History was made at Phillip Island in Sunday’s Animoca Brands Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix 2022 when Izan Guevara took the Moto3 title with his sixth win of the 2022 season.
By taking the title with two races to go in the year, the 18-year-old becomes the seventh Spanish racer to take the Moto3 crown and sits alongside another nine countrymen who lifted the title on 125cc racers before the sport changed to Moto3 in 2012.
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And he did it on a GasGas machine, a rebranded KTM but a Spanish brand, nonetheless. That makes the red and white team, which also sealed the teams' title at Phillip Island, the third Spanish manufacturer to win in the smallest category of GP racing after Bultaco and Derbi.
Next year Guevara will step up to the Moto2, in which he will face strong competition – much of it from his homeland. Win or lose the 2022 Moto2 crown, Augusto Fernandez will be gone, stepping up to MotoGP™ with GasGas, but the 2021 Moto3 world champion Pedro Acosta will be there and one of the favourites.
So too will 2020 Moto3 champion Albert Arenas, Jeremy Alcoba and Aron Canet. And if Guevara spots a familiar face on the Flexbox HP40 Kalex it will be because his teammate and rival from this season, Sergio Garcia, is making the step up too.
