2015 Moto3 World Championship

Danny Kent was the 2015 Moto3 Champion.

The 2015 FIM Moto3 World Championship was a part of the 67th F.I.M. Road Racing World Championship season. Álex Márquez was the reigning series champion but he did not defend his title as he joined the series' intermediate class, Moto2. Danny Kent became Great Britain's first Grand Prix motorcycle world champion since Barry Sheene in 1977,[1] by winning the championship at the final race of the season in Valencia.[2] Leopard Racing rider Kent started the season with wins at three of the first four races and his lowest finish in the first half of the season was fourth, leading the championship by 66 points at the mid-season break. He only visited the podium once in the second half of the season – a victory at Silverstone – as Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing) and latterly, Miguel Oliveira (Ajo Motorsport) started to cut into his advantage.[3] Oliveira trailed Kent by 110 points with 6 races remaining, but finished with 4 wins and 2 seconds in those races, and took the championship race to the final event as he became the closest challenger to Kent.[4] Ultimately, Kent's ninth-place finish in Valencia gave him the championship by six points[5] over Oliveira; both riders finished with six wins each,[6] as Oliveira became Portugal's first motorcycle Grand Prix race-winner.[7] Bastianini finished third in the championship, fifty-three points behind Kent; he won one race during the season, at Misano.[8]

Romano Fenati was the race-winner at Le Mans for Sky Racing Team VR46,[9] and Niccolò Antonelli won two races for Ongetta–Rivacold at Brno,[10] and Motegi.[11] The duo battled for fourth in the championship, which was settled in Fenati's favour after Antonelli took Fenati, Efrén Vázquez and himself out of the final race at Valencia.[1] The season's other winners were Alexis Masbou, who won the season-opening race in Qatar for SaxoPrint–RTG,[12] and Livio Loi, who won by nearly 40 seconds at Indianapolis in a wet-to-dry race for RW Racing GP.[13] The top rookie rider was Jorge Navarro for Estrella Galicia 0,0 in seventh place in the final championship standings; he finished with four podium finishes in the final five races.[1][14] The manufacturers' standings were headed by Honda for the first time in the lightweight class since 2001,[15] with at least one motorcycle from the company finishing on the podium – including eleven wins – at every race during the season. Honda finished 70 points clear of KTM, who won the remaining 7 races.

2015 was the last season that Eni was the sole fuel supplier for Moto3, as Total became the new fuel supplier for 2016.

  1. ^ a b c "Oliveira wins race but Kent takes Moto3 title". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 8 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  2. ^ "Danny Kent becomes first British motorcycle GP world champion since Sheene". The Guardian. Reuters. 8 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  3. ^ "Dominant Danny Kent takes Moto3 title". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 8 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  4. ^ "Oliveira wins to take title fight to Valencia". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 25 October 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  5. ^ "Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana – Moto3 – 2015 World Championship Classification" (PDF). MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 8 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  6. ^ "Danny Kent: Briton secures Moto3 Championship in Valencia". BBC Sport. BBC. 8 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  7. ^ Lewis, Lisa (31 May 2015). "Historic victory for Oliveira". Crash.net. Crash Media Group. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  8. ^ "Battling Bastianini takes maiden Moto3 Victory". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 13 September 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  9. ^ Lewis, Lisa (17 May 2015). "Fenati wins epic four man battle, Kent 4th". Crash.net. Crash Media Group. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  10. ^ "Antonelli claims maiden Moto3 victory". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 16 August 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  11. ^ "Antonelli puts on a master class in the wet to win". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 11 October 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  12. ^ "Masbou edges thrilling Moto3 battle in Qatar". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 29 March 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  13. ^ "Loi takes maiden Moto3 victory". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 9 August 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  14. ^ "Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana – Moto3 – 2015 Rookie of the Year Classification" (PDF). MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 8 November 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2015.
  15. ^ Lewis, Lisa (22 October 2015). "Honda's route to the Moto3 constructors title". Crash.net. Crash Media Group. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2015.