Moto3: Fernandez takes maiden win as title contenders falter

Round 13 of the 2020 Moto3 World Championship took place in Valencia for the European Grand Prix. John McPhee started from pole position, while championship leader Albert Arenas was fifth on the grid. 

Coming from third place was Celestino Vietti, who made the holeshot ahead of Alonso Lopez and championship leader, Albert Arenas, while pole sitter John McPhee dropped to sixth after turn one. 

Vietti led the first lap, at the end of which there was a breakaway group of six, with Vietti leading from Lopez, Raul Fernandez, Albert Arenas, Riccardo Rossi and Ai Ogura. Sergio Garcia led the chasing pack over the line for the first time in seventh, but both the lead of the race and of the chasing group changed into turn one, as Lopez took the race lead and Kaito Toba took point for the chasers.

The race was over for both Vietti and Lopez only three turns later, though. Raul Fernandez took the lead in turn two but ran both himself and Lopez wide, allowing Vietti to cut back underneath and lead through turn three. Fernandez fought back in turn four, though, and Vietti’s attempt at retaliation resulted in a high side for the Italian, which nearly took down Arenas, although the #75 was able to avoid the wayward #13 KTM. Lopez, though, was less fortunate, and had nowhere to go but into the back of Arenas as the #75 checked up, and the #21’s race was over, too. 

It might have been the end of Viett’s title hopes. The Italian came into Valencia with a 20-point deficit to Arenas, so a big haul for the Spaniard would have put the Italian all but out of contention. However, the contact Lopez made with Arenas’ bike caused enough damage to the Aspar-run machine that he was slow in the straights. By the end of the third sector, Arenas was back to ninth place and by the end of the lap he was in the pits with a missing foot peg and what looked like a bent right exhaust pipe.

After the crash, Raul Fernandez had a two-second lead at the end of the third lap over Tony Arbolino who had come from 17th to second by the end of lap three, passing Ai Ogura to complete that comeback before setting on after Fernandez. For Ogura, though, the crash for Arenas was big news, as it meant he had a real possibility of ending the European Grand Prix as the championship leader. 

By the end of lap four, Fernandez’ lead was approaching three seconds. The #25’s speed had never been in question, despite having only picked up his first podium back in Aragon three weeks ago and having never achieved a victory in the World Championship. Fernandez’ weakness had generally been fighting in the group, which is of course quite a large component of Moto3 racing, and it meant that he was unable to use his speed. Having been gifted such a significant lead at the start of the European Grand Prix, this was the best chance Fernandez would get to take a maiden win. 

The battle for the podium remained between two and three seconds adrift of Fernandez for pretty much the whole race, but in the middle it was interrupted by Arenas. The Spaniard had returned to the track after having his bike repaired in the pits, and he rejoined just ahead of Fernandez. He was eventually caught and passed by Fernandez before he dropped back to the podium group, albeit three laps down. After a few laps of fighting a fight he was not in, Arenas was shown the blue flag. The #75’s lack of compliance with the blue flag resulted in the black flag, and he was disqualified. It was a messy situation for Arenas, but he made it worse than it needed to be by interfering in a podium fight he was not a part of. 

Fernandez held the lead onto the final lap quite comfortably, with an advantage of just over one second as they started the final tour. It looked safe enough, and as the three chasing riders began to fight it looked even safer. 

Arbolino led the chasing trio of himself, Sergio Garcia and Ai Ogura over the line for the final time, but Garcia moved ahead into turn one. 

Ogura demoted Arbolino a further position at turn six on the final lap, moving himself up to third. Defensive riding from there from the Japanese rider allowed Garcia to escape with second place but also denied Arbolino the chance to retaliate. 

Garcia’s speed on the final lap with clear air was stronger than Fernandez. If he had passed Arbolino sooner then the story could have been different, but as Garcia took his first Grand Prix victory in Valencia in 2019, it was Fernandez who matched that in 2020 with a superb ride, managing his gap perfectly to take his first 25-point haul in the World Championship. 

Garcia crossed the line second, and critically Ai Ogura was third, moving himself to within three points of the championship lead with two rounds to go, thanks to his first podium since Emilia Romagna.

Tony Arbolino was denied the podium having been second for so much of the race. But the 13 points he takes for fourth move him to within 23 points of the championship lead, meaning he is right in contention. 

Darryn Binder was fairly lonely for much of the race, but ended up fighting for fifth with Carlos Tatay, a fight in which Binder come out on top. Tatay, therefore, was forced to settle for sixth ahead of Stefano Nepa with his best finish of the year in seventh. Behind the #82 was Jeremy Alcoba, while Filip Salac and Ayumu Sasaki completed the top 10, the #71 coming from 26th on the grid to do so. 

Despite starting the race with the leaders, Riccardo Rossi could only manage 11th which, nonetheless, is the Italian’s best result in Grand Prix racing, as he finished ahead of compatriots Andrea Migno and Romano Fenati, as well as Deniz Oncu and Gabriel Rodrigo who completed the top 15. 

Ryusei Yamanaka was 16th, ahead of Yuki Kunii, Jason Dupasquier, Davide Pizzoli and Barry Baltus who rounded out the top 20; while Maximilian Kofler was 21st ahead of Khairul Idham Pawi and Celestino Vietti, who remounted and finished after his crash but was unable to claw his way into the points.

It was a particularly disastrous day for two teams in particular, as both SIC 58 Squadra Corse riders crashed out – Niccolo Antonelli having come from 31st to 10th and Tatsuki Suzuki as a result of contact from Gabriel Rodrigo – and both Leopard Racing riders suffered the same fate, with Dennis Foggia crashing after receiving a long lap penalty for track limits after just six laps and Jaume Masia crashing out, meaning he has to make up 24 points in two races if he is to be champion. The other retirements included John McPhee, whose championship chances are now all but done, and Teruel podium finisher Kaito Toba.