Moto3
The mixed conditions hit Moto3 the hardest in so far as the amount of crashes with the rain getting the better of almost half the grid. It was the 16 year old Italian Romano Fenati that proved Qatar was not a fluke and that he really does have serious talent; Fenati led from the start, remaining calm and collected on the damp track. Turn 9 was the make or break for the riders with wet patches catching out a lot of them.
Once again there was an exciting battle for the last podium position between Luis Salom, who finished 2nd, Sandro Cortese, who finished 3rd and Alex Rins who missed out on a podium and finished 4th.
Title favourite Maverick Vinales only managed to finish 6th after a few major mistakes at the start which saw him drop down to 28th, his cousin Issac crashed out on lap 17, not the best day for the Vinales'. The race result means Fenati now leads the Moto3 championship, he has a 10 point advantage over spaniard Vinales.
Riders that crashed out of the race:
[Riders who didn't finish first lap]: Jack Miller, Danny Kent, Simone Grotzkyj - A suspected collarbone fracture for Miller and contusions for Kent.
Others: Adrian Martin (21 laps), Kenta Fujii (8 laps, wrist injury), Danny Webb (9 laps), Louis Rossi (14 laps), Issac Vinales (17 laps), Josep Rodriguez (19 laps), Miguel Oliveira (20 laps), Arthur Sissis (20 laps, contusions to chest and hands), Jakob Kornfeil (21 laps), Brad Binder (21 laps), Afren Vazquez (21 laps), Niklas Ajo (21 laps), Toni Finsterbusch (21 laps), Luigi Morciano (21 laps)
*Niklas Ajo will not be at Estoril after a dispute with a track official.
[1st-Romano Fenati, 2nd Louis Salom, 3rd Sandro Cortese]
The weather caused ever more havoc during the Moto2 race; with a strong start by the front runners, the battle was on between Marc Marquez, Thomas Luthi, Scott Redding and Pol Espargaro, each taking the lead off of each countless times. Mika Kallio was also in the hunt early on but with the weather changing he made a diversion (he would have rather avoided) through the gravel dropping him back, he finished in 7th just ahead of Claudio Corti.
Scott Redding was one to watch from the start, he found himself racing for a podium spot after he qualified 12th on the grid. The Brit's chances of a win only lasted 4 laps but a podium was definitely in sight with a battle for 3rd, Swiss rider Thomas Luthi pipped him to it.
A cool track but heated riders, Pol Espargaro fought tooth and nail to hold off Marquez as the rain started falling, both knew the race could be red flagged.
With rain pouring down in Jerez the race was inevitably stopped, however not without confusion as on the lap the flagged was raised, Marquez was in the lead for half the lap, as well as crossing the line under the flag but ruled are rules and it went back to the previous fully completed lap where the last times and places had been recorded which meant Pol Espargaro won his first Moto2 race - even though he didn't know it at the time! Congrats Pol!
All but four of the Moto2 riders stayed on two wheels, Elena Rosell was the first to go out crashing on Lap 4, Marco Colandrea (6 laps), Mike di Meglio (8 laps) and Max Neukirchner (12 laps) were the other three.
[1st-Pol Espargaro, 2nd-Marc Marquez, 3rd-Thomas Luthi]
MotoGP
By the time the MotoGP race rolled around (i know i'm going on about the weather but it was an important factor) the rain had passed and the track was rapidly drying, with tyre wear being the main issue during the race.
Ducati once again were the talking point but on a more positive note this time, Nicky Hayden had a corker of a start to his race, after qualifying on the front row that is where he stayed for the first quarter of the race fending off the Tech 3 Yamaha's of Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso.
While Hayden was holding his place, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo where off in a fight of their own, a familiar sight of them breaking away from the pack. Dani Pedrosa wasn't too far away either.
Stefan Bradl held his own amongst the 'big dawg's' of Valentino Rossi and Alvaro Bautista, the rookie finished in 7th in a Gresini, Ducati sandwich however not Vale but Nicky. Hayden soon wore his tyre's out, with a fair few laps still to run he dropped back down the field to 8th, in front of his teammate. Worrying for the team (i promise i'll hop off the Ducati Bandwagon soon) that while Hayden was immersing himself at the front Rossi was still fighting down in 10th against a rider who is also have a bad start to his season, Ben Spies.
The same thing happened over at Yamaha, Lorenzo fighting for the win and Spies fighting for a point (which he didn't get and finished 11th) Hopefully we'll see them all back up the top sometime soon.
Cal Crutchlow put in another very impressive rider over the weekend, if he had a few more laps and his tyre's weren't dropping off i'm sure he would have taken 3rd off Pedrosa, fingers crossed for the weekend Cal (me bias? of course he's a Brit!)
Lorenzo just missed out on the win with his tyre's degrading rapidly on the last few laps handing the win to Stoner. It was first's for riders in all three classes as Stoner had never won at Jerez before so well done to him. He did suffer from slight arm pump again which is never a good thing, will he get it in Estoril at the weekend...
It was a good weekend for the Espargaro brother's as Pol's big bro Aleix was the fastest CRT (Aleix finished the race in 12th behind Spies) so another well done to him! I bet celebrations went on in their household!
One big disappointment for Randy de Puniet as the frenchman retired on the last lap after what looked like a bike with no fuel left, not a way you want to end so close to the finish line. Other retirements were James Ellison on Lap 24 (gearbox) Michele Pirro, 18 laps and Yonny Hernandez who stalled on the grid, started from the pit lane then came back in to the pit lane on the first lap.
[1st-Casey Stoner, 2nd-Jorge Lorenzo, 3rd- Dani Pedrosa]
Next Race: Estoril 4, 5, 6th May.
Also this week will be the Mugello Formula 1 test.
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