FIM Moto3 World Championship/Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana
Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana
Valencia, Spain
November 13, 2016
Race Results (all on Dunlop tires):
1. Brad BINDER, South Africa (KTM), 24 laps, Total Race Time 40:13.777
2. Joan MIR, Spain (KTM), -0.056
3. Andrea MIGNO, Italy (KTM), -0.081
4. Enea BASTIANINI, Italy (HONDA), -0.147
5. Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO, Italy (HONDA), -0.713
6. Juanfran GUEVARA, Spain (KTM), -0.899
7. Jakub KORNFEIL, Czech Republic (HONDA) -2.683
8. Philipp OETTL, Germany (KTM), -3.145
9. Jorge NAVARRO, Spain (HONDA), -5.263
10. Jorge MARTIN, Spain (MAHINDRA), -7.921
19. Aron CANET, Spain (HONDA), -16.838, started from pit lane
From A Press Release Issued By RBA Racing Team:
Guevara ends the season with a strong sixth position at Valencia, Rodrigo crashes out
Today the Ricardo Tormo circuit hosted the last race of the 2016 Moto3 World Championship.
The day started with a solid warm up for Guevara, who set the third best lap with the time of 1’40.396. In the race, the Spaniard started from the second row and he faced the first few laps with caution. Once he made it through the initial phase, Juanfran started setting a consistent pace and made his comeback, approaching the front group. Guevara crossed the finishing line in sixth position, achieving 10 points for the World Championship Standings.
Rodrigo was very close to the Top-3 in the warm up of this morning, as he finished less than half a second off the best time. Gabriel made a good start in today’s race, moving from the eleventh spot on the grid to the leading group in the first few turns. Luck wasn’t by the side of the Argentinian youngster, who crashed out at the end of the first lap and was forced to abandon the race, without having the chance to fight for a good result.
#58 Juanfran Guevara: 6th
“I’m really happy. Generally speaking, this was a good weekend, the best of the season. I think there’s no better way to end the year. We were leading in two free practices and in all the other sessions we were among the fastest guys. It was a really tight race and it’s a great achievement to finish so close to the winner, only 0.899 seconds from him. On top of that, we were fighting in a strong group throughout the race. I’d like to congratulate the team on all the work they’ve done this year: the result of this weekend confirms the progress we made during the season. This ending gives us an extra boost to start the preseason. Grand Prix after Grand Prix we created a stable and strong group, I’m thankful for the work done both by the guys that are staying and the ones that are leaving.”
#19 Gabriel Rodrigo: not classified
”Today the feeling was really good in the warm up: we were very consistent when we were on our own. We ended in fourth position, but the result is positive, since we set four laps close to my best time on used tyres. The bike was perfect, I’m thankful to the team for all the work they’ve done throughout the weekend. All the problems that we had were sorted out and we improved. In the race, I knew I had to make a good start, because we were 11th: it wasn’t a bad position, but we were a bit far off. I got among the first group quickly, up to the fourth position. I was very aggressive, but without taking any extra risks. I was in a turn where it’s difficult to crash out, yet I lost the rear and we’ll have to check the data as I don’t know what happened. What matters is that during all the weekend we were very competitive, despite not finishing the race. We proved once again that we are a team to watch for the future. We know that we have a good base to fight and to finish with a good result, we’re strong. We’re looking forwards to the next season in order to keep on growing.”