The Gran Premio Animoca Brands de Aragón illustrated the true highs and lows of motorcycle racing for GASGAS – with Izan Guevara putting on a vintage performance to take his fourth win of the season, while Sergio Garcia finished 13th. In Moto2 both Jake Dixon and Albert Arenas couldn’t reach the checkered flag.
- Autosolar GASGAS Aspar rider Izan Guevara scorches the Moto3 field from P1 to the top step of the podium, recording his fourth win of the year, while Sergio Garcia finishes 13th
- Shimoku GASGAS Aspar’s Jake Dixon suffers a difficult weekend crashing out of the top six while Albert Arenas unfortunately falls on lap two
- GASGAS faces a dash to the other side of the world in just four days to compete in the Grand Prix of Japan on the 25th September
The undulations of the 5km MotorLand Aragón circuit in Northern Spain were almost a perfect reflection of the emotions experienced for both the Autosolar GASGAS Aspar Moto3 team and the Shimoku GASGAS Aspar Moto2 Team.
In Moto3 Izan Guevara showed his mettle with – arguably – a career defining performance. The 18-year-old from Palma de Mallorca had set his sights on nothing short of victory in what was his home race. With an agreement to move up to Moto2 alongside Jake Dixon for next season, Guevara is aiming for race victories but also to finish the season with the championship title in hand.
He’s ideally placed to do that now. After blistering qualifying sessions which netted him P1 for Sunday, and then a scorching 19 lap light-to-flag performance, Guevara is already looking like champion material. His fourth win of the year so far now means he is 33 points ahead of his teammate Sergio Garcia – who could only finish 13th in Aragón – in the riders standings. GASGAS is also dominating the Constructor and Teams standings by a significant margin, making it exceptional news all round.
Unfortunately the Shimoku GASGAS Aspar squad suffered a weekend to forget in Moto2, with Albert Arenas cashing out on lap two and then Jake Dixon losing the front and tumbling out of the race on the last lap while battling in the top six. The double retirement on Sunday could have easily gone the other way for Arenas and Dixon who had qualified in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The opportunity to bounce back is just around the corner nevertheless as GASGAS and the entire Grand Prix paddock now dashes to the far east, to the other side of the globe, for the Motul Grand Prix of Japan on the 25th of September
#11 – Sergio García: «I wasn’t expecting a race like this. I couldn’t find the feeling I wanted and made a lot of mistakes at the braking points and on corner entry. I know we could have done better but it was also important to keep calm. It is important to keep positive and keep working hard like we always do across the race weekends.”
#28 – Izan Guevara: “This was an incredible and really important result for the championship – this victory is really important for me and the team too. It was an incredible race, our pace was so strong all weekend. I pushed hard straight from P1 at the start and just raced as hard as I could to keep the gap as big as possible. An incredible weekend, and Motorland is my home!”
#75 – Albert Arenas: “Obviously the race did not go to plan, it barely got started and there was a lot of chaos on the first laps. I saw Augusto was flying and I arrived to Turn 12, locked the front and went down. Things that can happen sometimes and I have to put it down to learning because the rest of the weekend had been going very well. We’ll keep pushing as we head overseas now. Japan means the first time at Motegi since 2019 and the Asian leg of the calendar has always been quite good for me in the past. We have good speed and we just need to cut down these mistakes in the six races we have left.”
#96 – Jake Dixon: “I was fighting for 4th position and don’t really understand what happened with the crash. I’d like to have a look through the data. I want to say sorry to the team. I gave them a lot of work this weekend. Not ideal. We’ll move onto Japan now and to a track I really enjoy.”
Results – 2022 Moto3 World Championship, Round 15:
1. Izan Guevara (GASGAS) 19 Laps; 2. Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) +0.957, 3. Daniel Holgado (KTM) +6.536, 13. Sergio García (GASGAS) +17.217
Moto3 Championship Standings – After Round 15:
1. Izan Guevara (GASGAS) 229pts, 2. Sergio García (GASGAS) 196pts, 3. Dennis Foggia (Honda) 171pts
Results – 2022 Moto2 World Championship, Round 15:
1. Pedro Acosta (Kalex) 21 Laps; 2. Aron Canet (Kalex) +2.612, 3. Augusto Fernandez (Kalex) +3.799, DNF. Albert Arenas (GASGAS / Kalex) 20 laps, DNF. Jake Dixon (GASGAS / Kalex) 1 Lap
Moto2 Championship Standings – After Round 15:
1. Augusto Fernandez (Kalex) 214pts, 2. Ai Ogura (Kalex) 207pts, 3. Aron Canet (Kalex) 177pts, 9. Jake Dixon (GASGAS / Kalex) 108pts, 14. Albert Arenas (GASGAS / Kalex) 65pts