Mythical Mugello delivers points and valuable experience for the Valresa GASGAS Aspar team

Strong performances at the Moto3™ Gran Premio D'Italia Oakley from Sergio Garcia who charged from 14th to 9th, while Izan Guevara recovered to a solid mid-pack finish in 17th after a crash on Saturday.

• Sergio Garcia records the fastest race lap (1:57.188) and hauls 7 points battling to 9th in an exciting race
• Izan Guevara races hard to finish 17th after starting from a challenging 27th place grid slot
• Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team now placed second in the world standings on 82 points

It is always a special moment rolling into the Mugello Circuit, which is set in the heart of the picturesque Tuscan countryside; filled with emotion, passion, and some of the finest and most technical corners on the Grand Prix calendar. Success at the Italian Grand Prix is a sure-fire high target for every rider to line up on the grid there, not least for Sergio Garcia and Izan Guevara.

Fired up by his recent lights to flag victory in Le Mans, Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team rider Sergio Garcia pushed his GASGAS RC 250 GP bike to the limit around the 5.2km Mugello circuit. Capitalizing on the near perfect summer conditions - which featured track temperature peaking at 34°C - the 18 year old Spanish rider quickly carved his way from a 14th place qualifying slot, into the top ten within the first half of the race.

What’s more, during his charge into the leading pack, Garcia also set the fastest lap of the race, with a blistering time of 1:57.188. By lap 12 Garcia briefly pushed into the top four. However, while Garcia was easily circulating with enough speed to place on the podium, he struggled with the highly strategic slipstream racing which characterizes Moto3. Eventually crossing the line in 8th, while battling with championship leader Pedro Acosta, Garcia was demoted to 9th due to a track limits infringement on the last lap.

Meanwhile teammate Izan Guevara gritted through a challenging weekend. After enduring a crash on Saturday, the former Junior Moto3 champion started from 27th. Impressively Guevara made a lightning start and jumped up nine places on the first lap alone.

Unfortunately, a crash involving three competing riders split the field and caused an unassailable gap between the top of the grid and the chasing pack, which Guevara was heading. Guevara pushed and eventually finished 17th, taking valuable experience with him into the next Grand Prix.

Next up the Moto3 Championship heads to Spain and the legendary Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the start of a fast and furious three races in four weeks.

#11 - Sergio Garcia: “I got a lot of positive feelings from this race. I felt really good and could fight hard with the other riders on every lap. I just missed out on a good position onto the home straight, which is so key here. The slipstream effect here on the main straight is huge. To be honest I should have placed myself better on track - especially on the last few laps - but these are the things I need to learn, and I’m sure for Barcelona I’ll be able to remember what happened here, and crucially improve more!”

#28 - Izan Guevara: “It was a challenging day here at Mugello for sure. I started quite far back on the grid and was hoping to get higher in the group, but in corners six and seven there was a crash and it caused a breakaway between my group and the front. We couldn’t do much more really. I felt great on the bike but unfortunately there is not much more to say. We’ll look to Barcelona now, where we’ll hope to be further forward and score better points.”

Jorge Martinez (Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team Manager): “This was a typical race for Mugello, with a large group charging all the way to the finish line. I feel like we saved something from this GP. It would have been nice to get inside the top five and for the guys to have more points. However, this was more race experience for both riders. Sergio is gaining more confidence with the team and the bike all the team. Izan had a tougher time and it was a shame about his crash yesterday but he learned a lot at this track, which is one of the tougher ones and most technical on the calendar.”

Results - 2021 Moto3 World Championship, Round 6:

1. Dennis Foggia (Honda) 20 laps; 2. Jaume Masia (KTM) +0.036, 3. Gabriel Rodrigo (Honda) +0.145, 9. Sergio Garcia (GASGAS), +0.861, 17. Izan Guevara (GASGAS), +23.499

Championship Standings - After Round 6:

1.  Pedro Acosta (KTM) 111pts; 2. Jaume Masia (KTM) 59pts; 3. Ayumu Sasaki (KTM) 57pts; 4. Sergio Garcia (GASGAS) 56pts; 13. Izan Guevara (GASGAS) 26pts