Jorge Navarro ends the year with another podium, Maria Herrera places 21st

Jorge Navarro concluded the 2015 Moto3 season in noteworthy fashion, claiming four podium finishes in the last five races. At the Valencian Grand Prix, the Repsol rider took his latest rostrum with a second place –after fighting for the win up until the very last corner. Teammate Fabio Quartararo retired on lap 10 and Maria Herrera placed twenty-first in the season finale.

Navarro started well and was part of the leading group, waiting for the final laps of the race to make a definitive move. He, Miguel Oliveira, Efren Vazquez, Niccolo Antonelli and Romano Fenati were all fighting for victory. A late mistake Antonelli ended with him crashing, taking out Fenati and Vazquez. Oliveira won, with Navarro second and Danny Kent proclaimed Moto3 World Champion.

Maria Herrera, who started from twenty-second on the grid, finished twenty-first after suffering some mechanical problems with her bike.

With his second place today, Navarro finishes seventh in the overall standings of the Moto3 World Championship, in his first full season. He has 157 points, with 92 points giving Quartararo tenth and Herrera twenty-ninth with 9 points.

Jorge Navarro
“I’m very happy, not only with the race but with the weekend. Racing at home is always a motivation but it also gives you a little extra pressure, and I think I handled that well. I knew I had a chance of victory in the race; I was very comfortable riding in the front group. On the last laps I tried to attack and I saw that Miguel [Oliveira] also wanted to be in the lead, so I decided to go for it on the last corner. Unfortunately, my bike was sliding too much on corner entry and I could not overtake him. Second place is a very good result and I cannot wait to start working for next year.”

Maria Herrera
“Right from when the lights went out I noticed something strange on the bike, and I could not get off the line as well as at other times. Nevertheless, at first I rode pretty fast and was able to catch the riders ahead of me. As the laps went by, the bike got worse and it was hard for me to keep the pace up. I had to regain ground on my rivals under braking and for that I had to push too hard. It was a shame as I had a good enough pace to finish in the top fifteen and score some points. Now we have to focus on starting next year strongly.”