Scorching MotoJunior at Jerez: Pritelli puts on a show amid photo finishes, historic triumphs, and heart‐stopping moments

Young promises stepping onto the first rung of the podium, but also a few hair-raising incidents in the scorching Circuito de Jerez. Here’s how the MotoJunior round went.

First wins on the board in this red-hot MotoJunior event at Jerez. Plenty of action and adrenaline on track, plus blistering heat, and even a few spine-chilling crashes but without consequences. As for first victories, Lorenzo Pritelli (Echovit Pasini) and Colombian Mateo Marulanda (AC Racing) claim their respective maiden wins in Moto4. Yaroslav Karpushin, after his first historic podiums, writes another piece of Moto3 history, both for the championship and for his Kyrgyzstan, right after the first win by teammate Carlos Cano (Aspar Team).

In Moto2, reigning Polish champion Milan Pawelec (AGR Team) triumphs in the single race on the Andalusian track and retakes the championship lead; finally, in Stock, another new face wins, Spaniard Jacobo Hinojosa (Face Racing), at the end of a race marked by a double red flag. Worth noting, due to the intense heat, the race distance was reduced for the events held from 14:00 onwards: Moto3 Race 2 went from 15 to 10 laps, Moto4 Race 2 dropped from 14 to 9, and the single Stock race of 16 laps was cut to 10 laps (then shortened again). Here’s how it went.

The former ECT isn’t today’s opening class, but it’s the one where we recorded the only Italian roar. The first superb victory for rookie Lorenzo Pritelli, who made Mameli’s anthem ring out at the Ángel Nieto. A sensational photo finish by exploiting the exit of the final corner to pip Alvaro Lucas (+0.028), with another Italian on the third step, Edoardo Savino (+0.030). “A tough race because of the heat,” Pritelli said in the press room. “With the VR46 Academy we worked a lot to understand the mistakes of the last two rounds and now I’ve won! I’d like to thank them, and I also thank the team: now feet on the ground and let’s keep going.”

The second race, however, was hair-raising, as it was stopped by a red flag on the last lap due to a nasty crash unintentionally caused by Pritelli himself: he was leading until a violent highside, and his bike, left on the racing line, also triggered the falls of Lucas, Savino, and Cubeles. All riders OK and triumph for Colombian Mateo Marulanda: first win awarded at the table, with Ignacio Galan and Malaysia’s Qabil Irfan completing the podium. A real shame that Cristian Borrelli’s first pole position was followed by a double zero; in both races he was fighting for the podium and the win...

In Moto3 Race 1 there will clearly be regret for poleman Leonardo Zanni’s crash on the last lap—he was leading the race and only a few corners remained... Thus comes the rookie Carlos Cano’s first victory in the class, concluding the opening race of the category at Jerez. In second place the combative Kyrgyz rider Yaroslav Karpushin: a photo finish between teammates, just 36 thousandths! Third is another super rookie, reigning ETC champion Fernando Bujosa, to complete the podium. In Race 2, however, the unleashed Moto3 protagonists deliver a breathtaking second race and another first win arrives: Yaroslav Karpushin makes everyone hear the Kyrgyz national anthem for the first time; David Gonzalez is 2nd, and rookie Maltese rider Travis Borg takes third. Worth noting that Giulio Pugliese remains the Moto3 Junior leader, though he must watch out for Carlos Cano and Travis Borg, now tied on points!

We started from Eric Fernandez’s pole position, and he remained one of the four breakaway protagonists to the end. Along with him were Milan Pawelec, Unai Orradre, and Francesco Mongiardo, who put on a superb battle for the podium. The reigning champion Milan Pawelec gets the better of them all, thus retaking the class lead from Orradre. Fernandez and Mongiardo were on the podium, but things were decided after the checkered flag: the Long Lap for irresponsible riding given to Fernandez was converted into seconds. The Spaniard therefore loses the podium; the biggest beneficiary is Orradre, who moves up to P3, while Mongiardo is promoted to P2.

The last race on this particularly incident-packed Sunday at Jerez featured two red flags, in addition to the difficulties caused by the intense heat highlighted by all the riders. The first red came after one lap with the crash of Miguel Bernal: everything stopped and marshals on track to sort out the surface. The restart was from the original positions and with the race reduced from 10 to 6 laps, but on the last lap came the second and definitive red flag that halted the Stock class race. Jacobo Hinojosa, who had managed to break away in both runs, thus takes home his first win in the category, with David Jimenez and Alberto Garcia completing an all-Spanish podium.

-> All the standings on fimmotojunior.com