Casey Stoner: He really impressed me in the first race, but to win by 36 seconds, that must be a record in the smallest class.

Jorge Lorenzo: I think we have a really good star, he can keep his calm and keep his pace especially in Qatar, where Vinales was little faster. He surely has a place in racing. In diffficult conditions where it would have been easy to make mistakes, he kept calm and was really fast.

Dani Pedrosa: I noticed him in Qatar when he finished second behind Vinales. Here he won with an embarrasing gap against his rivals. There’s him and Antonelli who will probably need more time …

Valentino Rossi: One word only: awesome. He’s only sixteen but he seems to be in GP racing for the last twenty years. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a talent like him. He’s better than I was when I debuted and he’s also nice. Yes he reminds me of someone …

Who are MotoGP biggies talking about? Romano Fenati naturally. ‘FennyFive’ as he’s nicknamed, received accolades from everyone yesterday when he won the Jerez Moto3 race in treacherous conditions, but it wasn’t only the fact that he managed to stay on when seventeen other riders crashed out, he did it by pulling a 36 second gap over the others as he posted fast lap after fast lap (his best was 1.52.7), and now he’s captured the Italian media spotlight who has already dubbed him “The Phenomenon.”

Continue reading: Italy discovers they have a new racing star: Romano Fenati

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Jakub Kornfeil(almost) the save of the century… di Matthew_Guerrero_2

Moto3 at Jerez was so packed with crashes that it was almost impossible to follow the names of riders who got caught out by wet patches, but this ‘almost’ save at turn 13 by Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta’s Jakub Kornfeil would have probably been added to the book of ‘amazing saves,’ if only his FTR Honda hadn’t slipped on the slick and wet astroturf as he attempted to rejoin the race and taking out an unfortunate Brad Binder along with him.

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The difficult track conditions at Jerez de la Frontera continued into today’s Moto2 race but it was the rain and the moment that the red flag was shown cutting the race to just 18 laps, who decided who won the battled race and it was Pol Espargaro who ended up thanking the rain gods and the fact that he had taken the lead on the previous lap.

The leadership switched hands several times with pole sitter Marc Marquez, Espargaro, Scott Redding and Thomas Luthi battling it out between themselves for almost half the race distance with Mika Kallio entering the fray until a light rain started falling on the 15th lap which removed the Finn rider from the contest when he ran off track.

Redding also dropped back and letting Marquez, Espargaro and Luthi decide it between themselves. When the red flag was shown Marquez was leading, but the victory was awarded to Espargaro over Marquez by 0.241s as he was leading the race on lap 17 after he moved past Marquez.

Luthi ended up in third ahead of Scott Redding and yesterday’s qualifying revelation Moto2 rookie Takaaki Nakagami. Claudio Corti took the sixth spot ahead of Mika Kallio and Dominique Aegerter.

Former Moto2 champion Toni Elias finished in 9th after a very anonymous and disappointing 13th result in the season opener in Qatar. Johann Zarco who shined in the wet during this weekend’s practice sessions closed out the top ten, while Andrea Iannone had to concede his second spot in the standings to Espargaro after finishing in 14th falling to 5th.

Continue reading: Moto2 Jerez: Pol Espargaro wins rain flagged race

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Today’s Moto3 race at Jerez was declared dry and everyone started with slick tires only it became crash fest with damp patches catching out a vast number of riders, so many that they became almost impossible to count (17 at the end), but it was rookie Romano Fenati who not only survived the highly treacherous conditions but did it in a total and dominating way, taking his maiden victory in his second ever GP race.

“Fenny” was not only the quickest rider on track (he set his fatest laps in the finale) he rode under the chequered flag with lead of over 36 seconds over Luis Salom who took the 2nd spot on the podium!

Luis Salom who was 19th on the starting grid grabbed the 2nd place on the podium after a three-way battle with Sandro Cortese and Alex Rins, who managed to return to the race after binning his machine while he was leading.

Alexis Masbou took fifth followed by Maverick Vinales who ran through the gravel trap on lap 3 but was able to recover and charge through the remaining field and battle to sixth, but he had to concede the leadership to a superior Fenati. Alberto Moncayo and Niccolò Antonelli who were 7th and 8th respectively followed by Hector Faubel and Zulfahmi Khairuddin who closed out the top ten.

Continue reading: Moto3 Jerez: Romano Fenati takes maiden victory in a crash fest

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With two Spaniards on pole position in Moto3 (Alex Rins) and MotoGP (Jorge Lorenzo), we more or less expected another Spaniard to be the pole sitter in today’s Moto2 qualifying session at Jerez and Marc Marquez was the rider who did it.

Marquez took his 8th pole in Moto2 with a best lap of 1′43.005, keeping a surprising and unexpected Takaaki Nakagami (Italtrans Racing Team) at bay by just 0.080s. The Moto2 rookie is a former All Japan J-GP2 champion.

Taking the third spot on the grid will be Pol Espargaro, while Thomas Luthi will be closing the front row, after he lost the front in his last flying lap.

Marc VDS’s Mika Kallio, Claudio Corti were fifth and sixth respecetively but were very close to Luthi and separated by less then a tenth of second. Esteve Rabat and Mike di Meglio rounded out the second row.

Randy Krummenacher qualified 9th, while Johann Zarco who led almost all the practice sessions closed out the top ten.

Andrea Iannone as usual had a tough qualifying session as he was only 13th and he’ll have another uphill battle to catch Marquez who won the Qatar race by 0.061s over the Speed Master rider.

Continue reading: Moto2 Jerez: Marc Marquez pips Takaaki Nakagami for pole position

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Moto3’s qualifying session started damp but began drying out with riders out on both rain and slick tires, and it was an intense fight to the chequered flag, but Emilio Alzamora’s rookie rider and last season’s CEV 125cc champion Alex Rins took his maiden pole position and pipping Sandro Cortese by a mere 0.012s.

Taking off on the front row next to Rins and Cortese will be Rins’ Estrella Galicia 0,0 team mate Miguel Oliviera who led the field in the two practice session.

Alexis Masbou qualified 4th with his Caretta Technology’s Honda NSF250R ahead of Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup champion Jakub Kornfeil and Jack Miller who was the fastest rider in the session when the track was still wet and kept his rain tires on also in the final minutes, while everyone else was on slicks.

Isaac Vinales took the seventh spot ahead of his much better known cousin Maverick who qualified only 9th, but he was able to keep his Qatar rival, Romano Fenati behind him in 10th.

Continue reading: Moto3 Jerez: Alex Rins takes maiden pole position

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Johann Zarco once again led the timesheets during FP3 at a wet Jerez. Last year’s 125cc runner-up layed down a 1:54.463 lap in what turned out to be a rushed last minute three-way battle between the JiR rider, Thomas Luthi and Andrea Iannone.

The Moto2 rookie pipped Luthi by just 0.028s with Iannone ending up third and 0.225s adrift after his Speed Master machine suffered a technical problem on his last lap out.

Marc Marquez took fourth and was less that half a second from Zarco, while Randy Krummenacherwas fifth, but he was more than one second from the top of the timesheets and he was followed Pol Espargaro, Xavier Simeon and Simone Corsi.

From Corsi’s 8th spot to the 11th position lap times were very close with Bradley Smith, Claudio Corti and Anthony West right on his tail, with less than a tenth separating all four riders.

Continue reading: Moto2 Jerez: Johann Zarco pips Thomas Luthi in FP3

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Moto2′s second free practice this afternoon at Jerez de la Frontera was neither wet nor dry, with many riders undecided which tire to use, so many of them sat out most of the session until the final minutes.

In fact Marc VDS Racing Team’s Mika Kallio topped the timesheets in a last lap lunge in 1:55.675, followed by this morning’s leader Johan Zarco, who also posted his best lap in the finale. Both riders toppled Arguiñano Racing Team’s Ricky Cardus (who lost two rides during the pre-season) who had led the entire practice until the final minutes.

Anthony West was fourth with a very prudent Marc Marquez right on his tail in fifth adrift by just 0.060s. Thomas Luthi took the sixth spot and was seven tenths from leader Kallio and was followed by Axel Pons and Alex De Angelis who jumped to eighth position also in his final run.

Scott Redding and Randy Krummenacher closed out the top ten, in what was an uneventful and almost useless session.

Continue reading: Moto2 Jerez: Mika Kallio tops difficult FP2

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It is still raining at Jerez de la Frontera circuit and the second free practice for the Moto3 class saw Team Estrella Galicia 0,0s (better known as Emilio Alzamora’s Monlau Competicion) Miguel Oliveira headed the timesheets with a best lap of 1’59″763. The Portoghese rider jumped to the top in the final minutes of the session leaving Sandro Cortese in 2nd and more than two tenths adrift, after suffering a technical problem that left him stranded in the pit lane.

Maverick Vinales was third on his FTR Honda followed by former Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup winner Jakub Kornfeil in fourth, ahead of Luis Salom and Gresini’s Niccolò Antonelli.

JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse duo Efren Vasquez and Adrian Martin were 7th and 8th respectively, while wild card Alex Marquez head the timesheets for several times before a crash dropped him back to 9th. Closing out the top ten was Jack Miller on the Honda NSF250R for Caretta Technology.

Romano Fenati who lead this morning’s first free practice was only 21st, while Aspar’s Hector Faubel who suffered a crash earlier in the day luckily got off with just some bruising to his right leg was 20th.

Continue reading: Moto3 Jerez: Miguel Oliveira tops in wet FP2

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If the first practice sessions at Jerez were dry for Moto3, mixed for a curtailed MotoGP (that doesn’t have intermediate tires for this type of track conditions), the Moto2 riders found a fully wet track with stiff wind also blowing.

Heading the top of the timesheets after the 45 minute practice was JiRs Johann Zarco who posted a best lap of 1.56.770 and the only rider who dropped under the 1.57 mark. Andrea Iannone was second and he was the only rider to be within a second of Zarco, but he was 0.876 seconds adrift, just before the session was red flagged with just five minutes remaining in the session after Randy Krummenacher and Ratthapark Wilairot binned their bikes (in separate incidents).

Xavier Simeon took the third spot and wet weather specialist Anthony West was fourth, but he was a massive two seconds off pace followed by Pol Espargaro, and Scott Redding in a last lap lunge pushed Pol Espargaro to 7th.

Julian Simon who switched chassis maker was 8th followed by Thomas Luthi (who was given a ‘yellow card’ warning after punching Marc Marquez in the arm during the cool down lap at Qatar) and Alex de Angelis closed out the top ten. Qatar winner Marc Marquez, who also received a warning regarding his aggressive riding, was only 14th and 3.4 seconds from the top of timesheets, evidently deciding not to take too many risks in this first session.

Moto2 Jerez FP1 results after the jump.

Continue reading: Moto2 Jerez FP1: Johann Zarco shines in the wet

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