Moto3 Australia FP2: Sasaki dominates ahead of Suzuki, Guevara fourth

At the Australian Grand Prix, Izan Guevara has a first chance to win the Championship, to become the seventh Spanish rider to win a Moto3 title. Dennis Foggia, Sergio Garcia and Ayumu Sasaki are now his only rivals and the scenario to give the title to Guevara is as follows:

– He scores 2 points more than Foggia and,

– He does not concede more than 6 points to Garcia and,

– He does not concede more than 20 points to Sasaki.

At the Thai Grand Prix, Dennis Foggia won for the 10th time in his career in Grand Prix and climbed to third place in the list of riders with the most victories in Moto3 behind Roman Fenati (13 victories) and Joan mir (11). This is the 23rd podium of Foggia in Moto3 and he is tied with alex rins in third position on the list of drivers with the most podiums in the category behind Roman Fenati (29 podiums) and Enea Bastianini (24)

The victory of Foggia at the Thai GP is the 49th for Italy in Moto3. Spain leads with 94 victories in this category. This is the 84th victory of Honda since the introduction of Moto3 in 2012. The Japanese manufacturer extends its lead as the most successful manufacturer in the category ahead of KTM (80 Moto3 victories).

Ayumu Sasaki finished second for his 10th Moto3 podium, his eighth of the season so far. It is also the first time he has reached the podium in three successive Moto3 races. At the Thai GP, Riccardo Rossi finished third for his second podium in Moto3, after France last year where he was also P3.

Izan Guevara finished fifth in Buriram, ending his streak of three successive podiums. He leads the Moto3 world championship with 265 points, ahead of Dennis Foggia (216) et Sergio Garcia (2019)

The eight Moto3 races that took place at Phillip Island were won by eight different riders: Sandro Cortese (2012), Alex Rins (2013), Jack Miller (2014), Miguel Oliveira (2015), Brad Binder (2016), Joan Mir(2017), Albert Arenas (2018) and Lorenzo Dalla Porta (2019). Among them, only Sandro Cortese (2012) et Brad Binder (2016) won from pole position on the circuit, both on a KTM. As a result, none of the current full-time Moto3 riders have won in the category on the circuit and none have made the podium. However, John mcphee (2015/Honda) qualified on pole position at Phillip Island. On race day, Scott Ogden will celebrate its 19th birthday.

What will this FP2 of the category have in store for us? Before answering this question, here is the table which summarizes the facts known so far.

Phillip Island Moto3™	2019	2022
FP1	1'48.024 Tony Arbolino	1'39.773 Diogo Moreira
FP2	1'36.809 Arón Canet	1'37.797 Ayumu Sasaki
FP3	1'38.492 Tony Arbolino
Q1	1'44.878 Can Öncü
Q2	1'38.976 Marcos Ramírez
Warm-up	1'37.411 Sergio Garcia
Course	Dalla Porta, Ramirez, Arenas
All time lap record	1'36.050 Alex Márquez (2014)

The first free practice session of the Australian Moto3 Grand Prix, 18th stage of the 2022 World Championship ended with Diogo Moreira as leader. On a track that was initially wet but which dried very quickly, the MT team driver stopped the time at 1'39.773, ahead of Dennis Foggia (Leopard) of 0.057s and Sergio Garcia (GASGAS) of 0.103s. Joel Kelso (CIP) surprises by closing with the fourth time in front Tatsuki suzuki (Leopard) and Daniel Holgado (KTM Ajo).

Excellent seventh time for Stefano Nepa (MTA) which is ahead of the leader in the world ranking Izan Guevara (GASGAS, who fell without consequence and Ayumu Sasaki (Max Racing Team). Deniz Oncu (KTM Tech3) completes the top ten.

15° in the air and 18° on the track with a wind of 13 km/h are the conditions offered to the pilots. The track is mostly dry but swept by a strong wind.

Diogo Moreira shows once again that he learns the new routes quickly by taking the lead from the start in 1'45.702.

Daniel Holgado fall without consequences for him. But this pushes the other drivers to still remain cautious given the track conditions.

Halfway through the session, Nepa takes the lead in 1'42.959. Guevara follows as Tatay, Bartolini et Furusato. The track continues to improve. Migno shows it by putting the reference at 1'42.483.

The slicks are indeed used and the result is not long in coming. Garcia puts the reference at 1'39.401. For the last quarter of an hour, everyone changes tires.

holgado falls again, this time at turn 1. The reference is now 1'38.829 signed by Garcia. We're entering the last five minutes.

Under the checkered flag of Australia, Sasaki takes the lead in 1'37.797 ahead of his compatriot Suzuki, Moreiera, Guevara et Garcia. Lorenzo Fellon is 24th

Australian Moto2 Grand Prix FP3 results at Phillip Island:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com