The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 rider extends his lead in the Moto3 standings. Carpe, after coming up from 18th place, placed in 4th.

The Dutch TT saw a sixth win of the season for Jose Antonio Rueda in the Moto3 World Championship, as he took advantage of a red flag on the final lap to score 25 points at Assen. Alvaro Carpe, after an incident in the second lap, fought back from 18th place to finish fourth, just off the podium.

Both Red Bull KTM Ajo riders made great starts and took the top two positions during the first lap at Assen. However, after that, Carpe had a collision with David Almansa, who, in turn 8, nearly made contact with Rueda. Following this incident, Carpe dropped to 18th.

At the front, Rueda tried to stretch the group, but the slipstream on the back straight made it impossible for the leading riders to escape. He held onto the top spot for the first few laps, steadily establishing the pace. After eight laps, with the front group still consisting of 18 riders, Maximo Quiles overtook Rueda, who dropped to seventh in the space of just two laps. Unwilling to take too many risks, Rueda stayed in tenth place until the final section, saving his energy to attack at the crucial moment. He regained positions to take the lead again with three laps remaining, and held onto it until the final lap. David Muñoz overtook him at the final chicane, but Race Control decided to wave the red flag due to an incident on the penultimate lap, awarding Rueda the win due to his lead on the last crossing of the finish line. With the victory, his sixth of the season, World Championship leader Rueda now has 187 points and a 69-point advantage over his teammate Carpe, now his closest challenger in the standings.

Carpe, meanwhile, began his comeback from 18th by setting the fastest lap of the race. After four laps, he had moved up to 14th, improving to 12th halfway through the race. The rookie waited until the right moment to attack, and as the final third of the race got underway, he steadily reeled in his rivals and moved into the lead before Rueda’s spell at the front. Unfortunately, at the chicane leading into the final lap, Luca Lunetta hit Carpe from behind, causing two more riders to crash and creating a split between the top three and Carpe in fourth. Due to the red flag, Carpe had to settle for fourth. He moves into second place in the overall standings with 118 points, and is 32 points clear in the Rookie of the Year ranking.

The first double of the 2025 season came to an end with a great Sunday for the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 team at the Cathedral of Motorcycling. Rueda’s victory, the sixth for the team so far this season, means the tenth podium in ten races, adding Rueda’s seven and team-mate Carpe’s three. With 305 points, Red Bull KTM Ajo are 128 points ahead of their nearest rivals in the Teams standings.

The next round of the Moto3 World Championship is the German Grand Prix  on July 11-13th, followed by the Czech Republic Grand Prix a week later.

Race Results
1. Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 32:12.319
2. David Muñoz (KTM) | +0.144
3. Valentin Perrone (KTM) | +0.245
4. Alvaro Carpe (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | +1.087 
5. Angel Piqueras (KTM) | +1.296

Moto3 World Championship Standing 2025
1. Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 187 points
2. Alvaro Carpe (Red Bull KTM Ajo) | 118 points
3. Angel Piqueras (KTM) | 117 points
4. Joel Kelso (KTM) | 100 points
5. Maximo Quiles (KTM) | 86 points

Moto3 Teams World Championship Standing 2025
1. Red Bull KTM Ajo | 305 points
2. FRINSA – MT Helmets – MSI | 177 points 
3. Level UP MTA | 153 points
4. CFMOTO Valresa Aspar Team | 143 points
5. Leopard Racing | 127 points

NIKLAS AJO – Team Manager

“Once again we can be very happy about the weekend. We had a great qualifying yesterday, with our riders finishing in first and second after using very good tactics. Today, it was a very hectic race, but both riders worked very well. Jose Antonio showed great pace and he believed in himself until the end. Good luck only helps when you are in a position to benefit from it, and he achieved a super result. Alvaro did great as well. He did an incredible comeback to get back to the front after an unfortunate incident at the start. He had a little bit of bad luck on the last corner before last laps and lost the chance to fight for a podium, but it’s a great result for the team because we’re first and second in the Moto3 World Championship now.”

#99 JOSE ANTONIO RUEDA

“Having Collin Veijer with us was key, as he knows this circuit well and told us the keys to doing everything right at Assen. It was vital to get into the second half of the race strong, especially with this wind blowing today, but we were able to do that. On the last two laps, I pushed hard and set good times, also taking advantage of a big incident behind us. The end was a bit strange because I suddenly saw the red flag and immediately saw a rider on the ground, so I cut the throttle before entering the chicane. It was a bit of a shock because I didn’t know which section or lap would count, so everything was a bit uncertain until they confirmed the victory for me. Winning here in this 100th edition of the Dutch TT is very special, so I’m very happy to be able to get my sixth win of the season.”

#83 ALVARO CARPE

“I’m very happy. Today we had to make up some lost ground after the incident at the beginning, which temporarily left us out of the points. We had the pace to fight at the front on every lap, but we had to fight from the back of the pack. You always have to take the positives from these races, and today we learned to manage a race differently. It’s a shame about what happened at the chicane, as I lost the front and I was hit from behind. We have to learn from these situations to be more competitive in the coming weekends. We’re second overall, which is something I didn’t expect, so we’ll have to keep looking for this consistency in the upcoming races.”