Álex Márquez of Spain emerged the winner in the final meters of the Moto3 Grand Prix of Japan at the Motegi circuit to give KTM its 20th consecutive victory – the new record in the small class of the FIM Motorcycle World Championship!
The series started at the same place one year ago by former and future Red Bull Ajo KTM rider Danny Kent (UK), who also won three rounds later at Valencia. The Spaniard Luis Salom is with seven victories onboard the KTM RC250 GP Moto3 bike the most successful rider in this period, followed by Alex Rins with six wins and Moto3 World Champion 2012 Sandro Cortese (D) and Maverick Viñales with two victories each.
26 victories in 33 races
Since the comeback of KTM in the new Moto3 category at the beginning of the 2012 season overall 26 victories out of 33 races went to riders sitting on KTM driven bikes. Cortese took three more wins in his World Championship season furthermore Luis Salom and Jonas Folger scored two and one victory on their KALEX-KTM bikes.
The championship now goes to the final round in Valencia (E) on a knife’s edge with Salom still in the lead by two points from Viñales with Rins five points behind the leader. Everything points to a great race for the sport, the Spanish fans and for KTM, who already won the constructors championship a few rounds ago and are in line to take their second World Championship title after Cortese of the Red Bull Ajo KTM team won the first ever Moto3 title in 2012.
KTM’s 20 consecutive Moto3 winners
1st Danny Kent (UK) Motegi (J) 2012
2nd Sandro Cortese (D) Sepang (MAL) 2012
3rd Sandro Cortese (D) Phillip Island (AUS) 2012
4th Danny Kent (UK) Valencia (E) 2012
5th Luis Salom (E) Doha (QAT) 2013
6th Alex Rins (E) Austin (USA) 2013
7th Maverick Viñales (E) Jerez (E) 2013
8th Maverick Viñales (E) Le Mans (F) 2013
9th Luis Salom (E) Mugello (I) 2013
10th Luis Salom (E) Cataluña (E) 2013
11th Luis Salom (E) Assen (NL) 2013
12th Alex Rins (E) Sachsenring (D) 2013
13th Alex Rins (E) Indianapolis (USA) 2013
14th Luis Salom (E) Brno (CZ) 2013
15th Luis Salom (E) Silverstone (GB) 2013
16th Alex Rins (E) Misano (I) 2013
17th Alex Rins (E) Aragón (E) 2013
18th Luis Salom (E) Sepang (MAL) 2013
19th Alex Rins (E) Phillip Island (AUS) 2013
20th Álex Márquez (E) Motegi (J) 2013