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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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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Moto3’s third free practice at Jerez started with very cool temperatures and the now characteristic rain, but Miguel Oliveira continued to show his particular feeling on the slippery Spanish track as he again posted the best time in the last minutes of the session with a flying lap of 1’58″ which left Red Bull KTM Ajo Factory riders Arthur Sissis and Danny Ken, second and third respectively, more than one second adrift.

Luis Salom (RW Racing GP) was fourth, while Romano Fenati took fifth before a highside at the Nieto turn in the last minutes took him out of the finale. He was followed on the timesheets by Jakub Kornfeil and Efren Vasquez. The JHK T-Shirt LaGlisse rider also crashed out at the same turn as Fenati, only he took down a hapless Jack Miller with him.

Sandro Cortese was 8th, while yesterday’s crasher Hector Faubel moved up to 9th and Zulfahmi Khairuddin, also victim of a crash closed out the top ten.

The tricky conditions also saw crashes by Isaac Vinales, Kenta Fuji and Alan Techer, while points leader Maverick Vinales decided to save himself for this afternoon’s qualifying session as he finished in 11th and 2.2 seconds adrift.

Continue reading: Moto3: Miguel Oliveira domimates FP3 with flying lap

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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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We’ve already seen a couple of photos and a teaser video of Honda’s new Moto3 now dubbed NSF250R, but will Honda has decided to present the bike officially during the Catalunya GP weekend with former World Champion Alex Criville riding demonstration laps.

Moto3 will replace the current 125cc class in 2012.

Honda press release after the jump.

Continue reading: Honda to officially present NSF250R in Catalunya

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Yamaha’s Masao Furusawa may be retiring in a month and half, but the driving force behind Yamaha’s MotoGP racing effort has revealed that the Iwata company has started a Moto3 project.

Moto3 will be replacing the present 125cc class next year with 250cc four stroke engines and with big manufacturers like Honda and KTM getting into the game and small outfits like Ioda Racing, ADV and the latest from Sherco/Moro Racing that already have a head start with prototypes in the competing phase in national championships or already available to teams for testing, and Yamaha doesn’t want to be left out the door, and are developing a bike based on their YZ250F engine configuration.

Their interest according to Furusawa is to help groom upcoming riders, but Yamaha isn’t new to the lower classes with their World titles in the 125cc and 250cc classes back in ‘67 and ‘68.

Source | mcn.com

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While the first images of Moto3 bikes that will replace the 125cc class in 2012 (just how boring are the names Moto1, 2 and 3) are slowly trickling out, like Ioda Racing’s TR001 and ADV and CRP’s AT03-1.0 Honda has decided after a couple of dark shots of their NRS 250 racer, to give us a teaser video of the bike in action.

How come this 4-stroke bike sounded way better in their engine teaser, than it does in the video?

Source | asphaltandrubber.com

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Here’s the first image of the Moto3 dubbed ADV AT03-1.0, another motorcycle that will be ready to replace the 125cc class in 2012.

Designed and built by ADV Advanced Technology and CRP Racing, the AT03 continues the ‘AT’ project that Moto2 team WTR San Marino ran in 2o1o with Valentin Debise.

The ADV AT03-1.0 is compact and equipped with a 4-stroke fuel injection engine with two CRP built injectors, the chassis is ADV and the fairings are all in carbon fiber. Suspensions are Ohlins Racing with Brembo floating dual disc front and back brakes, Fren Tubo brake hoses, 17″ extra light magnesium alloy wheels and gas throttle control by Domino.

Source | motograndprix.com

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The Grand Prix Commission (Dorna, FIM, IRTA, MSMA) met yesterday at Brno to further discuss the MotoGP rules for 2012, confirming the previous technical specifications for the new 1000cc class and clarifying the rules regarding the Claiming Rule teams.

Admission of a CRT will be only by unanimous decision of the GP Commission,which should prevent other manufacturers trying to enter MotoGP with an unofficially backed CRT team and benefitting from the 12 engine rule and the 24 liters fuel capacity. The Commission has also decided they can eventually modify the status of a CRT based on season performances.

As expected the Commission has saved Suzuki (even if they are not specifically mentioned) the ignominy of having to take off from the pitlane by confirming that any MSMA team who hasn’t won a dry race in the past 2008 and 2009 seasons will be able to use 9 engines instead of 6 and this rule will go into effect immediately.

Continue reading: FIM Rules: Moto3, CRT, Suzuki saved, extra practice session

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With Moto2 replacing the previous 250cc class and now forming part of the three classes of the MotoGP championship, you may think it was time to settle for a while and limit changes. But it seems everything is being done to keep the championship lively and get more teams on the grid, and so the 250cc class rumour has raised its head again from here at the MotoGP Assen.

According to one journalist, we will see the return of a four-stroke, 250cc class to the championship. There’s no information as to whether this would be an additional class or whether it would re-replace the Moto2 class but it’s more likely, as we originally reported, that the 125cc class will be replaced by these 250cc bikes and will be called Moto3. So far this year there has been plenty of discussion on the classes of the MotoGP championship and their respective technical specs.

The MotoGP is to go to 1000cc from 2012 and a big name in the sport, Jeremy Burgess had earlier thrown the cat among the pigeons by saying that there is a case for 600cc engines in the premier class. He was saying that there is no evidence that the strategy of 1000cc bikes makes the sport anymore viable than it currently is.

Continue reading: Rumours from Assen: 250cc class back soon?

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Matthew Birt of MCN ha revealed that the 125cc format may be on it’s way to extinction and the final species will probably exhale their last exhaust breathe at the end of the 2011 season.

The new series to be named Moto3 (what else could we expect after Moto2 and the 2012 1000cc series called Moto1) is now being discussed by Dorna and the FIM and it should be based on a 25occ four stroke single cylinder motor to replace the current 125cc two strokes. The bikes would be pure prototypes and would not have a single spec engine (powered by Honda) and a single clutch manufacturer (Suter) as in Moto 2.

As usual Honda has already had a head start on manufacturing a 250cc four-stroke single motor and have fitted it into a RS125 chassis and has tested it on the Motegi track where, according to rumours, is running 1.5 seconds faster than the current two stroke 125 GP bike.

Carmelo Ezpeleta has been talking about changing the feeder class ever since they brainstormed Moto2, but now several 125 teams want to make the jump to Moto2 where they would have more exposure and relatively lower costs and a cheaper 250cc four stroke championship could keep them from making the move to an all ready overcrowded and not so cheap as it seemed Moto2.

Source | asphaltandrubber.com

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