through the field tomorrow. Adam Norrodin and Livio Loi complete row six.

Reigning Red Bull Rookies champion, Kazuki Masaki, will start from nineteenth tomorrow, whilst Darryn Binder rounds out the top twenty and CEV graduate Alonso Lopez finalises row seven.

Nico Bulega was a big disappointment in 22nd. After Friday he said he was happy with the work he and his team had done, but it looks to have been to no avail, as the tall Italian’s poor form from 2017 continues. To make matters worse for Bulega, his trademark awful starts will probably mean he will be pretty much last by turn one. Albert Arenas, one of the riders who fought with Bulega for the 2015 Moto3 Junior World Championship, starts from 23rd tomorrow, and rookie Makar Yurchenko goes from the back of row eight.

Reigning Junior World Champion Dennis Foggia was another disappointment as he could only manage 25th place after his fastest lap was cancelled for track limits. Tony Arbolino was yet another Italian frustration down in 26th place, which was completely unexpected after a strong preseason on the Snipers Honda. Finally, the grid for the first round of the 2018 Moto3 World Championship is rounded off by Nakarin Atiratphuvapat .

Moto3 explodes back into life this weekend at the season’s opening round at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar. For the first time since Moto3 was introduced, in 2012, Sunday’s race will be held in the mid-afternoon under the hot desert sun. The racing will remain unpredictable and extremely hard fought, as twenty eight very young, very talented riders desperately try to make a name for themselves on the grand prix stage.

One thing is guaranteed though in the junior class this season – we will have a brand new world champion come the season finale in Valencia. Last year’s runaway series winner, Joan Mir, has moved up to the Moto2 category for 2018 leaving the door wide open for a new superstar to take his place.

Enea Bastianini takes Mir’s seat at the Leopard Racing team, after a difficult season aboard the Estrella Galicia 0,0 machine. Despite being only 20 years old, the Italian is considered as a veteran of the Moto3 class having made his debut at this venue back in 2014. There is also the feeling in the paddock that Bastianini is under considerable pressure coming into this season, riding for a third team in as many years. He will be hoping that the move to the team which has claimed two world championships (2015 – Danny Kent, 2017 – Joan Mir) will be able to give him the tools to fight for a his maiden title. His times throughout preseason testing with his new team have been very promising indeed.

Following their impressive 2017 campaigns, Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Jorge Martin (Del Conca Gresini) have perhaps rightly been declared the preseason favourites. The latter earned himself the reputation as being a ‘man of steel’ last year, having ridden through the pain barrier during the second half of the season after an horrific crash during Friday practice at the Sachsenring left him with a broken leg and a badly damaged shoulder. Despite this, the young rider from Madrid defied all physical expectations to finish the season with multiple podiums to his name, including his maiden victory at the season finale in Valencia.

Canet was the undisputed ‘best of the rest’ to Mir last year, with the 18-year old from Corbera taking 3 wins across the season, racking up a total of 199 points to finish third overall in the championship. Just like his compatriot, Martin, he remains with the same team for 2018. With a year of data and understanding his machine behind him, he will be very eager to cement his reputation as a world champion in waiting.

British hopes once again fall exclusively on the shoulders of John McPhee. The 23-year old has moved to the CIP-Green Power team for 2018, having been at the British Talent Team last season. The Scotsman will be looking to back up his performances from 2017, having secured a career best finish of seventh place in the overall standings. With his new team running KTM machinery, McPhee has the power to be able to fight towards the front of the field consistently. McPhee is joined at CIP by one of the rookies for this season. Kazakhstani rider, Makar Yuchenko. The 19-year old makes the move up from the Repsol CEV junior world championship following a run of impressive performances in the second half of last season.

Speaking of rookies, Yuchenko is joined by three other young prospects from the cadet categories organised by Dorna. Kazuki Masaki (RBA BOE Skull Rider) and Jaume Masia (Bester Capital Dubai) both make the transition this year from the Red Bull Rookies Cup series, the former arriving as reigning champion. All three will be measured directly against the fourth and final rookie in the series, CEV junior World Champion, Dennis Foggia (Sky VR|46). The young Italian already has some Moto3 world championship experience, having competed as a wildcard on three occasions in 2017.

Foggia’s arrival at the Sky VR|46 team puts immediate pressure on his experienced teammate, Nicolo Bulega. In 2015, Bulega arrived in the Moto3 class heralded as the next big thing from Italy. So much was the hype surrounding the young Italian that he very nearly ran the famous 46 plate. However for various reasons, a serious championship challenge from Bulega has not yet emerged. 2018 therefore could be titled the ‘make or break’ season for the 19-year old. Once again, he is on KTM powered machinery and with three seasons behind him, the time for Bulega to make his mark on the competition is now.

With so many riders having so much to prove already, before any of the bikes have been ridden with anger, 2018 promises to be truly spectacular and gripping viewing.

The Moto3 Qatar Grand Prix race starts 1300GMT on Sunday, March 18th.

The Moto3 series returns this weekend to the stunning Philip Island circuit, Australia. A venue now infamous for its uncertain weather conditions is sure to provide similarly unpredictable racing.

Once again all eyes will be on series leader, Joan Mir (Leopard Racing). The Spaniard had a nightmare last time out at Motegi, and will be looking to bounce back and wrap up the championship in style here. The title permutations remain the same as last week:  If Mir wins, he’s crowned champion. Equally, should Mir outscore Romano Fenati (Marinelli Rivacold Snipers) by five points or more, he will be champion. Mir now also doesn’t have to worry about a possible challenge from Aron Canet (Estrella-Galicia 0,0) anymore. The Spaniard failed to finish on the podium in Japan and, despite Mir not scoring a point, has been eliminated from the fight for the championship.

Not that Fenati will have any intentions of yielding up his challenge so easily. The Italian took a stunning victory in Japan last weekend, and will be looking to repeat that performance in Australia. It is still a very tall order for him to wrestle the crown away from Mir’s grasp – if he is to realistically win the championship he needs to win all three remaining races, with his rival slipping up along the way.  However, this is Moto3 – where nothing is certain and anything is possible.

This weekend the paddock also welcomes back Maria Herrera to the fold, as she fills in for the injured Albert Arenas at the Mahindra-Aspar team. Philip Island is a circuit where the 21-year old has traditionally produced good showings (having scored points here in 2015 and 2016 respectively).  She will be racing with the team until the end of the season and will be hoping to find a full-time ride on the grid for next season.

Expect action galore from a multitude of riders this weekend, including the likes of: John McPhee (British Talent Team), Andrea Migno (Sky VR|46), Enea Bastianini (Estrella-Galicia 0,0) and Phillip Oettl (Schedl GP) – all of whom are fighting over sixth place in the championship. The competition between these riders could not be more fierce, with only 11 points separating sixth placed McPhee from tenth placed Phillip Oettl. With the former still yet to secure a ride for next season, expect a no-holds-barred effort from the British rider as he aims to consolidate his position at the sharp end of the championship standings.

Romano Fenati became the first rider in the Moto3 class to notch up ten victories today, after a sensational performance which left fans, pundits and fellow competitors in awe.

Terrible weather had befallen the riders all weekend, and there was no exception for the race. After a lengthy delay following the morning warm up session, in which Andrea Migno’s KTM machine deposited oil across the track, the riders were finally put under starter’s orders. The race distance was reduced from 20 to 13 laps.

As the lights went out, Fenati (Marinelli Rivacold Snipers) found himself in the midst of a ferocious opening lap scramble with compatriot, and former old sparring partner at the Sky VR|46 team, Nicolo Bulega. It was he who initially had the upper hand during the opening exchange, but on lap 3 was ruthlessly swept aside, as Fenati began to assert his authority on proceedings. Having dispatched one Italian, he was quickly closing down another – Ajo Racing’s Niccolo Antonelli. It did not take long for Fenati to close down the race leader, and very quickly he was passed. Whilst others floundered in the spray, and got caught in the usual midfield shenanigans of the junior class, the Moto3 veteran pulled out an unassailable advantage over the competition. Only in the closing laps, as the weather somehow managed to worsen, did Fenati let up in pace as he safely brought his machine home.

The victory was exactly what Fenati required to keep his dream of winning the 2017 World Championship alive, against his rival and runaway series leader Joan Mir (Leopard Racing). The Spaniard, in complete contrast, endured a truly wretched weekend. Any thoughts of him sealing the championship here took a battering with limited running during Friday practice, compiled with technical problems on Saturday which left him provisionally on the grid in 14th. To make matters worse, he was found to have breached the track limits on his fastest lap, and took a 6-place penalty. Starting from 20th it was always going to be a tough ask to get anything from the race. It turned out, he couldn’t get anything. Treacherous conditions with a bike not set up to his liking, Mir finished outside of the points in P17. He’ll be hoping for much better fortune next time out in Australia.

There was a thrilling duel for the final place on the podium between Japanese rider Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Corse), and Marco Bezzechi (CIP-Mahrinda). The two constantly swapped positions on the track throughout the duration of the race, occasionally trading parts of their machines’ liveries for good measure. This is Moto3, where almost anything goes. Eventually it was Bezzechi who managed to take the spoils, and make it three different manufacturers on the podium too (Honda, KTM and Mahindra respectively).

The likes of John McPhee (British Talent Team), Jakub Kornfeil (Peugeot Saxoprint) and Bo Bendsnyder provided very timely reminders of their abilities, by securing top ten finishes. For McPhee in particular, this was of the utmost importance. With a contract still to be signed for 2018 – either with his current Dorna-backed team or with another outfit – the 23-year old from Oban was desperate to produce a strong performance this weekend, and he delivered, finishing in 10th place among the hard chargers of the class.

However the standout performer of the race was Philip Oettel. From starting down on the grid in 21st place, little could have been realistically expected of him. Throwing caution to the wind, Oettel (Schedl GP Racing) carved and dived his way through the pack – often blasting through a wall of spray, kicked up from the bikes around him – into a brilliant P6. It was a truly thrilling display from the young German, completely showcasing his racing craft to the full. One can only wonder what might have been if he had qualified just a row or two further up the gird.

Race Result Top 5:

1: Romano Fenati (MRS Honda) 29:22.278

2: Niccolo Antonelli (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +4.146

3: Marco Bezzechi (CIP-Mahindra) +5.0.13

4: Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Corse) +8.767

5: Aron Canet (Estrella Galica 0,0) +12.827