Ruche Moodley is the sole South African representative competing in the 2025 Moto3 championship. The teenager has scored points in every round that he has contested to date, making an impressive start to his maiden season at the world championship level.
The fifth round of the calendar took place at the Circuito de Jerez – Ángel Nieto in Spain. It was the first race in a 12-round European leg of the 2025 schedule. More importantly, it was the very first time Moodley would be competing on a circuit he’s already raced on.
“Every track we visited this year has been completely new to me. We don’t have a lot of time to get up to speed on a race weekend, so it’s tough for rookies,” said Moodley ahead of the weekend. “Jerez is the first track that I have raced at in other series, so I knew what to expect ahead of the weekend.”
And familiarity of the 4,42 km layout showed straight away. Moodley registered the 5th quickest time in the opening practice session (FP1). That time would have made some of his more seasoned rivals sit up and take notice of the newcomer. Ruche’s hot pace continued into the second session where he registered the 9th quickest time.
The MotoGP series uses a unique qualifying system. The top ten times registered in FP2 give riders a free pass directly into Q2, for the pole position shootout. The rest of the field has to fight in Q1 for their grid positions, as well as a few remaining spots in the Q2 session. A similar concept has been applied to Moto3, however, the top 14 riders in FP2 ensures a rider’s immediate pass into Q2. Moodley’s FP2 lap time was fast enough to make his maiden progression straight into Q2.
However, his plans to progress up the starting grid were almost immediately halted when mechanical issues set in. A broken gearbox meant that Ruche only completed two timed runs in the Q2 session. This left him down in 15th place, still recording his best qualifying performance for the year.
“I knew we had the pace to move up the order during qualifying. It’s a pity that we suffered a gearbox failure,” said the dejected, but optimistic teen.
The prospect of the race was full of promise as Moodley showed what he is capable of around this circuit earlier in the weekend. Sadly, a promising weekend ended in the most unfortunate circumstance, without even completing a single racing lap. Ruche’s race ended at T6 of the opening lap. A collision that also involved David Almansa and David Muñoz.
Ruche’s dad Arushen Moodley commented as his son was preparing to head to surgery, “It seems as though Ruche couldn’t really slow the bike down using the gears. He was carrying a lot of speed into turn six so he had to lift the bike up, but two other riders were already running wide and he collided heavily with them. We’ll have to check the data to see if it was a mechanical failure. Following medical evaluations, it was confirmed that he suffered a fractured wrist. He’s now heading off to Barcelona to undergo surgery.”
“The weekend started very well. Ruche really impressed all of us with his pace from the very first lap. It was the first time he was within the Top5 and he was consistent in every session. Unfortunately, the race was a completely different story and not only he couldn’t show his real pace. After his crash he injured himself and this is something that we never want to see on any rider. Sometimes, motorsport shows its most dangerous version. Now, all we hope is that Ruche has a speedy recovery and that we can have him back in our box and riding our bike soon, ” concluded team owner Jose Angel Gutiérrez Boe.
Issued by Double Apex on behalf of Ruche Moodley
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