Jaume Masia superbly won the MotorLand Aragon event, while Dennis Foggia, who will compete in the Moto3 Grands Prix next year with the Sky VR46 team, was crowned Junior World Champion at the end of an exemplary season and two races from the end.
The drivers of the Junior World Championship met at MotorLand for the tenth of the twelve races of the season, the last two rounds taking place in Valencia on November 19. In the provisional championship standings before this Valencia round, Dennis Foggia largely dominated with 156 points, compared to 96 for Jeremy Alcoba and Vicente Perez, as well as 95 for Alonso Lopez, 83 for Kazuki Masaki and 80 for Sergio Garcia. Foggia only needed to finish on the podium this Sunday to win the title.
Foggia started from pole position, with Viu and Polanco at his side on the front row. Masaki was on the second with Vietti and Wongthananon. On the third were Yurchenko (future rider of Alain Bronec's CIP team in the Moto3 World Championship next year), Lopez and Masia.
Foggia got the best start ahead of Viu, Masaki, Polanco, Vietti and Masia. Viu, the driver of Alex Rins' team, took charge of the pursuit of the leader Foggia, driver of the Junior Team VR46 Academy. Vietti, the other Junior Team VR46 Academy driver, was fourth behind Polanco, who replaced the injured Livio Loi at the last Grand Prix with the Leopard Racing team.
The Italian Celestino Vietti, teammate of leader Dennis Foggia, fell without seriousness and retired. It was during the following lap that the British Charlie Nesbitt fell, but much more heavily. Then Alex Viu fell at the exit of the last turn. He slid unharmed to the outside, his motorcycle to the inside, but he was not allowed to cross the track and had to give up.
At mid-race, Foggia, Masia and Polanco clearly dominated, grouped at the front. Foggia then had a 77-point lead in the championship over Lopez and Perez, so the title was virtually in his pocket. Yurchenko, Alain Bronec's future driver, was tenth at 8.3.
Foggia, Masia and Polanco were joined by Masaki, while Lopez, second in the provisional ranking, was fifth at 2.1. Masaki continued his comeback and climbed into third position by overtaking Polanco. Foggia kept the lead two laps from the end, just ahead of Polanco, Lopez well recovered, Masia and Masaki. Lopez received a 5-second penalty for exceeding the circuit limits too frequently.
Lopez took the lead on the last lap, ahead of Masia, Foggia, Polanco and Masaki. Masia took the lead and won ahead of Foggia, Masaki (Lopez penalized) and Polanco. Denni Foggia was crowned 2017 Junior World Champion
Moto3 race results (before Lopez's penalty was applied):
Provisional ranking of the Junior World Championship:
Photos © CEV Repsol / Dorna
