A battle for victory in Catalunya

Friday, May 15th

The Catalan weekend got underway with a particularly cold Friday, accompanied by threatening clouds that, however, did not bring rain during Free Practice 1.
The Snipers riders immediately stood out from the opening minutes of the session. Jesus Rios remained consistently close to the top 10 during his first run, completing 7 laps with steady progression. Nicola Carraro followed closely behind in the standings, ending his first outing after 9 consecutive laps.
For both riders, the best lap times came in the closing stages of the session, with Rios especially impressive: three minutes before the checkered flag, the young Spaniard moved up to third position before suffering a crash while trying to improve even further. The incident had no consequences, and Rios officially finished FP1 in eighth place.

The afternoon Practice session also took place without rain, increasing the team’s optimism in the fight for direct access to Q2, an objective already achieved during the previous race weekend.
A complicated session for Nicola Carraro who, after a positive start, faced some difficulties in finding space in traffic to complete a fully clean lap. Despite being forced to go through Q1, the Italian rider still showed good progression throughout the session, setting his best time on the final lap and improving by around one and a half seconds compared to FP1.
A very convincing performance instead from Jesus Rios, who delivered a session marked by great consistency and confidence. The young Spaniard remained steadily inside the top 10 for the entire Practice session and secured direct access to Q2 thanks to his 10th-place finish under the checkered flag.

Saturday, May 16th

FP2 saw the Snipers riders adopt different strategies ahead of the race. Jesus Rios completed the entire session in a single long outing, finishing 17 consecutive laps that proved particularly useful for race pace work. At the same time, the young Spaniard managed to maintain a very competitive pace even on a single lap, consistently remaining between 3rd and 10th position throughout the session.
Nicola Carraro, on the other hand, completed 14 laps in total, divided into two runs separated by a pit stop after the fifth lap: the opening laps were used to refine his feeling with the bike, while the following nine laps focused on testing new technical solutions.

In the afternoon, Carraro took part in Q1, managing to complete some competitive laps already in his first outing. Despite improving his lap time compared to the morning, the Italian rider missed access to Q2 by just a few tenths.

A very positive Q2 instead for Jesus Rios, who completed seven laps interrupted by a short stop in the pits. It was on his penultimate lap that the Spaniard set an excellent flying lap, earning 6th place on the grid for the race and also becoming the top Honda rider in qualifying.

Sunday, May 17th

An extremely intense start to the Moto3 race saw Nicola Carraro do well to make his way through the pack from the very first corners, immediately gaining several positions. A strong start also for Jesus Rios, precise and clean with his lines despite the traffic, managing to stay attached to the leading group.

While trying to continue his comeback, Carraro pushed hard but was caught out by Turn 10, where he crashed. Fortunately, the young Italian rider got back up without physical consequences, but he was forced into an early retirement.
Meanwhile, Jesus Rios continued his high-level race, constantly involved in the leading group of seven riders and taking part in numerous overtakes. The Spaniard showed great aggression and speed, even setting the fastest lap of the race and remaining firmly in contention for the top positions, also taking the lead thanks to a spectacular double overtake in the final corner during the heart of the GP.

The closing stages became even more intense, with constant position changes within the top ten group battling for victory. However, with two laps remaining, Rios was also caught out by Turn 10: in the middle of the battle he lost control of the bike and, despite trying to stay on, crashed and was forced to retire. Once again, the rider escaped the incident unharmed.

The retirement, however, does not take away from an outstanding performance by Jesus Rios, who was the leading Honda rider at the time of the crash and set the third fastest lap of the race. The team therefore leaves Barcelona disappointed by the missed result, but also with great confidence and awareness of the potential shown throughout the entire weekend, confirming their competitiveness ahead of the next rounds of the championship.

Comments

Nicola Carraro knows where he and the team need to improve:
“For this race I felt really good, and it’s a real shame that it ended this way. The issue is starting too far back—we need to work as hard as possible to qualify further ahead in the next GPs.”

Despite the crash, Jesus Rios remains very positive about the race:
“I’m really disappointed with how the race ended because I was fighting for the podium and the win. I had a lot of confidence and felt very strong in the corners. Still, I’m very happy with the weekend we had together with the team. The goal is to keep working like this to maintain our competitiveness.”