Arón Canet has not only ended a personal victory drought since he debuted in Moto2. It has also ended the absence of victories for Valencian motorcycling in the intermediate category of the World Championship, more accustomed to shining in the small displacement, where Jaume Masià took over in 2023, twelve years later, from Nico Terol, as the last champion of the terreta. And Canet, in fact, has also succeeded Terol, the last Valencian to rise to the top of the box in Moto2. Since the Alcoy native won with the Aspar Team at the Ricardo Tormo on November 10, 2013 until Canet’s victory last Sunday in Portimao, 4,153 days have passed, or what is the same, 11 years, 4 months and 14 days. A very long time of desert crossing for the Valencians, with the few podiums of Jorge Navarro (6), Iker Lecuona (2) and those of Arón Canet (20) until last Sunday. And there are not many Valencians who managed to climb to the highest box in the intermediate category. Without counting the time of Jorge Martínez Aspar, they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. From the Alcireño, only Héctor Barberá, Nico Terol and Álex Debón managed to win between 250cc and Moto2, with four victories for the one from Dos Aguas, three for the one from Alcoy and two for the one from Vall d’Uixó.
However, all of them achieved their first victory in that category after a podium and not the 20 that Canet needed. However, it must be clarified that when Debón won at Le Mans (2008) he was a veteran at 31 years old and had more than 100 races in 250cc, and Barberá won his first race when he was only 19 years old, in China (2002). Terol won in Las Américas at the age of 24, something that Corbera has copied, in his fifth year in the category, although a month younger than the man from Alcoy at the time.
On a podium in Teruel
With his 38 podiums, 7 of them in the highest box, Arón Canet is now only one of the 39 behind Nico Terol, the second Valencian who has climbed to the box the most times, with one title and 16 victories, only behind of the legend of the Cheste Circuit Jorge Martínez Aspar, with 61 and four titles and 37 victories. The one from Corbera has long since left behind Ricardo Tormo’s 36, Héctor Barberá’s 32 and Héctor Faubel’s 26. Further away, but not much, are two other active riders, and rivals in Moto2, the ‘rookie’ Jaume Masià, with 27, and Sergio García Dols, with 21, who in Qatar became the first outside of Moto3.
Bagnaia and Lorenzo
The one from Corbera has changed his work style a little for the weekend, taking note of what great references such as the several-time MotoGP world champions ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia and Jorge Lorenzo were doing. «This weekend I have learned a lot. We already studied a lot what Bagnaia does, his mentality during the weekends, and my assistant David and I also studied Jorge Lorenzo, one of the greats. They are references, you learn from them and you take baby steps. But this is a victory, it doesn’t mean you are world champion. Now it’s time to put our heads down again and start working as if this hadn’t happened,” he commented on DAZN on Sunday after the race.
Furthermore, despite what happened in Qatar, when he went from leading the race to falling to tenth position due to tire degradation, he believes that after learning the lesson from Losail, the change from Dunlop to Pirelli has benefited him: “We have worked very good. I was clear about it and I knew that we had to reserve and save things for the end of the race.
Austin, next appointment
The next event, where he will defend his leadership, will be from April 12 to 14 at the Circuit of The Americas. The MotoGP World Championship rests for two weeks after the suspension of the Argentine GP that was scheduled for April 5 to 7 in Termas de Río Hondo.
2024-03-26 03:01:00
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