The Moto3 world championship visited Italy for the 2025 San Marino GP. The 16th race of the calendar, held at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, was the last round of the European leg of the season before heading east for a Pacific-Asia tour. Rookie racer Ruche Moodley, once again, flew the flag as the sole SA representative in the field. Moodley went into the race in a positive frame of mind.
“I know Misano from having competed here before, so I knew we’d have a good weekend,” said the teenager. And his optimism resulted in good lap times from the get-go. As a result, Ruche went into the first part of qualifying with confidence.
“I really enjoy riding the Moto3 bike here,” he said ahead of Q1. “There is a nice flow to the circuit with many fast corners that link together. In Moto3 we are full throttle through some of these corners. When you nail the lap here it is really satisfying.”
That confidence resulted in Moodley setting the quickest time of the session. This bought him a slot in the Q2 session. “I had a good run in Q1, finding clear track when I needed it and I managed to gain a slipstream at the perfect moment.”
The pole shootout in Q2 was a far more chaotic affair as no rider was keen to give rivals a slipstream. As a result, about half the field returned to pitlane without completing a lap. This caused a split in the field with Moodley choosing to stay on track.
“I made a small error on my ‘attack’ lap,” said the SA lad after the session, smiling as he rubbed shoulders with Formula One superstar Lando Norris. The McLaren title contender is a self-confessed MotoGP fan and visited the BOE Motorsport crew after qualifying. Moodley’s quickest time in Q2 was enough to net him 17th place on the starting grid.
Moodley has previously admitted that he just isn’t aggressive enough during race starts, something he’d hope to change for the remainder of the year. His start at Misano is already showing that mindset shift. Ruche was up to 15th place by the time the 26-strong field was halfway through the opening lap.
“The race pace was incredible today. The front of the field was battling hard and still setting blisteringly quick laps times. This meant the pack strung out a bit from the early stages. I was having great battles with the guys around me. I’d gain a position or two, then get overtaken in the space of a single lap. It was great to battle with others and learn where I could be stronger.”
Moodley dropped down the order to 17th where he remained for a long spell, chasing those ahead as hard as he could. He managed to gain a place into 16th, one position ahead of his grid start, which was where the local lad crossed the finish line. He was just shy of a point’s finish.
“There are so many positives to take away from this weekend. I had the pace to make it into Q2 and gained places at the start of the race. Meeting one of my racing heroes, Lando, was memorable. He is such a cool guy. I am really looking forward to the remainder of the season,” concluded Moodley.
Published by Double Apex on behalf of Ruche Moodley. (https://doubleapex.co.za/)
MSA Publishes media releases from a host of different sources on our website as a service to the sport. It is not practically possible to vet/approve every release that is published. Some news items and articles are written by correspondents and do not necessarily represent MSA’s views.