Moto3 Japan Race: Alonso crushes his rivals and takes the title

It's done! At the end of a very beautiful Moto3 race in Japan, David Alonso is crowned Moto3 world champion 2024! The Colombian has been the author of a near-perfect season, historic even. Like Marc Marquez and many others before him, he has the honor of celebrating his coronation on Japanese soil, which is of capital importance in the history of Grand Prix.

The sessions leading up to the race announced a great battle, as we usually see in the smallest of categories. Of course, David Alonso (CFMoto Aspar Team) was one of the favourites and started from third position. But there was someone stronger than him before the lights went out: Ivan Ortola (KTM MT Helmets MSi), the new lap record holder, had achieved pole position in a fairly dominant manner. On the grid, he was ahead of Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP), who was also not to be underestimated. Daniel Holgado (Red Bull GasGas Tech3), much more discreet, only started ninth, which would make his defense against Alonso for the world title difficult. Finally, it was necessary to keep the two Leopard Racing drivers Adrian Fernandez and Angel Piqueras in a corner of the head, because they had also proven to be very fast.

Did you miss the race live? No problem, come and relive it with us. Before starting, here is a table which summarizes the known facts :

Moto3™ Japan, Motegi	2023	2024
FP	1'57.260 Diogo Moreira	1'59.280 David Alonso
P1	1'57.068 Jaume Masia	1'55.550 Ivan Ortola
P2	1'56.148 Jaume Masia	2'05.716 Angel Piqueras
Q1	1'57.161 Riccardo Rossi	1'56.016 David Munoz
Q2	1'56.331 Jaume Masia	1'54.761 Ivan Ortola
Course	Masia, Sasaki, Holgado (See here)	Alonso, Veijer, Fernandez
All time lap record	1'56.148 Jaume Masia 2023	1'54.761 Ivan Ortola

Ivan Ortola was not impressed at the start, and maintained his advantage at turn 1, which he crossed ahead of Daniel Holgado and David Alonso. The Moto3 Japanese Grand Prix marked the Colombian's first opportunity to secure the world championship, and he avoided taking too many risks. The number 80 therefore wisely completed the first lap in fourth position, without putting up too much resistance to Adrian Fernandez, who attempted a rather incisive maneuver on him.

There were many crashes in the first three laps. Noah Dettwiler was the first to retire from the event. Tatchakorn Buasri and Luca Lunetta followed.

Unleashed at the start of the race, Fernandez continued his momentum, and successively overtook Ortola and Holgado to take the lead of the race. He then tried to pull away, without success. Ivan Ortola managed to stay in his wake, and then waited for the right moment to launch his attack. Behind, David Alonso fell to seventh place, but kept an eye on the leader of the race, on which he was only eight tenths behind.

The track conditions have never been as good as during the race this weekend, but that doesn't stop the crashes from happening one after the other. Nicola Carraro and Joel Kelso also lose control of their machine.

The ninth lap will mark the awakening of David Alonso, who in addition to signing the best lap of the race, in 1:55.6, gets rid of Angel Piqueras and Collin Veijer with some ease. He encounters more resistance behind David Holgado, but will manage to leave him behind him two laps later. A maneuver that allows him to get one hand on the title, counting then more than 100 points on his two closest pursuers, that is to say as many units that will remain to be distributed at the end of this race.

A perfectionist, the #80 is keen to secure his title by ending the race in Motegi with a victory. His attempts to overtake become more aggressive, but it pays off. Alonso takes the lead of the race with four laps to go. At the same time, Angel Piqueras loses control and sees his race end in sector 3.

As he was catching up with David Alonso at high speed before the final lap, Ivan Ortola made a slight mistake and lost control of his machine. An incident that benefited David Alonso, who could not be worried by anyone else in this final lap. David Alonso won, and won the Moto3 World Championship in the most beautiful way, after dominating the season from start to finish.

David Alonso, Moto3 World Champion:

“Yesterday before going to sleep at the hotel, I went to the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror, and I said: ‘tomorrow you will be world champion’. Then I started to cry. I wasn’t sure if I could do it today, but the only thing that was clear was that I was going to give it my all. It wasn’t an easy race, but I gave it my all. I would like to thank everyone who helped me. I don’t know what to say, I am world champion…”

3 Moto2024 Japanese Grand Prix Result:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com