Danny Kent wins Moto3 title: British rider ends 38-year wait for world championship and already has eyes on Moto2 success

Kent, 21, from Chippenham, has dominated the championship standings on his Leopard Honda and will step up to Moto2 next season as a reigning world champion

Danny Kent celebrates winning the Moto3 title in Valencia (Getty Images)

A long-awaited day finally arrived when a British rider became World Champion after leading the standings from the second race of the year. Clinching the title was not such as easy feat though after dominating the first half of the season, winning races with a ten second lead at times, as Danny Kent could no longer keep one step ahead of the pack and was challenged hard making the second half of the season a very different battle.

The last three races were still good opportunities for Kent to take the title, but marred by crashes, penalties and an inability to pull away, it didn’t happen. His long-standing rival Enea Bastianini didn’t fare much better, unable to claim a podium finish and crashing out of Philip Island in the Australian round, and along came a new rival for the championship in KTM rider Miguel Oliveira. The Portuguese rider won all three long-haul races taking a huge 75 point step towards Kent and went into the final round trailing the Briton by 24 points.

Oliveira started the final race in Valencia from pole position while Kent, having struggled over the weekend to put in a fast lap, qualified in 18th place. When the lights went out, Oliveira stormed to the lead and Kent moved up to 15th. To win the title, Kent needed just two points so a 14th-place finish or higher was the goal. He moved through to 12th and swapped places with team-mate Hiroki Ono a few times before crossing the line in ninth place, securing the championship title by six points.

Finishing first and second in the Championship, the riders will become team-mates as they both step up to the Moto2 class next year with the Leopard team and Kalex.

Kent said: “Today is the best day of my life. It was disheartening to not be able to have done this sooner but it wasn’t a difficult race, I just had to stay out of trouble. There was a crash in the last lap which we could’ve easily been caught up in”

Feeling happy with the season overall, Kent continued: “It’s been a hard second half of the year but we deserve this. We had a dream start to the season but it is tougher to lead than it is to be doing the chasing. When I crossed the line today, I felt like a tonne of bricks had been lifted from my shoulders. All the hard work has paid off.”

On winning the last race of the season and his last race in Moto3, Oliveira said: “I am quite happy for the 25 points I’ve got. I asked my team to not show me anything on the pit board about Danny as I wanted to concentrate on my race and winning. I only found out after that where he had finished. We need to be happy with this second place.”

Testing for Moto2 begins on Tuesday and Kent believes he and Oliveira will work well as a team, having a strong package with Kalex and a strong team in Leopard.