Photo credit: Rafa Marrodán
By Marcella Gallace
Italian rider, Lorenzo Dalla Porta, enters his second year with Leopard Racing in the Moto3 class of MotoGP and is one of the young guns to keep an eye on to swipe out the Championship.
Dalla Porta finished the 2018 Moto3 season in fifth position and is the top contender to take out the 2019 title with last season’s top four having now moved up to the intermediate division of Moto2.
Consistent results last year for Dalla Porta and a spike in podium finishes from midseason including a first place on home turf at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in Rimini, Italy, show promise for the 21-year-old who did not have the best season start.
“The team helped me a lot…It took some time because after the first race [in Qatar], in which I got the third finish, we had very bad luck,” Dalla Porta explains.
And a string of ill fortune he had indeed, it would not be until 10 races later that Dalla Porta would make a top five finish again.
“I couldn’t finish the races in a proper way until the Austrian GP. There, I did a very good race and found the calm I was looking for to be fast,” Dalla Port says of getting his form back.
The next eight races of the season saw him finish on the podium four times.
It will prove a challenging season with riders, Gabriel Rodrigo, Aron Canet and Jakub Kornfeil also pulling a strong season last year. And all showing grit in last week’s finial official Moto3 tests in Qatar.
However, most interesting will be Roman Fenati’s return to Moto3, moving down from Moto2 after he pulled another rider’s brake lever at 140mph during a race last year. His stunt saw him temporarily terminated from his Moto2 team, Marinelli Snipers, before they rehired him.
Regardless of the incident, Fenati is a strong contender and has been one of the fastest in preseason tests in Jerez and Qatar, finishing with the fastest laps across several test days along with Tony Arbolino.
Dalla Porta’s 2018 teammate, Enea Bastianini, has moved up to Moto2, opening a position for Spanish rider, Marcos Ramirez, who has moved over from Moto3 team, Bester Capital Dubai.
With the boys living in different countries, they have had little interaction, apart from preseason testing, “I’ve only shared some tests with him…we live so far from each other.”
They know each other well from the Moto3 circuit, but particularly from 2016 where they rivalled off in the FIM CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship, where Dalla Porta won the Championship.
Although teammates, both boys are chasing their own dream and that’s the win, “[Ramirez] will be a big rival and teammate this season.”
With the MotoGP season about to kick into gear, Dalla Porta says he is particularly eager to race at his home Grand Prix of Mugello.
“I’m really looking forward to race in Mugello…my home Grand Prix. Even if last year I couldn’t be as competitive as I wanted, I’m sure I can make a step forward in front of my crowd,” Dalla Porta explains of his eighth place finish there last year.
“I want to improve last year’s result and celebrate such a good one with my public,” Dalla Porta smiles.
The eager youngster will have to wait until race six of the season for that but for now it’s visor down, bum up for the MotoGP season start on March 10 in Qatar.