FIM Moto3 World Championship Losail International Circuit Doha, Qatar April 8, 2012 Race Results: 1. Maverick VIÑALES, Spain (FTR HONDA), 18 laps, 38:40.995 2. Romano FENATI, Italy (FTR HONDA), -4.301 seconds 3. Sandro CORTESE, Germany (KTM), -18.013 4. Luis SALOM, Spain (KALEX KTM), -18.200 5. Miguel OLIVEIRA, Portugal (SUTER HONDA), -18.745 6. Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN, Malaysia (KTM), -19.052 7. Arthur SISSIS, Australia (KTM), -19.466 8. Danny KENT, Great Britain (KTM), -21.098 9. Louis ROSSI, France (FTR HONDA), -21.153 10. Alex RINS, Spain (SUTER HONDA), -28.733 World Championship Point Standings (after 1 of 17 rounds): 1. Vinales, 25 points 2. Fenati, 20 3. Cortese, 16 4. Salom, 13 5. Oliveira, 11 6. Khairuddin, 10 7. Sissis, 9 8. Kent, 8 9. Rossi, 7 10. Rins, 6 More, from a press release issued by Team Aspar: Qatar GP – 08/04/12 – Losail International Circuit – Moto3 Race BANKIA ASPAR RIDERS TAKE FIRST MOTO3 POINTS Faubel and Moncayo place twelfth and fourteenth, respectively, at packed race in Qatar The wait was over and finally Grand Prix action returned for 2012, as the Losail International Circuit kicked off the season with the maiden Moto3 race. The riders in the new category took to the grid at 7pm local time, without a same-night warmup session due to the peculiarities of the Qatar GP schedule. Expectation was at a high and the Moto3 race provided plenty of excitement to satisfy fans, with many groups of riders battling for positions. The first lap record in the new class -2’07.276- was faster than the pole lap -2.08.188- by some distance. Viñales took the victory from Fenati, whilst Cortese completed the podium. Seven riders retired from the race. Héctor Faubel and Alberto Moncayo took a points haul of four and two, respectively, from the Qatar season opener. The BANKIA Aspar Moto3 riders both achieved better times in the race than in any practice session, and took great strides towards eliminating a chassis problem that had persisted all weekend. Many solutions were found inbetween yesterday’s warmup and tonight’s race, although traffic and a battle-hungry group of competitors slowed down their progress in the chase for better positions. Despite being unable to establish a consistent pace, the pair placed twelfth -Héctor- and fourteenth -Alberto. 12th Héctor Faubel: “I am happy with my start today, which took me up to the second group straight away. It’s a pity that on the third lap I ran wide after coming into contact with another rider, as that lost me places. I was part of a group who put up a huge fight, which ended up holding everyone back and I couldn’t break away. It was a tough race but I leave Qatar with plenty of hope for the future, because we found some solutions between the warmup and the race for a front end problem -one that had been plaguing us all weekend. We know that we still have work to do in order to find a better chassis setting and be able to open the throttle earlier. We also need more of a response from the engine.” 14th Alberto Moncayo: “The start didn’t go as well as I wanted and I found myself in a group hungry for a fight. I tried to keep a consistent pace up, but we were all causing one another so many problems that we were getting interrupted. I had trouble getting comfortable and I made a mistake at the start that dropped me down the order. In general, however, I was just lacking a little aggression. I was satisfied with the Kalex chassis, we solved a few issues from the beginning of the weekend but we still could have squeezed a bit more power out of the engine. This wasn’t the result that we were hoping for, but the championship has only just begun and we will be working hard to be stronger at Jerez.” More, from a press release issued by KTM: Cortese claims first KTM Moto3 podium in Qatar Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Sandro Cortese of Germany rode his way from pole position to podium third in the historic first ever Moto3 GP in Qatar on Sunday night after a massive battle for the minor place. Riders on KTM-driven bikes soaked up five of the top 10 places. Cortese said at the finish line that it had been a hugely difficult race as the group that followed the two leaders, Maverick Vinales of Spain and Italian Romano Fenati, engaged in a no-holds bar battle for third. “Today was very hard,” Cortese said. ” I expected it to be, but I didn’t think it was going to be this tough. I didn’t expect (Rd Bull KTM Ajo teammate) Arthur Sissis to be that fast. Generally it’s been a good day but now we have to work hard to catch Vinales.” Close behind Cortese and always in the hunt for third was Spanish rider Luis Salom on the Kalex-KTM for the Dutch team RW Racing GP who finished fourth. Malaysia’s Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Airasia Sic Ajo) and Australian Arthur Sissis put in great rides to finish 6-7 followed by Briton Danny Kent (Rd Bull KTM Ajo) in eighth. Sissis, the junior member of the Red Bull KTM Ajo trio rode a very strong race in only his second GP. He has moved up from the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies where he finished overall second last season. Twice in the second half of the 19-lap outing he was well in the running for third but made two small mistakes, clipped the Astroturf lining this Middle East circuit and lost the advantage. The battle for third came down to a tight exchange between Cortese and Salom as the following group made a mad dash for the finish in the second half of the last lap. Again and again both riders used the slipstream to their advantage but Cortese managed the final tactical maneuver and went on for a well-deserved third place. “Other riders on KTM-driven bikes were Hector Faubel of the Aspar Team who finished twelfth on the Kalex-KTM, Niklas Ajo on the KTM in thirteenth and Aspar rider Alberto Moncayo in fourteenth. Salom’s teammate Brad Binder of South Africa, was the only KTM-driven rider not to finish and all others finished in the points. The first Moto3 GP ever was run on the Losail Circuit near Doha and all riders compete on 250cc single cylinder four-stroke machines. The new class replaces the now defunct 125 cc class. The Qatar GP has been held since 2004 and since 2008 under 3700 floodlights. The next GP is in Jerez, Spain on April 27-29. More, from a press release issued by Blusens Avintia Racing: Maverick Viñales dominates the first GP of the year in Losail and gets the first win in Moto3 ever. Losail, 8 April 2012. He got the very last win in the 125 cc clas and today he got the first one in the new Moto3 category. Maverick Viñales has given a brilliant performance and his triumph today confirms the fact that he is definitely one of the most promising riders in the world. It has not been an easy task though. He did not make such a good start and surprisingly Fenati made an escape in first position. Maverick understood the young Italian rider´s intentions and chased him after an amazing thrid lap and managed to eventually catch up with him on the fourth lap. Both riders left a dense pack of up to seven riders behind. The latter were battling for the third position among which was Cortese who initially seemed to be Mack´s toughest rival. Viñales prepared for the race working each an every day during the training practices and he was aware that it was crucial to bear a good pace if he used worn-down tyres. This is what he thought and this is how it went. With nine laps to go Maverick put himself in first position and widened the gap between him and the Italian rider tenth after tenth and crossed the finish four seconds before him. A great race for the young Avintia Blusens rider who has become the world championship leader as well as the first Moto3 winner and proves to be in full force for this new season. 25 Maverick Viñales (1º 38′.40.995): “It has been fantastic. Starting the season with a win is the best thing that could have happened to us. We had a very good pre-season and we thoroughly prepared today’s race for days. We wanted the bike to be in fine conditions and we also wanted to have a good pace with worn-down tyres and we made it. It was an exciting race and Fenati amazed me. He really did it well. But in order to win such a race it is fundamental to be able to be fast in the final laps and I was reassured because I knew we were. The team delivered an outstandingly good work and they provided me with a very effectve motorbike. I would like to dedicate this win to my technicians and mechanics and I also would like to thank them not only for the job they did this weekend but also throughout the pre-season when they managed to cope with a very high pace of work. I am very happy with being the first Moto3 winner ever. And I want more of those ! We will be working on so we can make it a reality. So far so good and we are going to Jerez in very high spirits.”