Phillip Island hosts the nineteenth round of the Moto3 season for the Red Bull KTM Ajo pair

Fresh from winning the Moto3 World Champion title with Jose Antonio Rueda a fortnight ago, Red Bull KTM Ajo now have their first chance to become Team World Champions for 2025. The series moves on to Phillip Island in Australia, where Rueda and teammate Alvaro Carpe can mathematically seal the title to complete an excellent season, after the Austrian manufacturer already secured the constructors’ title at the CatalanGP.

Rueda had a great weekend in Indonesia at the last round, where he was able to win the Moto3 World Championship in style with a race victory. He took 25 points, ensuring that he can not be caught in the overall standings anymore. His title was Red Bull KTM Ajo’s fourth individual honour in Moto3. Rueda has already ridden in Australia twice, although it is not amongst his most prolific in terms of results. In 2023 he failed to make it out of Q1 and finished 18th in the race after a crash, while last year he was 15th on the grid, going on to finish in ninth place in the race. Currently enjoying one of the best seasons for any rider in Moto3 history, Rueda has nine wins, thirteen podiums, five Pole Positions, and 340 points -109 clear of his nearest rival.

Carpe has another new circuit to learn this time around, and is optimistic about the Australian GP after a weekend of significant growth at Mandalika. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rookie managed to make clear strides forward day after day, qualifying fourth in Q2 -his best result of the last four months. On race day, despite a crash, he was able to fight for the podium positions for the first two-thirds of the race, for the first time in the second half of the 2025 campaign. Unfortunately, his contest came to a premature end after he was involved in a crash by other riders, which took him out of the equation. Carpe escaped unharmed, and arrives at Phillip Island in peak condition. He sits sixth in the overall standings with 157 points, two points outside the Top 5, and still has a mathematical chance of becoming Rookie of the Year.

Red Bull KTM Ajo are in a prime position to earn the Team honour, with 497 points and a 143-point lead over their nearest rivals. In terms of recent history at Phillip Island, the team have achieved four podium finishes there in the last decade: Wins for Miguel Oliveira (2015), Brad Binder (2016), and Deniz Öncü (2023), plus a third place for Binder in 2015.

In conclusion, the furthest Grand Prix from the European time zone of the season is about to begin. With a time difference of 9 hours compared to many countries on the big continent, the first session of the weekend for the Moto3 class will take place this coming Friday at 9am (local time). Sunday’s 21-lap race will be held from 11am.

Circuit information – Phillip Island Circuit
Length: 4.448 m / 2.764 miles
Width: 13 m / 42.65 ft.
Left corners: 7
Right corners: 5
Longest straight: 900 m / 0.559 miles
Constructed: 1956
Modified: 1985

#99 JOSE ANTONIO RUEDA

“We’re going to enjoy Phillip Island and Australia, which always gives us good times. It’s a circuit I really like, so I hope to enjoy the whole weekend now that we’ve completed the main objective of the season. We’ll take things session by session, step by step, as we do at every Grand Prix, and we’ll try to be at our best to help the team as much as possible. We hope the weather holds out throughout the weekend, but it’s unpredictable to say the least. If it’s not consistent, then we’ll adapt to what we encounter, which will be the same for everyone. I’m looking forward to getting started!”

#83 ALVARO CARPE

“I’m very happy to be arriving in Australia, another new country for me and another circuit I’ve always heard wonderful things about. It’s a track that has always caught my attention, so I’m really looking forward to making my debut there. Two weeks ago, in Indonesia, I think we took one of the most important steps forward of the second half of the season, both in terms of our speed and cornering. So I’m looking forward to continuing that at Phillip Island this weekend and keeping regaining the confidence and consistency we’ve been looking for since the summer.”