The Colombian makes history as the first from his nation to win a Grand Prix World Championship
David Alonso (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team) is the 2024 FIM Moto3™ World Champion! Having notched up a sensational 10 wins so far this season, he wrapped up the crown in Japan to make history as the first Colombian rider to win a Grand Prix title in any class.
Alonso’s path to World Championship glory began in 2019 when he raced in the European Talent Cup for the first time on the Road to MotoGP™. In his first season, Alonso finished fifth overall and stood on the podium four times. It was a sign of things to come, as he went on to win the ETC title in 2020 riding for the Aspar Team, collecting five wins along the way. In the same year, the Colombian competed in the Red Bull MotoGP™ Rookies Cup, and it was a campaign that saw him claim a debut win on his way to finishing P4 overall.
In 2021, Alonso won the Rookies Cup title after clinching six wins, while a first year in the JuniorGP™ class sprung a further two rostrums. Alonso continued in JuniorGP™ with Aspar in 2022 – a first win arriving in Valencia – before the World Championship beckoned for 2023.
And what an outstanding rookie campaign it was. It took just four races for Alonso to claim his first Moto3™ podium as he became the first Colombian rider to stand on a Grand Prix rostrum – a trend that we’d see continue. Alonso’s first Grand Prix victory was secured at Silverstone, and in doing so Colombia was etched onto the map of GP winners too. That set the ball rolling as three more wins arrived soon after in Barcelona, Misano and Buriram. Four wins, plus four second place finishes, saw Alonso end his first World Championship year in P3, less than 30 points behind the eventual World Champion, Jaume Masia.
2024 then arrived and the Colombian was a clear favourite from the off. Victory in Qatar seemed a sign of things to come as Alonso’s last lap masterclass also handed CFMOTO the accolade of being the first Chinese manufacturer to win a Grand Prix. Nine more wins have followed in an astonishing 2024 campaign, with his Japanese GP glory seeing the #80 become the rider with the most Moto3™ wins in history: 14.
The crowning moment arrived with that history-making win in Japan as Alonso took his first Grand Prix title to become Colombia’s first-ever World Champion – and all with four races still to play for.
Congratulations on a phenomenal season, David!
Alonso’s championship in stats
– David Alonso is the first ever Colombian rider to clinch a Grand Prix world title. Colombia becomes the 20th different nation with at least one Grand Prix world championship. He is also the first Latin American rider to clinch a GP world title since Carlos Lavado in 1986 (250cc) for Venezuela.
– This is the first time that a CFMoto rider takes the Moto3™ title.
– Alonso has won 14 times in Moto3™, and he is now the most successful rider in the class ahead of Romano Fenati (13). With 10 wins so far this year, he joined Marc Marquez, Joan Mir and Fausto Gresini as riders to have taken 10 wins in a single lightweight class season. The record is the 11 taken by Valentino Rossi in 1997.
– Alonso took the world title four Grands Prix before the end of the season, becoming the first rider to clinch the Moto3™ title that early since Brad Binder in 2016.
– Since the introduction of Moto3™ in 2012, Alonso (18 years 164 days old) is the third-youngest rider to clinch the title after Pedro Acosta (17 years 166 days old) and Izan Guevara (18 years 100 days old).
– Alonso has stood on the podium 11 times so far in 2024, more than any other riders on the Moto3™ grid.
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