Moto3: Second 2020 Win for Arenas in Jerez

The Moto3 World Championship returned to action in Jerez, with a traditional multi-bike fight lasting the entirety of the race. 

It was Tatsuki Suzuki who made the holeshot from pole position, and the Japanese was able to make a break on the first lap. 

However, it was not long before Andrea Migno was able to close the gap to Suzuki, and this set the tone for the rest of the race with 15 riders fighting in the front group. 

Although it was Suzuki who led the opening laps, the first half of the race was dominated by Celestino Vietti, who was able to avoid the chaos that reigned behind him and look fairly calm at the front. His weak point was the exit of turn four, and Tony Arbolino – who had spent multiple laps trying to find a way past Vietti but to no avail – was finally able to take advantage of this. In typical Moto3 fashion, one move on Vietti was enough to upset his rhythm and the Italian quickly found himself consumed by the pack, dropping to seventh. 

By this point, Darryn Binder had arrived in the front group. It was a typical performance from Binder, who started down in 21st place, at the back of the seventh row. Unlike in Qatar, where Binder was able to be in the front group from the beginning, he once again had to fight his way through from the back – as he had done so many times in the past. It is notable, though, that Binder’s moves in 2020 are cleaner than before, which is good to see after so many occasions in previous years where the South African pushed beyond the limit. 

It had also been a strong charge through the pack from a poor grid position for Sergio Garcia, who by the middle of the race was up inside the leading group and fighting for top-ten positions after starting last. Unfortunately for the Spaniard, he picked up a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits too often, and this dropped him out of contention. 

Whilst the first half of the race was dominated by Vietti, the second half was more open. Tony Arbolino and Albert Arenas both had stints at the front, whilst others drifted in-and-out of contention. 

After Vietti was bundled back, he was able to recover and bring himself back into podium contention, whilst Darryn Binder became more involved in the podium fight, spending a lot of time inside the top three positions.

From behind, Ai Ogura was arriving, too. Despite spending much of the race on the fringes of the top ten, a late charge from the Japanese rider brought him into contention, and after dropping back in the middle phases of the race, Andrea Migno was back to fight inside the top six at the race’s conclusion. 

Unfortunately for Darryn Binder, his push for the podium was ended on the penultimate lap, when he crashed at turn nine. Going down whilst in a promising position has become something of a trait for Binder, and something he needs to correct if he is to progress in Grand Prix racing. 

Onto the final lap and it was McPhee with the advantage from Arbolino and Arenas, who had looked extremely aggressive in the latter stages of the race, and clearly thought he had a strong chance to win.

Arbolino went into the final corner in front – never the safest place to be on the final lap in Jerez – but the door was open for Arenas, who walked towards it. But McPhee positively sprinted for the door, extremely late on the brakes, and on an extremely narrow line – too late, and too narrow, in fact. The Scotsman ran wide when he reached the corner, and Arenas and Arbolino cut inside.

More unfortunate for McPhee was the fact that Vietti was on the inside of Arbolino, and when the lines of the two Italians converged on the exit of the final corner, the resulting contact led Arbolino into McPhee, which put the #17 on the floor with just a few hundred metres left to run. 

But it was Arenas who held the advantage to the line, and took a dramatic win, his second of the season, to continue his 100% win record in 2020.

The contact on the exit of the final corner between Vietti and Arbolino cost them both drive, and cost the #14 P2, as he was overhauled by Ai Ogura who completed a fantastic comeback from 15th on the grid to finish second, continuing his 100% podium record for the season. 

Arbolino was, though, able to keep hold of a podium, finishing third for his first rostrum since he was third in Misano last season. An important podium for the Italian, which reconfirms him as a championship threat. 

Vietti’s contact with Arbolino cost him fourth place, as his Sky Racing Team VR46 teammate, Andrea Migno, capitalised to demote Vietti fifth, whilst Raul Fernandez took sixth place after an up-and-down race for the Spaniard, which was disappointing after he showed such strong, consistent pace in practice. 

Seventh over the line was Gabriel Rodrigo, who never really made an impact on the race, and the same could be said for Tatsuki Suzuki who, after leading the opening stages, never really found himself truly contending for the podium and in the end finished eighth. Niccolo Antonelli finished ninth, whilst Jaume Masia completed the top ten. 

The Red Bull KTM Tech 3 duo of Ayumu Sasaki and Deniz Oncu both suffered in the early stages of the race, but their choice of the harder option rear tyre had become to pay dividends later on, with both making their way through the pack and closing on the leading group. Whilst Oncu’s race was ended early by a crash on lap 18 in turn nine, Sasaki was able to climb up to 11th by the end of the race, missing out on the top ten by just over one tenth of a second. Behind Sasaki was Stefano Nepa, Romano Fenati, Alonso Lopez who made good progress to 14th from 27th on the grid, and Jeremy Alcoba who will be disappointed with only one point after fighting inside the top ten for much of the first half of the race. 

Ryusei Yamanaka missed out on points by 0.4 seconds, finishing 16th ahead of his Estrella Galicia 0,0 teammate, Sergio Garcia who could do no better than 17th after a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits – which was unfortunate because the Spaniard had made a strong recovery from last on the grid and was approaching the top ten when he received the sanction. After his crash on the penultimate lap, Darryn Binder remounted to finish 18th ahead of Kaito Toba, who had also previously crashed, and Maximilian Kofler who completed the top 20. 

Jason Dupasquier finished 21st in his second Grand Prix appearance, ahead of Khairul Idham Pawi, Davide Pizzoli, Barry Baltus and Deniz Oncu who remounted after his crash to finish 25th, the last classified finisher. 

There were six retirements, with Dennis Foggia and Carlos Tatay running into each other in the first corner ending their respective races after 500 metres. On lap seven, Riccardo Rossi crashed out, before Filip Salac and Yuki Kunii also fell. John McPhee was the final retirement in that final corner clash with Vietti and Arbolino.