Luca Amato takes the Moto3 race at Motorland

Today’s final race of the day was the one for the Moto3 boys. With Juanfran Guevara on pole after being one of the few riders who managed to improve on Alex Márquez‘s time in yesterday’s second qualifying session, a group race was expected, and that is exactly what we got in the end.

At the start we witnessed a multiple crash involving four riders, Marcel Alves, María Herrera, Montse Costa and Yui Watanabe. Of the four, the Japanese rider was the worst off, lying unconscious at the edge of the track and having to be evacuated by ambulance. Honestly, I think that at that moment the race should have been stopped, with an ambulance trackside and riders passing very close by.

Fortunately, nothing else happened, but if any rider had got through or gone straight on, it would have been very dangerous. In the end, she suffered a broken collarbone, according to what I was told at the control post on that corner.

The rest of the race was very hotly contested, with a large initial group of six riders fighting over the first few laps, until Julián Miralles and Josep Rodríguez dropped back a little, leaving the victory to be battled out between Marcos Ramírez, Juanfran Guevara, Alex Márquez and Luca Amato.

We also saw other crashes, among which we highlight that of Francesco Bagnaia, who crashed again at the same spot as yesterday, and that of Edu Alayon, who was riding at a good pace and was quite upset to be out of the race. Gabriel Rodrigo and Michael Ecklmaier also retired.

With a few laps to go, Luca Amato moved into the lead, just as Márquez’s physical condition began to fade, since, as he confirmed to us at the press conference, he had been racing hampered after the warm-up crash in which his shoulder came out. And third was Juanfran Guevara, who came close to overtaking Márquez on the finish line.

Statements from Luca Amato:

It’s a fantastic result, we have worked very hard. I want to thank the sponsors and the team for this first place, which is my best result in this championship, and I hope it is repeated in more races.

Statements from Alex Márquez:

I tried to see how my shoulder was holding up after this morning’s crash. It was a very tiring race, but on the last lap I pushed behind Luca. I tried to pass on the outside but it wasn’t possible.

Statements from Juanfran Guevara:

At the start of the race I tried to set a pace and break away, but I saw that everyone was going very fast. On the last lap I tried to pass them and I got into first, but they overtook me on the slipstream and in the end I finished third.

Photos | David Gómez (Plusmoto)