Daniel Holgado takes eighth in the #ValenciaGP while Farioli finishes twelfth
The 2023 Moto3™ World Championship came to an end on Sunday at the Gran Premio de la Comunitat de Valenciana, with Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Daniel Holgado and Filippo Farioli both in the points, respectively claiming eighth and twelfth of the Valencia GP.
Nothing to lose, so it was all or nothing for Daniel Holgado on Sunday in Valencia as the Spaniard headed to the final grid of the season with a small fracture on his left foot following his qualifying crash yesterday. The number 96 who impressively led the championship for a total of thirteen rounds, was set to start his home GP from the eighteenth position. When lights went out at 12:00 local time (GMT+1) for another twenty laps of Moto3™ craziness, Holgado was again unlucky as he got caught in some early chaos between Diogo Moreira and Vicente Perez. To avoid a crash, he was forced to go wide, and just like that, he was at the back of the grid. From there, Dani faced another remontada, but he showed incredible pace all weekend through, so anything was possible for the eighteen years old boy. The front group was fast, with the best race lap being beaten several times, but Holgado set his pace and started to overtake riders progressively. With thirteen laps to go, he had already made it back to P14 just behind his teammate Filippo Farioli. It did not take much time to pass through the Italian, and sooner than later he made his entry to the top 10. On lap 11, he was in eighth with just 6.5 seconds to the race leader, with Kelso and Rueda his next targets as the front group was far gone already. He continued to reduce his gap with the Prustel rider, but there weren’t enough laps left! Holgado took eighth in the final race of 2023. It was a season with highs and lows, but Holgado fought until the end. Three wins in Portimao, Le Mans and Mugello, another four podiums in Sachsenring, Silverstone, Spielberg and Motegi, and a pole position last week in Qatar see Daniel Holgado finish the 2023 Moto3™ World Championship in fifth with a total of 220 points.
For his last dance in orange with the Red Bull KTM Tech3 crew, Filippo Farioli was starting the Valencia GP from the fourteenth position after heading another time directly to qualifying 2 on Saturday. A late crash in Q2 saw his final efforts cut short so he had to settle with a P14 on the grid. When the race started, luckily Filippo Farioli was ahead of the chaos in which his teammate was involved, so he held on to his position. After two laps, he was in P13 behind Ruysai Yamanaka. Feeling good on his bike, he settled progressively into a decent pace. He lost a couple of positions later on, but as his times started to go down halfway through the race, he managed to re enter in the point-scoring positions. As he gave a final push in the final laps, Filippo rode his fastest lap on lap 19/20 in a 1’38.869, which gave him the opportunity to gain two positions. He finished twelfth today, and added another two points to his total. With nineteen points scored this year, including twelve coming from the final three rounds, Filippo Farioli finished his Moto3™ rookie season in twenty-fourth.
Daniel Holgado
“We were unlucky another time today as I got caught in the first lap chaos, but my pace was really positive, I rode alone, and I caught back positions lap after lap to finish in eighth, so it was a very good race for us considering the start we got. I am very happy with my first season with this team, and next year will be mine. Thank you to everyone who supported me!”
Filippo Farioli
“It was a fast race, but we had an amazing feeling and we held on, so I am really happy with our final race in orange with this team. We re-organised our team a bit before Malaysia, and these last three races were great, we progressed a lot, so leaving the team on a good result makes me happy. Thank you to the Tech3 family for this year!”
