A “Le Mans” we’ve never seen before: five days under the sun with high temperature that pleasantly impressed us. We were ready to fly off to Paris with raincoats and umbrellas, as we used to do every year so far.. but an amazing weekend has been given to us, and not just for the weather.
At the beginning we hadn’t big expectations for Moto3 Junior World Championship, the only CEV race that overlap with the World Championship. That is because Yari Montella broke his wrist during Q1 on Friday. From that moment to the race start it luckily went for the best. On Sunday morning, 7:30 a.m., Yari went to the medical center to self-declare fit to race, but a diatribe broke out: who wanted him to ride and who didn’t. If he had been a MotoGP rider, no one would have said NO; but he rides in Moto3, and who cares if a Moto3 rider competes or not? I think the spirit is exactly the same when you are 14 years old as at 25. What really matters is what he wants, how he feels. Those aspects should be considered not just for a MotoGP rider. At the end Yari did a great race, starting from the 29th position and closing 10th, meanwhile Ieraci ended his fist race of 2018.
Let’s now talk about the World Championship. On Saturday, Nicco could have done the pole-position (even if he hadn’t the same potentiality as in Jerez), but he did a mistake in the “S”, while he was ending the lap, losing the 1st position. He started in the 3rd row on P7 while Tatsuki was 15th.
The Moto3 race is always the most compelling and spectacular, it is expression of the will those kids have to aim for the top, for MotoGP.
Tatsuki has been fast, not so brilliant at the beginning, but more aggressive at the end when he fought as a real “Romagnolo DOC” closing in P9 with others wheels signs on his tracksuit.
A race full of twists till the last corner, where Di Giannantonio crossed the finish line in 1st position but, because of the penalty of few seconds, he ends 4th, leaving the highest step of the podium to Arenas. P2 for Migno followed by Ramirez who torn off the first 3rd place of the season for Niccolò, in-between everyone’s dismay. We already were at the parc fermè, after a 1km run where I almost lost a lung, when I saw somebody taking “the podium-hat” off of his head. What a pity!
Penalties are fair but I think they should be managed differently. It should be like: everytime you exceed the track limit you take a penalty of 4 seconds. At the moment the calculation of the penalty is too elaborate. In addition, once there where grass and gravel outside the track, and if a rider exceeded the limits, he had 90% of possibilities to crash. Nowdays if the rider exceed the track limit, he can go back to the track immediately and maybe win the race. It’s not fair for the ones who never mistake, who never exceeds.
Of course the asphalt is for safety, and that’s perfect, but sanctions should be easier and more strict.
We had a 1km run to the parc fermè to remain outside, but we went back to the garage more motivated than ever. After all it has been a good weekend. With this kind of races, it seems right to be a little bit delighted and feel like a “winner team”.
-PaoloSic58-