Izan Guevara turned up the heat in the Moto3 championship title scrap with teammate Sergio Garcia, after scoring his fifth consecutive podium of the season, while in Moto2 Albert Arenas battled into the top six and Jake Dixon finished 11th.
- GASGAS Aspar headlines Moto3 with a podium double: Izan Guevara nails a scorching win while Sergio Garcia races to third
- GASGAS Aspar Moto2 squad’s Albert Arenas battles ahead to sixth while Jake Dixon nurses injury and finishes 11th
- GASGAS Aspar celebrates the season halfway marker with a dominant 1-2 standing in the Moto3 riders championship and a 47 point lead in the Constructors championship
Amidst the pressure cooker environment of scorching temperatures, championship challenges and a twisty and unforgiving Sachsenring circuit spectated by over 232k fans, the GASGAS Aspar Team delivered a sensational set of results across Moto3 and Moto2.
Izan Guevara absolutely dominated a boiling 27 lap race from lights to flag, to score his fifth consecutive podium of the season, and add a fourth Grand Prix victory to his racing CV. Staying ice cool amidst the 49°C degree track temperatures and 34°C air temps, Izan had been on blistering form all weekend and left his rivals in the dust from the very second the lights snuffed out.
The 17-year-old didn’t put a wheel wrong around the quirky 3.671km Sachsenring circuit in East Germany, where he used his natural smooth and flowing style to overcome the difficult conditions to deliver the sixth GASGAS Aspar team win of the season – by an impressive 4.8 second margin.
Teammate Sergio Garcia also showed true class and form, completing his weekend on the podium in third position after starting in P8. The 19-year-old Spanish ace – who is leading the championship standings – had dealt with rear grip problems while tussling with Dennis Foggia throughout the race. Nevertheless, Garcia kept his fighting spirit alive, and mounted a last-lap-final-corner challenge on Foggia; ultimately just finishing 0.111 seconds behind his rival.
In Moto2 high drama was promised after Albert Arenas showed blistering form, clocking P2 in qualifying and then going one better to top the time sheets on Sunday morning warmup. The 25-year-old Spaniard has been showing exciting form over the past handful of Grand Prix and arrived in Germany determined to bounce back from his DNF at the last race caused by a technical issue. Arenas attacked hard from the race start; delighting fans in the grandstands with mid-corner drifts and high speed slides. An impressive feat given the technical nature of the Sachsenring – where blind apexes and undulations see riders racing 60% of the lap leaning over on the extreme left side of the tire. Ultimately Arenas fell victim to grip issues, and slipped back to 6th. The Spaniard however did collect ten points for his efforts, jumping up two positions in the championship. Meanwhile Jake Dixon put on a gutsy performance, nursing injury after a nasty highside crash during FP3 on Saturday. Despite the incident the GASGAS Aspar rider regrouped to qualify P4 in the afternoon shootout. Finishing 11th in the race after also encountering traction difficulties Dixon picked up a further five points in the championship, bumping up to 10th in the standings.
At the season’s halfway mark, one race remains – the Motul TT Assen in the Netherlands – on the 26th June, before the traditional summer break.
#11 – Sergio García: “For me until this morning it was actually one of the worst weekends of this season! But today I improved a little bit with the bike, and I pushed really hard during the race. But at the end of the race I didn’t have enough grip in the rear tire. Third place round here is really positive for a bad weekend – and I will look to improve some things in Holland.”
#28 – Izan Guevara: “It was an incredible race for me. Five consecutive podiums in the world championship is incredible, and now nearly the same points as Sergio! I had an incredible pace on my own. I just tried to keep pushing lap by lap – especially in a 27 lap race. Thank you to my team for all their hard work; in Assen we are going to push even more!”
#75 – Albert Arenas: “A great weekend and I‘m very happy with our work done here at the Sachsenring. The race went quite well – top six – but it was hard and I suffered, especially with the tires. I learnt a lot. We’ll keep working towards Assen. We know about some of the difficulties we’ve had since Montmelo and if we keep pushing with the solution then we’ll be even further forward. It will be a short week, so we’ll get home, rest, train and hope for more in Holland and the second half of the season. Thanks to the guys for everything this weekend: we worked really well.”
#96 – Jake Dixon: “I didn’t feel too bad on the bike but it was a major task for the race. For some reason I did not have the grip I had all weekend and had a strange vibration. I don’t normally go backwards but today that happened and I had to salvage what I could. I bullied the riders around me for that position and did the best I could do. Thanks to the team. We obviously want more.”
Results – 2022 Moto3 World Championship, Round 10:
1. Izan Guevara (GASGAS) 27 Laps; 2. Dennis Foggia (Honda) +4.853, 3. Sergio García (GASGAS) +4.964,
Championship Standings – After Round 10:
1. Sergio García (GASGAS) 166pts; 2. Izan Guevara (GASGAS) 159pts, 3. Dennis Foggia (Honda) 115pts,
Results – 2022 Moto2 World Championship, Round 10:
1. Augusto Fernandez (Kalex) 28 Laps; 2. Pedro Acosta (Kalex) +7.704, 3. Sam Lowes (Kalex) +7.844
6. Albert Arenas (GASGAS / Kalex) +11.635, 11. Jake Dixon (GASGAS / Kalex) +18.553,
Championship Standings – After Round 10:
1. Celestino Vietti (Kalex) 133pts; 2. Ai Ogura (Kalex) 125pts, 3. Augusto Fernandez (Kalex) 121pts, 10. Jake Dixon (GASGAS / Kalex) 60pts, 13. Albert Arenas (GASGAS / Kalex) 45pts,