As ever, Moto3 brought drama to the race weekend with Máximo Quiles winning the first Brazilian Grand Prix. He was joined on the podium by his teammate, Marco Morelli, and rookie Veda Pratama.
A Mixed-up Practice
Coming into the weekend in Brazil, we expected rain at some point, and it arrived on Friday morning. This delayed by an hour the whole day’s proceedings, but eventually got underway.
By the afternoon, the downpour had stopped but still left damp patches on the track. Thailand’s race winner, David Almansa, ended the day fastest by three thousandths of a second over Cormac Buchanan and Veda Pratama. However, the afternoon session still had its challenges, as seen in this save from Álvaro Carpe.
Delayed Qualifying with a Messy Grid
While the sinkhole delayed the session, it appeared at the start and finish straight just after MotoGP qualifying. Even though the hole was off the racing line, the hole stopped all track action until it was fixed. Qualifying eventually got underway on Saturday evening, over five hours after it was meant to start.
Qualifying One was a closely fought session, with the top 10 separated by less than a second. The riders who made it through to Qualifying Two were Álvaro Carpe, Adrián Fernández, Ryusei Yamanaka, and Zen Mitani.
Qualifying Two had an early red flag during the session due to a high-side for Cormac Buchanan. Luckily, the young New Zealand rider was ok and walked away.
With limited dry-track time, the riders were very close. The top 16 were all within a second, with Joel Esteban coming out on top for his first pole position. Joining him on the front row were Valentín Perrone and Hakim Danish.
The whole grid was very mixed up. The winner in Thailand, David Almansa, started 14th, and championship favourite Máximo Quiles started 11th. In racing, they always say to expect the unexpected, but no one expected these two to be as far down the grid as they were.
The Race
With the long straight down to turn one, the start of the race was intense with polesitter Esteban dropping six places. Perrone took the early race lead at the end of lap one with Marco Morelli and Danish chasing their first podiums.
As always, the field was tight with the top 15 bikes all close together with overtakes everywhere. With the track still very dirty, mistakes were easy to make. The first mistake came from polesitter Esteban, who fell on lap seven. He did walk away but was taken to the medical centre for a check-up.
Even with their poor qualifying positions, Almansa and Quiles found themselves first and second in the race, gapping the rest of the field. It was looking like it was going to be a repeat of the battle at the Thailand Grand Prix. However, on lap 13, Almansa crashed out of turn four. Even with a heavy fall, he was ok and walked away. The race was now Quiles’ to lose.
Quiles built a gap to the rest of the field of over four seconds, showing why he is the favourite for this year’s championship. On lap 15, a red flag was displayed after Scott Ogden crashed.
The Restart
The race was restarted with a five-lap dash to the finish. Quiles got off to a good start and led the race again. The five laps were not as easy as Quiles would have wanted, with his teammate Morelli putting the pressure on him until the very end of the race. Quiles crossed the line to win the race by a tenth of a second over Morelli for his first podium. It was also the first podium for the Indonesian Pratama.
The post-race celebration for everyone was joyous with Aspar getting their first 1-2 of the season, causing them to do a celebratory dance.
Nothing could stop Quiles today, who is now leading the championship.
Race top 10:
1. #28 Máximo Quiles (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team)
2. #97 Marco Morelli (CMFMOTO Gaviora Aspar Team)
3. #9 Veda Pratama (Honda Team Asia)
4. #83 Álvaro Carpe (Red Bull KTM Ajo)
5. #94 Guido Pini (Leopard Racing)
6. #27 Rico Salmela (Red Bull KTM Ajo)
7. #73 Valentín Perrone (Red Bull KTM Tech 3)
8. #31 Adrián Fernández (Leopard Racing)
9. #67 Casey O’Gorman (SIC58 Squadra Corse)
10. #13 Hakim Danish (AEON Credit-MT Helmets-MSI)
The next race is next weekend at the Circuit of the Americas.