The French GP of the Moto3 class surely provided for some unexpected turn of events: the bad weather conditions and the consequent lack of grip allowed young Frenchman Louis Rossi to seal away and clinch his first victory ever in GP racing, with runner-up Alberto Moncayo crossing the finish line a good 27 seconds after the winner and right in front of Alex Rins, who completed the French podium. Championship contenders Maverick Vinales and Romano Fenati both crashed out and scored zero points, allowing Germany’s Sandro Cortese (6th) to take the lead. Here is a nice collection of images of the Moto3 weekend in Le Mans taken on and off the track: check it out.

View the full Moto3 2012 - Le Mans photo gallery

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Maverick Vinales took his maiden pole position in Moto3’s qualifying session at Le Mans. Unfortunately for the Moto3 riders the rain Gods decided they had been too lenient and decided to piss on the French track and then just tinkle here and there enough to ruin the qualifying session and which became a crash fest.

However Vinales managed to keep his Blusens Avintia FTR Honda upright and post the fastest lap in 1:55.865 on the track that saw him take his debut win last season leaving his fellow countryman Efren Vazquez who jumped to second in the dying minutes in second and a massive 0.982s adrift. Miguel Oliveira who was the fastest rider in this morning’s FP3 took the final spot on the front row and he had a 1.249s gap.

Rain specialists Jakub Kornfeil was fourth followed by Alexis Masbou, while the current Moto3 leader Sandro Cortese was sixth after suffering a crash with his KTM early in the session. Three Kalex KTMs will make up the third row with Alberto Moncayo, Hector Faubel and Luis Salom, while Zulfahmi Khairuddin closed out the top ten.

Romano Fenati was only 21st and it will be an uphill race for the Italy’s newest racing star.

Continue reading: Moto3 Le Mans: Maverick Vinales does a Stoner in qualifying

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Just one week after the Jerez GP, the GP circus is now at Estoril and again the riders found tricky conditions. The sun was out however the first session took place on a very wet track and the team’s had to use one of their three sets of rain tires. The practice ended up being an affair between Maverick Vinales and Miguel Oliveira, exchanging the top of the timesheets, but it Vinales ended up taking the lead in the finale, posting a best lap of 1’56″138 leaving Estoril’s home boy in second and a 0.376s adrift.

Vinales and Oliveira were the only riders to be under the 1.57 mark and the rest of the field trailed behind with very big gaps. Alberto Moncayo took third, but he was more than a second adrift. Adrian Martin was fourth followed by Danny Kent and Alexis Masbou. Efren Vasquez and Arthur Sissis were 7th and 8th respectively. Inside the top ten on the timesheets saw Niccolò Antonelli and Alessandro Tonucci in 9th and 10th on the first time at the Portughuese circuit, while Jerez winner and new racing star Romano Fenati was only 15th.

Continue reading: Moto3 Estoril: Maverick Vinales tops FP1

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Maverick Vinales debuted last year in the now defunct 125cc class and immediately became Spain’s new rider to follow with everyone comparing him to Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa after winning four races last season. Repsol was so impressed by him that they are now sponsoring him and in the inaugural Moto3 race in Qatar this youngster didn’t disappoint as he won the race with a big margin.

If Spain is used to celebrating wins, Italy has finally found somone to root for in the feeder class, Romano Fenati. This 16-year old rookie grabbed the second spot after leading the race for the first four laps and building up an almost two seconds lead before Vinales shook off Alfred Sissis and Sandro Cortese and charged away and catching up with lap 6.

The two riders were almost evenly matched, exchanging the lead at the end of the straight a couple of times but Vinales decided he had enough of seeing Fenati’s white helmet and on lap 12 broke away and then built up a 4.3 second lead to win the race.

The third spot on the podium went to Sandro Cortese, after a massive five-rider battle that involved Luis Salom, Miguel Oliveira (who won two races last year in the CEV on a Moto3) and Ajo’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin and Arthur Sissis with Cortese prevailing on the rest in the final corner.

Danny Kent never got into the battle and finished in 8th, while Louis Rossi took the ninth spot and last year’s 125cc CEV champion Alex Rins closed out the top 10.

Continue reading: Maverick Vinales wins first ever Moto3 GP race in Qatar

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The inaugural Moto3 class with their 250cc four stroke, single cylinder machines having replaced the 125cc class started today’s 2012 season with the first official practice session at the Losail circuit in Qatar.

Topping the timesheets, as everyone more or less expected is this year’s title favourite Maverick Vinales, who took the lead on his penultimate lap to dethrone Luis Salom who led for most of the session. The Avintia FTR-Honda rider then bettered himself with a last lap flyer and post 2.9.762. Luis Rossi (FTR-Honda) took second with his last lap and finished just 0.218 from Vinales and the only two riders to break the 2.10 mark.

Luis Salom (Kalex KTM) ended up in third and 0.539s off pace followed by Miguel Oliveira who was the last rider to be within a second from Vinales.

Sandro Cortese was fifth, followed by GP rookie Romano Fenati on a FTR-Honda who took 6th on his first time at the Qatar circuit. Niklas Ajo was 7th with Zulfahmi Khairuddin, Héctor Faubel and Alexis Masbou closing out the top ten.

Continue reading: Moto3 Qatar: Maverick Vinales bags FP1

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Yesterday at Jerez de la Frontera, Avintia Racing Team launched its 2012 campaign in MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3.

The Spanish based team, after the financial merger between the Avintia Group and BQR and will continue running under the Blusens banner and will field four riders in the three different classes, with Ivan Silva and Yonny Hernandez competing in the new CRT category in MotoGP, with Robertino Pietri who will be doing five wildcard rides during the season, and former 125cc World Champion Julián Simón in Moto2, and rising star Maverick Viñales in Moto3 who will also be sponsored by Repsol.

Silva and Hernandez will be riding FTR Kawasaki’s, and Simon who finished 8th in yesterday’s final day of IRTA testing at the Spanish circuit is on a FTR Moto M212, while Vinales finished on top in Moto3 with his FTR Honda M312.

Yonny Hernández (MotoGP): “For me taking part into the MotoGP world championship is like a dream. I am coming from Moto2 and I’ll have to learn but I know the team very well and it will be of great help. Logically the bike is quite different from the ones I have ridden so far especially in terms of traction control and electronics but so far I have been happy with our progress throughout the pres-season.”

Continue reading: Avintia Racing presents MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 teams

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Spanish petroleum giant Repsol has decided to back the 2011 125cc Rookie of the Year, Maverick Viñales in this season’s new Moto3 class.

The announcement was made ahead of the official Moto2 and Moto3 three day test that kicked off today at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia, and the Spanish teenager will be joining other Repsol sponsored riders like Miguel Oliveira and Alex Rins (who is currently injured) in Moto3, Marc Marquez in Moto2, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa in MotoGP.

Viñales finished third in his debut season winning four races (Le Mans, Assen, Sepang and Valencia) and five other podiums while he was riding for the Blusens by Paris Hilton Team.

This season he’ll will be riding a Honda FTR M312 under the Avintia Competición (BQR) Racing banner, and it is almost certain that he’ll switch to Moto2 in 2013.

“I am very excited to be riding for a sponsor like Repsol this season, as Repsol have been a force behind a great number of victories in the World Championship,” said Vinales. “Many great riders have received their support and I am honoured to be joining this elite group. The big three current Repsol riders - Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Márquez - have won titles, and this is my aim for 2012. I can only hope to follow the path that other Repsol riders have established in the World Championship and take many wins this year. Now it is time for me to test in Valencia and we will be trying out many of the improvements that have been made over the winter”.

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Maverick Viñales became an instant star in this year’s 125cc championship and was named the Rookie of the Year after taking four wins, another five podiums and three pole positions that put him in third place in the 2011 standings.

The 16-year old who will turn 17 in two months will be staying with BQR team (who is expected to lose socialite Paris Hilton as their main sponsor) for the next two years.

The Spanish youngster got his first taste of a Moto3 racer during the post season at Valencia test riding a Honda NSF250R, but the test was disrupted by rain. The BQR team travelled to the Spanish circuit of Almeria yesterday, where he tested the FTR M311 powered by a Honda engine to prepare for the upcoming maiden season of the new Moto3 class that replaces the 125s with 250cc four-stroke machines.

Viñales also gifted with a few laps on the team’s Moto2 machine as a reward for his excellent 2011 debut season and had this to say about the Moto2 bike, “What a surprise the team gave me. It’s true that I had asked the team to let me try a Moto2 at some point, but I didn’t expect it to happen today. I was surprised by its power and acceleration, it was really fun and I want to thank the team. But the important thing is that we were able to test the FTR Moto3 and we got very valuable information to keep working throughout the preseason.”

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It was a tall order for Johann Zarco to try to beat Nico Terol for the last ever 125cc championship title and unfortunately the rider crashed out on lap 3 and couldn’t rejoin the race after cutting open his right little finger, thus giving the title to the Spaniardwho was sixth at that moment and needed just a tenth place finish to take the crown.

The race in itself was a crash fest due to the intermittent rain, but Maverick Vinales won the race scoring his fourth victory in his 2011 rookie season. The Paris Hilton (yes, she was there Tweeting her heart away) Blusens rider celebrated his victory with a Marco Simoncelli dedicated flag as the Bankia Aspar team celebrated both Terol’s title and two podium finishes with Terol a distant second and Hector Faubel in third.

The gaps between riders were immense as Ajo riders Efren Vazquez (AvantAir Asia and Jonas Folger (Red Bull Motorsport) finished in fourth and fifth respectively, followed by Alberto Moncayo in sixth. Luis Salom took seventh, while Nicklas Ajo was more than a minute off pace with his 8th spot, and Luigi Morciano and Louis Rossi closed out the top ten.

Continue reading: Nico Terol is the 2011 125cc World Champion as Maverick Vinale wins the race at Valencia

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Today’s 125cc Top Gun at Sepang was Maverick Vinales (2011 Rookie of the Year) who took his third win of the season, but the news is the championship is still open between Nico Terol and Johann Zarco, after a final last lap thriller changed the outcome of the race.

The Aspar rider headed the field for most of the race looking like he would wrap up the last 125cc championship title at Sepang, as closest rival Zarco had to come from his qualifying 15th place to fifth on the first lap.

With seven laps to go Terol became embroiled in a battle with Vinales who grabbed the lead, with Sandro Cortese also going past the Bankia rider who found himself in third with Zarco right behind him. An error by Vinales saw Terol pick off Cortese and then re-take the lead from the Spanish rookie with just two laps to go and victory almost in sight.

Continue reading: 125cc Sepang: Maverick Vinales wins race, championship to go down at Valencia

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If you’ve suddenly become a Maverick Vinales fan in these past few races, you might be interested in knowing that the bodywork of a 2011 Suzuki GSX-R600 painted with the Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing Team colors is currently up for auction on eBay with proceeds from the sale going to the Roadracing World Action Fund.

This is the same motorcycle that Paris Hilton was riding pillion on when she made her entrance at Jay Leno’s Tonight Show last May and the fuel tank has now been autographed by both Hilton and Leno.

The bodywork is fiberglass with Kevlar-reinforced mounting points and designed to fit 2011-model Suzuki GSX-R600s and GSX-R750s but does not have cutouts for streetbike lights and turn signals, but it can be modified.

The bike with the Blusens bodywork will be displayed during the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix July 22-24 at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca at the Roadracing booth. The Roadracing World Action Fund, is a non-profit organization with a mission to promote motorcycle racing safety, and in particular, to encourage and facilitate the use of soft air barriers at motorcycle racing events.

If anyone is interested in making an offer just click here.

Source | motoblog.it

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Paris Hilton arrived at Jay Leno’s show last tonight, aboard a bike painted in her 125cc GP team’s colors and she even talked about 16-year old rider Maverick Vinales winning his first ever MotoGP race at Le Mans, for about … 20 seconds.

You’d think that the lady could dedicate some of her time in plugging the team that carries her name especially with a gearhead like Leno, not that we expected that he’d ask her opinion on the demise of the 125cc series and what she thinks of the new 2012 Moto3 format.

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