Back-to-back wins for Senna Agius at Barcelona JuniorGP

2022 FIM JuniorGP World Championship
Round 3 – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Australia’s Senna Agius did the double in the Moto2 European Championship class at Catalunya over the weekend, as the FIM JuniorGP Championship competed its third run for 2022.

Harrison Voight put in a strong performance in the JuniorGP class with two top-10 results in sixth and eighth, while Jacob Roulstone went 26-16.

Brian Uriarte (Team Estrella Galicia 0,0) emerged victorious in the only Hawkers European Talent Cup race of the day after a great battle with Joel Esteban (Aspar Junior Team).

Carter Thompson was the top Aussie in the ETC class, claiming 16th, behind New Zealand’s Cormac Buchanan, while Angus Grenfell crashed avoiding another rider while battling for 20th.

JuniorGP Race 1

In Race 1, Rueda took the lead at Turn 3 and never looked back in the opening race of the day. The Spaniard was untouchable and won by 11.3s as the battle for the podium raged behind.

Second place eventually went the way of Syarifuddin Azman (SIC Racing) who claimed his first podium since his Barcelona win in 2021, as a late charge from Filippo Farioli (Aspar Junior Team) saw him beat Angel Piqueras (Team Estrella Galicia 0,0) and David Salvador (Laglisse Academy) to the final podium spot.

Harrison Voight was sixth, distant to the group who fought over second through fifth, but still almost a second clear of the pursuing riders, stretching back to tenth.

Jacob Roulstone finished in 26th, battling Luca Lunetta.

JuniorGP Race 2

Race 2 followed the same script. Rueda didn’t get the holeshot but by Turn 3 he was leading the race and again, the number 99 cruised to a third straight JuniorGP win.

The fight for the podium went down the wire again with Azman taking P2 and Farioli snatching P3 from Piqueras on the run to the line to make it the same podium we saw in Race 1.

Harrison Voight finished seventh but was demoted to eighth for exceeding track limits, and was still 20-seconds clear of the rest of the field trailing him.

Harrison Voight – P8

“Another good day of improvement. A pity I didn’t take full advantage of Q1 with cooler conditions for the lap time. Although Q2 was a good step forward for us in the hotter conditions improving my lap time. Overall starting 14th for the two races. Happy to end the weekend on decent results after coming back from injury. These two races were important for my experience and to learn from the others in the races – Race 1 sixth position and  Race 2 seventh finish back to eighth due to a track limit penalty. Thank you to everyone in the team for their hard work.”

Jacob Roulstone improved to P16 in Race 2, 35-seconds off the lead.

Jose Rueda holds the JuniorGP standings lead on 108-points, to David Salvador on 69 and Syarifuddin Azman on 62. Voight is 11th on 18-points.

JuniorGP Results Race 1

JuniorGP Results Race 2

JuniorGP Standings

Moto2 European Championship Race 1

The first Moto2 ECh race treated us to a battle between Australian Senna Agius and polesitter Lukas Tulovic. Tulovic led until a mistake at Turn 9 with two laps to go allowed Agius to swoop through – the young Aussie holding on for his first Moto2 victory and winning from Tulovic by 0.668s.

Alex Escrig (Yamaha Philippines Stylobike Team) completed the Race 1 podium 22-seconds in arrears, with Eric Fernandez (Team Speed Racing) taking the Stock win.

Moto2 European Championship Race 2

In the second race, Tulovic – like he did in the first – got a good start and took an early advantage. But once again, after making a small error at Turn 9, Agius pounced and this time, with plenty of laps left on the clock, the Aussie pulled ahead and claimed a dominant victory, finishing 12-seconds clear.

Senna Agius – P1

“YES P1! We did it. Today was a result of our process. We have only just started but this feels like a long time coming. Thanks to my team, family and supporters for everything.”

After a great battle with Escrig that went to the final corner, Alex Toledo (Pertamina Mandalika SAG Euvic) managed to pick up his maiden podium in third. Fernandez won the Stock race in the afternoon to make it two from two.

The Moto2 European Championship standings now see Tulovic on 115-points, to Senna Agius’s 90 in second. Third placed Alex Escrig is a more distant third on 66-points.

Moto2 European Championship Results Race 1

Moto2 European Championship Results Race 2

Moto2 European Championship Standings

European Talent Cup (ETC)

In the Hawkers ETC, the race for victory came down to Uriarte vs Esteban. Esteban led into the final corner but Uriarte was able to get a superior run to the line to win for the first time this season, beating Esteban by just 0.014s.

Reigning Champion Maximo Martinez (Team Honda Laglisse) claimed the final podium spot in third for his second rostrum on the spin.

Cormac Buchanan finished in 15th after a strong qualifying result of P13 on the grid, eight-seconds off winning pace, with Carter Thompson P16 a further three-seconds in arrears.

Cormac Buchanan – P15

“How to sum up today’s ETC race? Regret the start, stoked with the performance and satisfied with the result. Qualifying P13 on the grid, unfortunately I bogged down off the start line, lost drive down the straight, and was thrown back to P28 by turn one. Not ideal and I knew it would be difficult to get anywhere close to the points I was aiming for. I then had to battle my way back through the field and this used up a lot of my tyres. Once I got into a faster group, it was more difficult to make the moves I needed with reduced grip. Eventually I managed to create some clear air and close the gap to the riders in front but ran out of laps to move into a better point scoring position. It was a frustrating race as, despite just three days experience on this circuit, I know I had the pace to be fighting for the win but unfortunately wasn’t able to get myself into the correct group and the start blunder certainly didn’t help! While the puzzle pieces just didn’t all slot together in the right sequence, ultimately we made some excellent progress and banked some important positives: first championship point, fourth fastest lap of the race – 1.52.226, set a strong pace throughout weekend, great teamwork with my AGR crew and my machine performed mint.”

Angus Grenfell crashed out avoiding another rider on a dirty section of track, but was taking the positives out of the weekend.

Angus Grenfell – DNF

“Today was a good day, not great, but good! Had a big crash on the 2nd last corner of the last lap as I had to move on to the dirty part of the track to avoid another rider which sent me tumbling out of the battle for 20th. As they say… ‘step by step’.”

Esteban holds the ETC lead on 95-points, with Guido Pini second on 73 and Hakim Danish and Rico Salmela tied on 49-points for third.

Carter Thompson is 16th overall on 13-points, with Cormac Buchanan 27th.

That’s it from Barcelona! Round 4 takes us to the world famous Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto at the start of July.

European Talent Cup (ETC) Results

European Talent Cup (ETC) Standings