Suzuki Out Of Luck In Battle Royal For Fifth
MotorLand AragónTatsuki Suzuki (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) rode his heart out in a spectacular battle royal for fifth place at MotorLand Aragon, only to run out of luck just a few hundred metres from the finish line.
The 24-year-old from Chiba was one of a big pack of riders who spent the entire 19 laps swapping position around this fast, undulating circuit. For a while, Suzuki had three or four rivals to fight with, but in the closing stages of the race the pack grew to nine riders, making the final few laps critical to each rider’s result.
During the final lap Suzuki made a superb move through the chicane that precedes the circuit’s long back straight, gaining several places, but through the high-speed double right-hander that precedes the finish line he ran wide, losing several positions and taking the chequered flag in 12th. This result keeps the two-times Moto3 winner seventh in the championship chase.
Team-mate Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) had an even tougher race that won’t help his World Championship aspirations. Like Suzuki, the 21-year-old Italian started from the second row of the grid but struggled to run the pace he needed.
Foggia lost positions to finish the race in 14th, just two weeks after his stunning victory in the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano. Today’s result maintains his third place in the 2022 Moto3 World Championship, with just five races remaining.
Grand Prix rookie Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) completed the best weekend of his season so far, the perfect way to go into his home Grand Prix at Twin Ring Motegi, Japan, next week.
Yesterday the 17-year-old from Kanoya qualified a best-ever 14th, proving that he is learning to run the speed required to succeed at world-class level. Furusato lost time in the early laps and didn’t quite make the points, taking 17th place, just two places outside the points, but there’s little doubt that he took a step forward in his performance at Aragon.
Fellow rookie team-mate Mario Suryo Aji (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) took the chequered in 24th place. The 18-year-old Indonesian didn’t have the easiest of weekends, struggling to find the speed he needed to get a better grid position. In the race he rode as hard as he could, learning plenty with each lap, which will help him the last few races of his first World Championship season.
The Moto3 paddock is now on its way to Japan for next weekend’s racing at Motegi, then moves directly to Thailand for the following Sunday’s Thai GP. The last three races of 2022 take place in Australia, Malaysia and Valencia, Spain.
This weekend has been my best weekend of the year. From FP2, I stayed in a good position and was in Q2 for a second time. My pace in the race has been so close to my best lap time of the weekend. This time I could fight with some fast riders. But I made the same mistake I made at the other races. I lost too much time on the first lap and lost contact with the first group. That is something to improve. Maybe at the next race, my home race in Japan.
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We struggled all weekend, but I was surprised about my pace in the race. The first group was flying. The team is happy about my pace today. We need to work from Friday on the pace and fixing a better grid position. They trust in my capability to fight closer to the front. A tough weekend, and I'm looking forward to the overseas races.
