Pritelli, Savino and Morosi light up Valencia: MotoJunior results

Three Italians on the podium amid battles, spectacle, and a couple of red flags. Here’s how the MotoJunior round in Valencia went.

Lorenzo Pritelli takes a podium and a victory in Moto4, Edoardo Savino brings home a podium in the same class, and in Moto2 Alessandro Morosi makes his mark with a first-ever pole and a podium in the red-flag sprint. They’re our brightest standard-bearers in the freshly completed MotoJunior stop in Valencia, with thrills and battles across all classes. And at the next event Aspar Team could celebrate twice: Alvaro Lucas has a Moto3 match point and rookie Carlos Cano can clinch Moto4. In the meantime, here’s what happened in Valencia.

They’re the two Italians starring in the Valencia round. Starting with Race 1, in fact Savino had everything it took to seize the win... But an overly optimistic lunge at the final corner caused a slide that knocked him out right at the end (and fortunately he was only grazed by the pack). Alvaro Lucas thus took victory over Germany’s Fynn Kratochwil, claiming his first podium in the championship, with Lorenzo Pritelli in third and an excellent 4th place for Leonardo Casadei. Race 2 was no less hard-fought: a superb start by Pritelli, but the battle flared up quickly, with the Echovit Pasini rider also making a mistake that dropped him to the fringes of the top 10, and Savino again among the protagonists. But a red flag came out on the last lap, sparks flying between the two Italians (before understanding what had happened) and some bewilderment in the pits... The result was a win for Lorenzo Pritelli over Edoardo Savino, an all-Italian one-two ahead of championship leader Alvaro Lucas.

Eagle-1’s Italian had secured pole yesterday for the first time in the class, ready to fight for the podium, and so it proved. This came after drama on the grid: Orradre, 2nd in the championship, was slowed by bike issues even before the sighting lap... He did get going, but more problems followed and he was shown the black flag. Another twist struck Eric Fernandez, another title contender, who suddenly slowed and then suffered a nasty crash. But then all hell broke loose: another big hit and out came the red flag—clearly something wasn’t right on track, everything stopped and marshals sprang into action. They restarted for a 6-lap sprint: Milan Pawelec, Harrison Voight, and Alessandro Morosi delivered a breathless, spectacular fight, with the Polish leader ultimately winning ahead of the Australian and our flag-bearer, while Mongiardo charged to 4th at the end.

Carlos Cano, a debutant in this category, took it all this weekend at Ricardo Tormo: pole position yesterday, and today he completed the job with victory in Race 1 and a repeat in Race 2. Not without an intense battle—Moto3 as always—but in the end the weekend bore only the signature of Aspar Team’s Spanish rider. Behind him, Kyrgyz rider Yaroslav Karpushin is now a podium regular, stepping up in both Valencia races. David Gonzalez finished 3rd in Race 1, Fernando Bujosa claimed that step in the second race. Always ahead of former points leader Giulio Pugliese (just off the podium in both races), the top of the championship is slipping away, and in fact Cano can wrap it up at the next round in Aragon.

The last race of Sunday at Ricardo Tormo in Valencia and the only one that, unfortunately, didn’t feature Italians in the fight for victory. That was always a matter between French poleman Lorenzo Fellon and the Spaniards in the class, at least until the former Moto3 World Championship rider built the tenths he needed to reach the finish without too much trouble. After triumphing in the previous round, Fellon doubles up and consolidates the championship lead.