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Moto3: Alonso Annihilation In Austin!

Image Credit: @AsparTeam on X

Total dominance from the Colombian teenage sensation David Alonso (CFMOTO Aspar Team) this weekend in Austin, Texas. Quickest in practice, pole position and an easy race with Alonso leading every lap of it.

Alonso would have been unaware of the chaos and drama behind him, especially the terrific fight for the remaining podium places. Daniel Holgado (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) and Angel Piqueras (Leopard Racing) finished the Grand Prix with a photo finish. Holgado finished 2nd and Piqueras just a bike wheel behind in 3rd. 

Holgado continued his great run of form and hasn’t finished outside of the top 3 so far this season. The championship lead cut down to just 2 points to Alonso as we head to Jerez in two week’s time.

Image Credit: @AsparTeam on X
Image Credit: @AsparTeam on X

AS IT HAPPENED

Unfortunately due to illness, Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was unable to compete in today’s race despite the excellent qualifying session yesterday. This promoted everyone up the grid one slot and Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP) up onto the front row.

After the antics in yesterday’s sessions, most of the field had a long lap penalty and some a triple long lap penalty to take during the Grand Prix.

A great start from pole position from Alonso and Filippo Farioli (SIC58 Squadra Corse) went down on the first corner with several riders taking evasive action to avoid any collision. Farioli far too late on the brakes went into the back of Veijer and Veijer lucky to stay on the bike past turn 1.

Joel Kelso (BOE Motorsports) collided with Holgado into turn 8, luckily both riders stayed on their bikes. Alonso with the chaos behind him gained a half a second lead at the front on the opening lap.

Holgado into turn 12 went up the inside of Veijer and back up into 3rd. Ivan Ortola (MT Helmets – MSI) and Stefano Nepa ( LEVELUP – MTA) crashed out with Ortola too keen to get by. Ortola confused in the melee almost re-joined the race on the wrong bike. Holgado after the incident with Kelso got by Matteo Bertelle (Rivacold Snipers Team) and back up to 2nd place as we headed into lap 2.

 

Into lap 2 and Alonso pulled away at the front with Piqueras, Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia) and Veijer all getting by and swapping places with Holgado.

With all of the field fighting behind, Alonso started lap 3 over 2 seconds clear at the front. Piqueras lead the chasing pack with Holgado 3rd and Furusato in 4th.

Yellow flags waved in sector 1 as Luca Lunetta (SIC58 Squadra Corse) crashed out with 11 laps to go. Lunetta able to re-join but would end up finishing in last place. Alonso now had a 3.5 seconds lead at the front. The chasing pack of 6 riders lead by Holgado but Holgado was unable to break away from Piqueras and co. behind.

Holgado, Piqueras, Yamanaka (MT Helmets – MSI) and Veijer all in a fantastic fight for the 2nd and 3rd podium places here in Austin. At the half way point of the race, it was Alonso’s to lose with a huge advantage of 4 seconds at the front. Kelso caught up to the chasing pack and now a group of 5 emerged to fight it out for the podium places.

5 laps to go and Holgado set the fastest lap of the race, reducing the gap to 3 seconds to Alonso ahead in the lead. Kelso crashed out at turn 1 to remount and was still in the top 10 as Kelso re-joined in 8th place.

Alonso’s gap shrunk by over a couple of seconds as Veijer went down in sector 1 through the fast twisty section with Yamanaka and Holgado narrowly missing Veijer and his bike. The crash handed breathing room for Piqueras and was on target for his first ever podium for Leopard Racing.

3 laps to go, Alonso lead with Piqueras 2nd and Yamanaka in 3rd. Holgado and  Yamanaka fought it out through the twisty section for 3rd place. Veijer retired on lap 12 after a more than eventful Grand Prix for the young dutchman. Hit multiple times from other rider’s before a high speed crash himself. Through turn 12 and up the inside of Yamanaka, Holgado moved back up into 3rd place.

2 laps to go and Holgado moved ahead of Piqueras into 2nd place late on the brakes up the hill into turn 1. Yamanaka and Piqueras both fighting for their first ever podiums in Moto3. Piqueras up the inside of Yamanaka and started the last lap of the race in 3rd place hunting down Holgado.

Onto the last lap and Piqueras was on the back wheel of Holgado and looked to take 2nd place away from the Red Bull GasGas rider. Down the long straight, Piqueras went up the inside of Holgado into 2nd. Holgado though patiently waited to attack and into turn 19 Holgado made his move. Up the inside of Piqueras and we had a photo finish on the line between the pair of them.  Holgado took 2nd place by just a bike wheel ahead of Piqueras who finished in 3rd.

Image Credit: MotoGP
Image Credit: MotoGP

With all of the carnage behind him, David Alonso kept his cool and cruised to victory in Austin. Alonso capped off a fantastic weekend today and was dominant in every session.

Race Classification 

Image Credit: MotoGP
Image Credit: MotoGP

Championship Standings

Image Credit: MotoGP
Image Credit: MotoGP
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Moto3: First Pole for Alonso in Austin

Feature Image Credit: @AsparTeam on X

After a brief break with the Argentinian race cancelled, everyone was raring to go here in Austin, Texas this weekend.

Championship leader and winner last time out in Portimão, Daniel Holgado (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) continued his great run of form rounding off the front row of the grid qualifying in 3rd.

Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was close, had a lap cancelled and then had pole snatched away from him in Q2 this afternoon. Teenage Colombian wonderkid David Alonso (CFMOTO Aspar Team) took his first pole position in Moto3 and has looked unstoppable this weekend so far. 

With a front row of the top 3 title protagonists for 2024, it’s all set up to be a great battle in Texas tomorrow.

Image Credit: @AsparTeam on X
Image Credit: @AsparTeam on X

AS IT HAPPENED

Qualifying 1

Being in the leading group in the opening races of the season, we would certainly not of expected to see Riccardo Rossi (CIP Green Power) in this Q1 session.

David Almansa (Rivacold Snipers Team) went over the handle bars at turn 20, hopefully Almansa is ok after that as the first batch of flying lap times filtered through with just 8mins left of the session.

Leopard Racing’s Adrian Fernandez sat at the top of the timings after the first batch of flying laps were posted. The top 4 heading through to Q2 with 4mins of the session remaining were Fernandez, Jacob Roulstone (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3), Joel Esteban (CFMOTO Aspar Team) and Luca Lunetta (SIC58 Squadra Corse).

Ryusei Yamanaka (MT Helmets MSI) had a lap cancelled and only 2mins remained in Q1. Only one more attempt to salvage something from the session and progress to Q2 with a final flying lap.

The lap is 5.5km’s in distance and with a 15mins qualifying session and over 2mins per lap time, nobody in Moto3 can afford to make a mistake.

Yamanaka pulled up on the long straight as Roulstone lit up the sectors red at the half way point of the last flying lap. Both Rossi and Yamanaka had a day to forget not getting into the top 4 to progress to Q2,

The fastest and through to Q2 were Fernandez, Roulstone, Esteban and Lunetta

Qualifying 2

Could anyone stop the charging David Alonso in this Q2 session? Alonso has been flying this weekend and was on course in practice to set a new all time lap record but instead opted to cruise into the pits.

With long out laps completed, it was Rueda who got us started with flying laps with 12mins left of the session.

Rueda set the bench mark of a 2:15.063 and as the rest of the field filtered through Alonso moved back to the top a tenth of a second quicker than Rueda with a 2:14.907. Alonso on provisional pole after most of the field completed their first runs.

Holgado moved up to 5th with 8mins left of the session and teammate Roulstone went into 2nd. Superb from the young Australian rider.

Alonso on his next flying lap went quicker setting a new provisional pole lap time of 2:14.661. Roulstone and Rueda filled the rest of the front row with 4mins left of the session.

Rueda out of the pits and to the top of the timings with a new lap record but dipped his wheels into the green coming out of the last corner. Rueda would later have this lap cancelled with just 1 min left of the session.

Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP) with the last sector of his career jumped onto pole as the chequered flagged waved. Rueda, Alonso and David Munoz (BOE Motorsports) though all on final flying laps lighting up the sectors red.

Rueda crossed the line but only had pole position for a few seconds as Alonso snatched it away to take pole position here in COTA.

Holgado managed to fight onto the front row just ahead of Veijer in 4th.

A first pole position for David Alonso in Moto3 and well deserved. Alonso will be hard to stop in tomorrow’s race.

Starting Grid

Image Credit: MotoGP
Image Credit: MotoGP
Posted on

Mexico Grand Prix Preview with Austin Taste, Ariba Ariba

GP MESSICO F1/2016 – CITTA’ DEL MESSICO (MESSICO) 27/10/2016
© FOTO STUDIO COLOMBO PER PIRELLI MEDIA (© COPYRIGHT FREE)

Last back to back race of the season, directly tickets from Texas to Mexico City were booked by the Formula 1 staff, some had to climb Trump’s wall in order to arrive in Mexico, but everything is almost ready for the 18th race of the season.

Max Verstappen as another Speedy Gonzalez, will have to control his nerves and the “stab in the back” pain from FIA, must race as a normal racing driver under the official rules. Kimi Raikkonen from the other hand, the cool type that we all love, will go to Mexico with one purpose, to support Sebastian Vettel from Friday till the chequered flag. The Finn, was second in Austin and was looking very comfortable, but suddenly Ferrari discovered that he was going to run out of fuels, the order was clear “Save fuels, Kimi” and to our big surprise, Kimi stepped aside and let Vettel pass second, he almost lost the third place from Max, but as many said on the social media, one Finn supports the other, and Mika Salo advised the stewards to give 5 second time penalty to Max Verstappen after the chequered flag.

Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas, United States of America.
Sunday 22 October 2017.
World Copyright: Steven Tee/LAT Images
ref: Digital Image _R3I1833

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the 3.7-4 world time champion Lewis Hamilton. The Brit had an easy weekend in Austin, no pressure for him, he read the script and followed exactly Mercedes’ plan. The track suited perfectly to Lewis and his sixth victory in COTA proves that, now the Champ has to finish fifth or above in Mexico in order to celebrate his fourth world title.

AUTÓDROMO HERMANOS RODRÍGUEZ

Laps: 71

Circuit Length: 4.304 km

Race Distance: 305.354 km

Lap Record: 1:20.521 (Nico Rosberg – 2015)

Mexico Grand Prix re-appeared in the Formula One calendar in 2015, after a long absence. Nico Rosberg was the driver who took the chequered flag in that year. Last year Lewis Hamilton won the Mexican Grand Prix, and he will try to repeat his success this season as well.

It is a home race for Sergio Perez, the fans will cheer for him and hopefully he will not complain about Oconstistency’s pace.

Sergio Perez – “Racing at home means a lot for me. It’s always a busy week, both for me and the team, but being at home makes all the hard work we put in for our fans and our partners worthwhile. It’s definitely the most enjoyable weekend of the year for me. It’s a great race for everyone involved in Formula One. There’s so much passion and the whole week is a big celebration. Everyone in Mexico City is looking forward to the race.The track is quite fun to drive and being on those long straights is special. Because of the altitude, even though you’re running high wings, you still achieve very high speeds and it’s really hard to stop the car under braking – in that sense it feels like a bit like Monza.I am lucky I get to race in my country in front of my fans. Their support means so much to me and it’s inspiring to see fans waving the Mexican flag in every grandstand. I really want to give them a special result to celebrate.”

GP MESSICO F1/2016 – CITTA’ DEL MESSICO (MESSICO) 30/10/2016
© FOTO STUDIO COLOMBO PER PIRELLI MEDIA (© COPYRIGHT FREE)

Felipe Massa – “First of all, it’s a shame to see what’s happened, it’s so sad to see the people losing their lives and also their homes from the earthquake so that’s really, really sad. I think we need to help them and get as much support for them. We need to pass the message to people around the world. That is the most important thing. Secondly, they are really in love with Formula One and they go crazy for the race. When you see the people in the grandstand and around the roads, they are proper Formula One fans and I think it’s fantastic to race there. I always enjoy it, I go with some friends, my father and we always enjoy the atmosphere there. It looks very similar to São Paolo so you also feel at home. I really hope we can have an important race for them in this difficult moment.”

In the American Grand Prix, Mercedes AMG celebrated their fourth consecutive constructors’ title, despite their bad start this season, the team managed to overcome their problems and the hard work paid off for them as they won the world title, massive congratulations to every member who contributed to the success.

Max Attack – Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen On How To Overtake & Win Races In F1 | M1TG

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