Ayumu Sasaki was left out of the fight for the Moto3 World Championship title in the Qatar GP, where Jaume Masiá (Leopard Racing/Honda) was crowned champion. The title decision was somewhat controversial due to the excessive aggressiveness of the Spanish rider in some direct battles and the involvement of his teammate, Adrián Fernández, in a manner that appeared to warrant penalties due to the maneuvers in question.
The owner of Sasaki’s team, Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP, Peter Öttl, expressed his frustration about what occurred in Losail, stating to SPEEDWEEK.com: ‘It was always my goal to fight for the world championship title with Sasaki and Husqvarna until the very end in Valencia. That’s what we wanted to achieve in Qatar. I’m sad about how this project was taken away from us in Doha and how the title was decided on Sunday. It’s sad that the fight for the title was taken away from us like this’.
In his view, there were legitimate chances to extend the fight until the end of the season: ‘I’m convinced that if the race had been fair, we would still have a realistic chance of fighting for the world title in Valencia. When such a decision happens in the last race, where you really have to fight for everything and give everything, it is absolutely acceptable. But I think the way it happened in Qatar is unacceptable. Yes, that’s my opinion’.
During the Qatar GP, the stewards chose not to penalize Masiá and Fernández, and that was criticized by Öttl: ‘It should be said that race control or the stewards completely failed. When you think about how Sasaki was penalized for a minor thing in Argentina in 2022, which ended up costing him a top result in the championship, and when you see what Masiá did in Qatar, where only a warning was issued for the second incident, then you lose all confidence in race direction. The way his teammate Adrián Fernández intervened was anything but fair. In the run-up to the Qatar GP, I sent several emails to race control to point out that Fernández’s behavior was totally unacceptable and that, in the end, he was only there to disrupt Sasaki during practice and chase him. But despite several requests from me, they did nothing before the Qatar GP. And then they completely failed in Losail during the race’.