The CFMOTO Aspar Team rider becomes the first Moto3 leader after a final lap in which he has overtaken five riders to take the victory.
David Alonso and the CFMOTO Aspar Team have made history today in Qatar with the first victory in the World Championship for a Chinese manufacturer. The Colombian rider has left everyone who was enjoying the first grand prix of the season speechless with an excellent, masterful last lap, in which he has overtaken five riders to take the first victory of the season. The 2023 rookie of the year has started the season in charge, with an unappealable victory that gives the lead in the constructors’ standings to CFMOTO and in the teams’ standings to the CFMOTO Aspar Team. Alonso has only led one lap, the one that mattered, the one that made the difference. From the beginning, from eighth position on the grid, the Colombian rider has competed with the leading group, crouching, waiting for his time to come and avoiding problems.
With the passing of the laps and the elimination of some of his biggest rivals, David Alonso has begun to settle down and to prepare for those last agonizing Moto3 laps, in which all the riders play it all or nothing. But everything has changed at the beginning of the last lap: the CFMOTO Aspar Team rider was sixth, one of his worst positions throughout the race. The work was piling up, but on the 5.3 km of the Qatari track it was necessary to overtake again five riders if he wanted to win. Said and done: Adrián Fernández, Vicente Pérez (who subsequently crash), Riccardo Rossi, Taiyo Furusato and, finally, in the last corner, Dani Holgado. All of them have succumbed to the cold blood of the Colombian. From being 0.5 seconds off the leader, to finish the race with an advantage of 41 thousandths over Holgado, second today. With this victory, the first of the year, David Alonso is the leader of the Moto3 category for the first time in his short career in the World Championship.
David Alonso’s performance is also joined today by Joel Esteban’s spectacular debut. The Spanish rider has made his debut in the World Championship today with an intense race, in which he has recovered up to twelve places from his grid position. Esteban today has made up for his performance yesterday in qualifying and has added his first five points in the World Championship, on a track he did not know and where he has only lost ten seconds to the winner in the sixteen laps of the race.
WINNER David Alonso: “I didn’t expect to win, I had everything under control, but before the last lap everything became complicated. I made a mistake in managing the slipstream and there were riders passing me everywhere. I thought ‘I’m going to see how far I can go’. I was very clear about it, I wanted to try it in the last corner. There was a moment of crisis, but I was able to solve it in the last lap. My dream is to be world champion, but for now we are going to manage the moment. Today, for example, if I couldn’t win, the goal was to finish and score points.”
11th Joel Esteban (+10,827): “I am very happy with my first race. I started from behind because I didn’t do well yesterday, but at the start and in the first corners I made a lot of progress. In the fourth corner I have had a small scare that made me lose contact with the group, and by trying to continue pushing I have made another mistake that has already left me behind. I have been left alone, a bit behind, like in a third group, but I was able to come back and catch up with the second. I have finished eleventh and I think that without the mistake I had I could have fought for front positions. Anyway, I’m happy with my first race.”