A bad weekend for the Argentine Moto3 rookie: a nasty crash took him out on the final lap. Here are the rider’s words.
It was a spectacular Valentin Perrone on his home circuit, but unfortunately, a crash at the end ruined everything. The rider from the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team is having his first adventure in the Moto3 class of the World Championship: despite the “zero” in the standings, the 73 has shown from the start that he is fast.
After a tough debut in Thailand, his opportunity came in the second race of the season, held in his home country. Although Valentin Perrone was born in Spain, he decided to represent the Argentine flag in the World Championship.
Number 73’s weekend began with an excellent fourth-place finish in Practice, allowing him direct access to Q2. In qualifying, he set the ninth-best time, positioning himself right in front of his teammate, Joel Esteban.
During the Sunday afternoon race, Perrone stayed behind the leading group, but on the final lap, a suspected contact with Ogden led to a violent high side, throwing the rider onto the asphalt of the track.
In the crash, Perrone hit his right foot first and then his left: during the slide, he also risked being run over by Cruces, who was coming from behind at high speed. Additionally, Valentin remained attached to his bike with his right hand while being dragged into the gravel by his own machine.
VIDEO – PERRONE, THE FOOTAGE OF THE TERRIFYING CRASH
Valentin Perrone’s words
After the incident, the young rider commented on his Argentine weekend on his social media pages: “Hello everyone! The truth is, I don’t even know where to begin with this post and I don’t know exactly how I feel right now. I’m not sure if I should be happy for the great week we had, both in terms of results, as I never left the top 12 during all the practices and fought in the leading group, until the scary moment I had with 6 laps to go, or for the media aspect.
The reception in Argentina was crazy. I didn’t expect so much support from the fans, and I want to thank you all. Thanks for every time you shouted my name, for every photo you asked for, and especially for all the applause you gave me after the bad crash I had during the race.
On the other hand, I’m sad to finish this dream week like this. I don’t know yet if I’ll be ready before Texas, but what I do know for sure is that I’ll come back to fight with the same determination or even more.”
Photo: Valentin Perrone
