2022 FIM Moto3™ World Champion
BALEARIC BULLET!
Without doubt one of racing’s brightest up and coming stars, Izan Guevara – GASGAS has had a break-through season in 2022 after negotiating a super-steep learning curve all the way up to the Moto3 Grand Prix World Championship title.
The eighteen-year-old Balearic bullet won the FIM Moto3 Junior title in 2020 and, following his rookie year in Moto3 in 2021 which saw him win in America on his way to a World ranking of eighth, he quite simply outclassed his rivals this season.
He did not exactly get off to a flying start with an eighth, a second and a retirement in the first three rounds in Qatar, Indonesia and Argentina, but – just as he did in 2020 – as soon as he found his flow he began to pile on the points.
His first victory of the year came on home turf at round six at Jerez at the start of May and he backed this up with third at Le Mans, second at Mugello, back-to-back wins in Barcelona and Sachsenring in Germany and another second in Assen.
His podium run ended with a retirement in Great Britain in August, though he was back on the podium two rounds later with third in San Marino at the start of September and wins in Aragon in Spain and at Japan’s iconic Mobility Resort Motegi put the seal on a hugely successful month.
October started with a fifth-place finish in Thailand before he wrapped up the title with two rounds still to run following a narrow victory at Phillip Island in Australia.
After signing off with victory at the final round in early November in Valencia, his eventual winning margin was a very comfortable sixty-two points.
PALMARES
FIM Moto3 Junior World Champion: 2020
FIM Moto3 Grand Prix World Champion: 2022
2020 FIM MOTO3 JUNIOR WORLD CHAMPION
BALEARIC BEAT!
The Balearic island of Majorca probably boasts more FIM motorcycle racing World Champions per square metre this year than anywhere else on the planet with sixteen-year-old Izan Guevara (KTM) joining his illustrious compatriot Joan Mir on the 2020 role of honour.
Guevara represents a whole new generation of racers who learned to ride on electric machines before graduating to petrol power and as a young boy he attended the Lorenzo Competición school run by Chicho Lorenzo, father of three-time MotoGP king Jorge. With his obvious and considerable talents carefully nurtured by the Balearic Motorcycling Federation, Guevara won a string of minimoto titles – his first when he was only seven years old – and benefited from Spain’s solid support structure for up-and-coming racers.
The winner of last year’s European Talent Cup, Guevara started his 2020 campaign with two solid if unspectacular finishes in Portugal, though once the series moved to Spain he came into his own. An eighth-place finish at the first of three consecutive rounds at Jerez at the end of August was followed by two wins and he then swept all three points-paying races at Aragon at the beginning of October.
With the season playing out with another triple-header – this time in Valencia – Guevara added another victory and two thirds to go with his fastest laps at the final five rounds to take the title by twelve points from early-season pace-setter Xavier Artigas (Honda).
