The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 rider gets onto the podium for the third time this year. Sunday ends prematurely for Toba after an early crash.

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s strong record at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit continued this Sunday with Raul Fernandez achieving third place in the Valencia Grand Prix. The Spaniard took his second consecutive podium – his third of the 2020 season – after being one of the pacesetters practically from start to finish. Teammate Kaito Toba was running second when, at the start of Lap 2, he suffered a crash that forced him to abandon the race.

Fernandez got off the line well from third on the grid and would make some solid early overtaking manoeuvres to take the lead. At the start of Lap 2, a crash by two riders close behind him allowed the 20-year-old talent to open a gap over the rest of the field. The Spaniard began to impose a fast pace, increasing his advantage to almost two seconds at the midway mark. However, with 6 laps remaining, the chasing group hunted him down, and finally the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 star took the chequered flag third.

Kaito Toba got his best start of the year, setting off from the front row and taking the holeshot. The Japanese would drop behind his teammate into second and fend off rivals in the leading group, until he crashed on Lap 5 and was forced to retire from the Valencia Grand Prix contest.

With 14 of the 15 rounds of the Moto3 World Championship completed, Fernandez occupies 6th position in the overall standings with 134 points. Toba is 18th with 40. Next week, Red Bull KTM Ajo will return to action for the 2020 season finale, held at the Algarve International Circuit in Portugal from November 20-22nd.

Results – Race
1. Tony Arbolino (Honda) 38:17.462
2. Sergio Garcia (Honda) +1.142
3. Raul Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +1.297
4. Albert Arenas (KTM) +2.825
5. Darryn Binder (KTM) +2.999
DNF. Kaito Toba (Red Bull KTM Ajo)

Moto3 World Championship Standing 2020
1. Albert Arenas (KTM) 170 points
2. Ai Ogura (Honda) 162 points
3. Tony Arbolino (Honda) 159 points
4. Jaume Masia (Honda) 140 points
5. Celestino Vietti (KTM) 137 points
6. Raul Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 134 points
18. Kaito Toba (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 40 points

Aki Ajo – Team manager
“I’m very happy with the podium we got in Moto3. Maybe we expected a little more, with how the race began, but we couldn’t keep it up on the final laps. However, Raul [Fernandez] did a good job and a podium is always great. As for Kaito [Toba], after having shown constant progression at recent Grands Prix, he suffered a crash today. In any case, we have to be positive about his performances over the past few weekends.”

25 RAUL FERNANDEZ

“I am happy, although at the same time I leave here with a bittersweet taste in my mouth, since we controlled the race, dominating almost from start to finish. We have to learn from what happened today. It was a shame that, on the last lap, I was prepared to attack the leader, but we lost a lot of time when the man in third place overtook me. What I will take away is that we showed that we are mentally and physically strong. Finally, thank you to my team and my family once again.”

27 KAITO TOBA
“We had a great start and we were pushing very hard from the beginning. I tried to follow Raul [Fernandez] but I made a mistake at Turn 5 which resulted in a big crash. It wasn’t a good Sunday for us, but luckily next week we have another opportunity in Portugal. We will try to take all of the positive points from this Grand Prix and finish the year with a great result.”