Alcoba Eyes Another Podium, Kunii Feeling Confident
SachsenringSpanish youngster Jeremy Alcoba (Indonesian Racing Team Gresini Moto3 Honda NSF250RW) hopes that his brilliant second place at the Catalan Grand Prix two weeks ago is the start of something big.
The 19-year-old Spaniard qualified on the first two rows at six of the first seven races, so there’s no doubt he has the speed to fight for race victories, but only twice so far has he made it onto the podium: at Jerez, 0.5 seconds behind the winner, and at Barcelona-Catalunya, just 0.015 seconds behind the winner.
Alcoba has some catching up to do in the World Championship, in which Honda’s best-placed rider is currently fifth-placed Darryn Binder (Petronas Sprinta Racing Honda NSF250RW), who has finished the last two races in fifth position, only half a second behind the winner. Such is the crazily close competition in Moto3.
Honda’s next riders – Gabriel Rodrigo (Indonesian Racing Team Gresini Moto3 Honda NSF250RW), Andrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Team Honda NSF250RW) and Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) – stand eighth, ninth and tenth in the championship, just in front of Alcoba.
Yuki Kunii (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) made an excellent return to action at Barcelona-Catalunya, three weeks after breaking his left collarbone during May’s French GP. The 18-year-old from Setagaya finished the race in 12th place, marking his third points score from his last four races – proof that the youngster is making forward strides.
This will be Kunii’s first grand prix at Sachsenring, because during his 2020 rookie GP season the German GP was cancelled due to the pandemic. However, he has ridden the track in the Red Bull Rookies Cup.
Team-mate Andi Farid Izdihar (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) also started his World Championship career last season, so this will be his first time at Sachsenring. Therefore the 23-year-old Indonesian will dedicate his first practice sessions getting to know this fun and very twisty circuit.
Following Sunday’s racing Kunii, Izdihar and the rest of the Moto3 grid head northwest for next weekend’s Dutch TT at Assen.
The Barcelona GP was quite good for me, because even though my injury was not really 100% fixed it didn’t cause me any issues and my feeling with the bike was already at 100%. That means I will be able to do my maximum and really push at Sachsenring. Also I know the track from the Rookies Cup, so my feeling is that I can do much better than I did at Barcelona.
This eighth round of the 2021 season will be my first time at Sachsenring, so I have been learning the track by watching videos of earlier races and by examining the team’s data from previous GPs. I hope we can start the weekend in a good way and then we will see what happens. It will be interesting to ride this track for the first time and I will do my best.