The Moto3™ class provided motorcycle racing fans with another stunner on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas. Initially qualified in third on the grid, Daniel Holgado took off from second following the withdrawal of Jose Antonio Rueda, and teammate Jacob Roulstone moved up to fifth. Daniel Holgado secured another twenty points to leave Austin with a tiny lead on the championship, after he took the second position by just 0.013 seconds on rookie Angel Piqueras, while Jacob Roulstone claimed a brilliant P8 after a rather chaotic race!

Starting from second on the grid between David Alonso and Collin Veijer, Daniel Holgado took a rather decent start although a contact with Joel Kelso hurt his left ankle, but the Spaniard managed to defend his front row position after a chaotic first lap. After two laps, Dani found himself in third behind Alonso who had started to make the gap, and rookie Angel Piqueras who had made his way from the seventeenth position on the grid. While Alonso was already 3.4 seconds away, a chasing group with Holgado, Piqueras, Furusato, Veijer and Kelso were constantly overtaking each other after they had made the gap with the rest, but that allowed the race leader to grow even bigger his gap by 4.5 seconds with 9 laps to go. The next lap, Holgado had lost a bit of ground on Veijer and Yamanaka as he sat in P4, but the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 rider was not going to let go. He pressed charges on his rivals with six laps to go as he increased his pace, clocking slightly faster laps than the race leader. On lap 9, he rode a hot lap in 2'14.866, which turned out to be new fastest race lap record in the end, which gave him the opportunity to move up to a provisional third place, at the pursuit of Collin Veijer. However, a rather dangerous crash from the Dutch young man put Dani at risk when he had to avoid his bike crossing the track. Holgado lost a bit of ground and returned to P4 behind Alonso-Piqueras-Yamanaka. Fourth was not an option for the championship leader, as he put into action his final game plan with three laps to go. A T1 attack on Yamanaka saw him progress to P3, and next he took on Piqueras to find himself in P2. With the soft tyre having dropped massively, the last lap was about survival, but Holgado held it tight on rookie Piqueras and took second of the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas by just 0.013 seconds. Daniel Holgado will head to Jerez with a two point-lead in the championship on today’s winner David Alonso.

It was a rather hectic race for Jacob Roulstone who was starting from P5, the best qualifying result of his young Moto3™ career. However, things went a bit crazy in the first turn when Filippo Farioli crashed just in front of him. Jacob was able to avoid it, but that was five positions lost already. But the events did not stop here! A few corners later, a crash between Ivan Ortola and Stefano Nepa required another quick reaction, and the Australian had to go wide to avoid them, and exited lap 1 in P15. Jacob remained focused while he had to complete his long lap penalty, and once that was out of the way, he started to move up progressively, lap after lap. With nine laps to go, he had made it to the top 10 behind Joel Esteban. The rookie was riding at a decent pace as he held his top 10, and a few crashes ahead saw him move up to eighth, a position he defended until the end to score eight points. P8 is the rookie’s best result since the start of the season, and he will be eager to head to Jerez to continue his brilliant start of the season. Next up for the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 team: the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez on April 26-27-28!