Spanish rider Izan Guevara, riding for GasGas, secured the Moto3 world championship after clinching victory in Turkey. The triumph sealed his status as the 2023 season’s most dominant rider, a milestone that highlighted a season filled with speed and consistency. The title clinched as Guevara finished the season strong at Phillip Island, where he climbed to second place in just four laps and quickly moved ahead of rivals. Denis Foggia, the Italian on a Honda, briefly led the early front group but faded as the race progressed. Only Garcia Dols and Ayumu Sasaki, aboard their Husqvarna machines, remained in contention for the championship fight.
Guevara’s performance at Phillip Island proved decisive. Although he settled for second place in the race, his overall points tally, reaching 290, cemented him as the world champion. Garcia Dols finished with 225 points, making a late bid for runner-up while Foggia and Sasaki followed closely in the standings with 223 and 207 points respectively. The season also saw strong showings from other Spaniards and KTM riders like David Muñoz, Adrian Fernandez, Jaume Masia, Xavi Artigas, and Ivan Ortola, who ranged through the crowd in the top 15, with occasional podiums and steady points finishes.
In other results, Dani Holgado faced challenges that kept him from reaching the finish. The season, marked by battles across tracks from Europe to the southern hemisphere, demonstrated Guevara’s steady rise and resilience throughout his early career.
Life on two wheels
Guevara arrived at the world stage with six race wins, eleven podiums, two fastest laps, and four pole positions. Born on June 28, 2004, he became world champion at a young age, a dream nurtured long before he first sat on a motorcycle, encouraged by his parents, Marga and Toni.
From the Balearic Islands, Guevara joined the regional Federation’s riding school at age six, beginning his competitive journey in minibikes where he earned his first podiums. He stepped into Cradle of Champions in 2012 at eight, then moved through MiniGP 110 as he continued to challenge top rivals like Dani Holgado, Pedro Acosta, and Adrián Fernández, staying in close competition with them for years. By 2014 he claimed the MiniGP 110 championship and never looked back.
That early perseverance paid off as Guevara dominated the European Talent Cup with a streak of victories in 2019. He then moved to Moto3 Junior World Championship with Team Aspar, beginning a path toward the world championship. In 2020 he placed eighth and thirteenth in two races in Portugal, then embarked on an eight-race podium run the following season, including five wins, which culminated in the Moto3 junior world title. At sixteen, he debuted in the Moto3 class with the GasGas Aspar Team and quickly finished inside the Top 10, grabbing his first victory at the American Grand Prix.
2022 built on that momentum. After a cautious eighth in Qatar, Guevara earned podiums across Indonesia, Jerez, France, Italy, Catalonia, Germany, and Assen, moving to second in the standings, three points behind his teammate Sergio Garcia Dols. The season featured a dramatic charge at Silverstone and a string of wins at Aragon and Japan that kept him in the championship hunt, ultimately propelling him toward Australia for the climactic showdown.