Moto3: Riders of the year
Moto3 has been a mad season as always, here are our riders of the year.
Firstly we will start with our rider of the year, Ai Ogura.
Ai Ogura had an outstanding 2020 season in just his second season in the Moto3 World Championship, he was able to put up a title battle which wagered all season long against the class titans including Albert Arenas and Tony Arbolino. Ogura would finish the season in P3 overall with a massive 7 podiums which was the most of any rider in the class. Unfortunately he was unable to take the grand prize of a race win which would have been enough to secure the Moto3 World Championship as Ogura finished the season just 4 points from champion Albert Arenas, if Ogura was able to convert one of his P2’s into a P1, the extra 5 points you gain for a race win over second-place would’ve won him the title by 1 point.
This shows the sheer competitiveness of the Moto3 World Championship, Ogura did his country proud in 2020 and should be proud to bear the numbers of Daijiro Kato and Shoya Tomizawa on his leathers, putting these riders numbers back on the podium. He moves to Moto2 in 2021 with the same team, looking to make more success in the intermediate class, he has many more years ahead of him at just 19 years old.
Runner Up Number 1 – Jeremy Alcoba
Jeremy Alcoba takes our runner up spot number 1 and it is fully deserved, Alcoba has had a stunning rookie Moto3 season, being crowned the rookie of the year with style, taking a podium in the last race at Portimao. The 2019 Junior Moto3 World Champion came into the class and hit the ground running, scoring many top point-scoring positions including multiple P4 finishes however was hit with some penalties throughout the season, losing some of these results for one reason or another. Alcoba has been a consistent top 10 finisher in 2020 taking 8 top 10’s in 15 races and even outperformed veteran teammate Gabriel Rodrigo.
Alcoba has been in the middle of some controversies, being at the centre of some crashes but as a rookie this can be expected given that you want to reach the front as fast as possible, this cannot be looked at negatively as every rider makes mistakes but as long as they learn from these, they will grow as a rider and be more competitive which Alcoba has done. He remains with the Gresini team for 2021 and looks to take more podiums and even some race wins next season.
Runner Up Number 2 – Raul Fernandez
Raul Fernandez is our other runner up and yet another Junior Moto3 World Champion, racing in just his second Moto3 season. Fernandez had an outstanding year being known as the ‘King of the Pole Position’ in Moto3 taking 6 poles after his switch from the Aspar team to Aki Ajo’s Red Bull KTM set up. Fernandez took a little while to take his first podium always being there or nearly there, but was able to take a massive 12 top 10 finishes and his consistency was eventually rewarded with P4 overall in the championship along with 4 podiums and 2 race wins which came in the last 5 races of the season, once he worked out how to get on the podium he was consistently there.
His height has been a disadvantage for him in 2020 standing tall at 177cm he has been a little too tall for the Moto3 bike, not that this has stopped him from his incredible performances, he moves to the Moto2 class for 2021 remaining in the Red Bull KTM Ajo team in Moto2 pairing up with Remy Gardner.
Featured images – www.motogp.com
