Group racing at Mugello: a home weekend spent fighting near the front

Friday, May 29th

A rain shower not forecasted opens the morning of Day 1 at Mugello, forcing the riders to complete FP1 in wet and mixed conditions—nothing new in a 2026 season heavily affected by rain. The home atmosphere is immediately felt by Nicola Carraro, a veteran of the track, who despite the tricky conditions delivers a steadily improving session, consistently staying inside the top 15 while focusing on race pace and completing the entire session without returning to the box.
A Tuscan debut instead for Jesus Rios, who struggles slightly to adapt to the conditions on this particularly technical track, new to him. The session is used by the young Spaniard to make initial baseline adjustments to the bike, taking into account the wet setup.

The Practice session takes place in dry conditions, allowing the team to begin working in the hot and stable weather expected for the rest of the weekend. Both Nicola Carraro and Jesus Rios show steady progression throughout the session, improving lap by lap and gathering important data on the bike’s behavior.
Carraro sets his best time in the final stages of the session. Although he misses out on direct access to Q2, the Italian rider leaves encouraging signs in terms of bike feeling, also confirmed by the second-highest top speed recorded on track.

Saturday, May 30th

The temperatures rise further on Saturday, which begins with FP2 held in particularly demanding conditions. In this context, the two Snipers riders follow a very similar work program: both Nicola Carraro and Jesus Rios complete an initial 9-lap run, roughly half race distance, with the aim of evaluating bike and tyre performance over a long stint.
The search for outright pace is instead postponed to the final phase of the session. After a pit stop, both riders tackle a second 4-lap stint dedicated to time attack. Jesus Rios particularly stands out with an excellent performance that earns him 6th place overall. Carraro finishes further back in the classification, but with a contained gap that confirms the solid work done during the morning.

Nicola Carraro’s first laps in Q1 are immediately competitive, although they still show room for improvement ahead of the second run after the tyre change. The Italian rider ends his first outing in 11th position, keeping his chances of progressing alive.
However, traffic on the outlap compromises the preparation of his final flying attempt. Carraro, along with several other riders, crosses the line as the checkered flag has already been shown, preventing him from completing his decisive lap. Qualifying therefore ends prematurely for the Snipers rider, who finishes Q1 in 11th place, with regret for not being able to fully exploit his final improvement attempt.

Just four laps are enough for Jesus Rios to deliver a top-level qualifying performance. The young Spaniard manages traffic perfectly, quickly finding the space needed to unlock his full potential.
Rios sets his best time already on his first flying lap, a reference that proves sufficient to keep him among the leading positions until the checkered flag. Thanks to this performance, he secures 5th place on the grid, the best qualifying result of his career in the World Championship and a strong signal ahead of Sunday’s race.

Sunday, May 31st

An extremely competitive race gets underway under the Mugello sun and with particularly high track temperatures, a factor that makes tyre management crucial over the laps.
Despite the usual difficulties of the opening corners in the Moto3 pack, Jesus Rios manages to stay at the front right from the early stages, immediately joining the fight for top positions. A strong start as well for Nicola Carraro, who gains several places at the lights and completes the opening laps around 19th position, six places up from his starting grid spot.

The race develops into a long group battle, with most of the field covered by only a few seconds. Rios remains consistently between 4th and 10th position, involved in numerous overtakes and counter-overtakes that shape the race. Carraro, despite starting further back, also manages to stay attached to the group for most of the race, maintaining a competitive pace.

In the final stages, the fight intensifies further, with constant position changes and extremely small gaps between the front runners. Rios makes the most of his tyre management work, finding strong pace in the closing laps and crossing the line in 5th position as the final lap begins.
However, on the last lap, a particularly aggressive move from a rival, combined with contact, forces the Spaniard wide in the final corner. The incident compromises his exit onto the main straight, dropping him to 10th place at the finish line—a result that does not fully reflect the strength of his performance throughout the race.
Nicola Carraro finishes in 20th position, staying in contact with the group until the checkered flag and recovering a total of five positions from his grid spot, with a limited gap to the front runners.

For Jesus Rios, it still confirms another strong weekend, highlighted by a race spent consistently in the leading group on a track where he was making his debut. Carraro, despite some difficulties, gathers positive data and further signs of progress together with the team, continuing the development work ahead of the next rounds of the championship.

Comments

Nicola Carraro aims to make the most of his potential:
“It’s a shame about the race because we were there in the group, but we weren’t able to show our true potential. Now let’s try to do better in Hungary, which is a circuit I like. Last year it went quite well, so we’ll try to build on that.”

Despite a strong race, Jesus Rios’ final result was affected by several contacts with other riders:
“It was a difficult race, especially because of the heat. At the start I managed to move up to third, but then a contact with another rider dropped me back to 15th position, and little by little I came back up to 5th. In the final stages though, another contact pushed me wide and I lost more positions.”