Senna Agius
The Barcelona breakthrough weekend with Stephanie Redman
We are only at round 3 of his rookie season in the FIM JuniorGP European Moto2 Championship and Senna Agius has already managed not one, but two race wins! Last year he and I discussed a possible timeline for his progression and set some loose goals, by this round we estimated with some solid work, he could possibly be in the fight for a podium… But I can honestly say that I didn’t expect him to be leading a race by over ten seconds… not yet anyway!
Leading up to the weekend he had a few more questions than normal, because, unlike the previous two rounds, we hadn’t done any testing at this circuit. This race weekend would be the first time he rode a Moto2 around Catalunya. We were able to do our homework though as the MotoGP World Championship held a round at this circuit the weekend prior, with conditions being very similar. This helped us gain a better understanding of what to do and expect.
The first session on Thursday started as expected, with Senna finding his feet and starting to figure it all out, he finished in the 1:47’s, around two seconds off where I thought the times would end up for the Junior Championship (how wrong I was). I was happy with this result. In both Valencia and Estoril, two tracks he had previously ridden, he finished the first session with a similar gap, so to be this close on a new circuit, we were off to a good start.
There were many comments over the MotoGP weekend regarding the low grip level of this surface, especially when the temperature is higher, which we later found to be true. Having been caught out from exactly this leading the race in Valencia, it was the perfect opportunity to understand more about the necessary adaptations for these conditions, to go fast without increasing risk. When all is calm and there is no pressure, i.e., not leading your first ever Moto2 race, Senna has an incredible feel for traction. This, combined with a few wise heads in the Promo Racing Team, he was able to work quickly in finding a riding style and bike set-up that allowed him to continue to improve. He managed to finish the first day of practice with the fastest time of 1:44.098.
This is the first weekend where we felt like we were somewhat ready on day one. Usually we are finishing Thursday in a good position, but also knowing that we need to continue progressing in order to remain competitive. This allowed us to rest a little easier Thursday night and rather than a large focus on getting Senna up to speed, we could use the coming days for testing different ideas and strategies. However, we still wanted to squeeze some more time out of it and despite already exceeding expectations, believed he had a sub 1:44 in him.
Timed practice on Friday the team and Senna continued to refine things further with the first session more of a time attack to simulate qualifying. After putting in new tyres, Senna was able to top the time sheets and put in a best single lap of 1:43.974. Across the whole field, this was the only lap under a 1:44 for the both timed practices on Friday. I was super stoked for him and after the chequered flag was clapping and jumping up and down like a crazy person from the inroad at turn 5. It was only 0.026 into the 43’s, but it was also only 0.151 off Celestino Vietti’s Moto2 pole time of 1:43.823 from the MotoGP World Championship the week before.
Doing this lap time is one thing but doing it for the entire 17 lap race distance is another. Consistency over a race is key, so the afternoon session was used to ensure we could do this in the hotter conditions. His times were consistent and not too far off his outright best, however he felt he was close to the limit with the bike and taking unnecessary risk. Further adjustment was required.
Qualifying session 1 on Saturday was always going to be fastest with the track temperature cooler than Q2 in the afternoon. The first run Senna managed a 1:44.065 before boxing, he was sitting in 2nd position, 0.2 seconds behind his closest rival, Lukas Tulovic. While waiting for a new set of tyres to be fitted, Tulovic put down a blistering lap of 1:43.586. Senna however was confident, and ready to go back out and see if he could better it. He crossed the line with a 1:43.703 after his first flying lap, however, wasn’t able to get a clear run and better this throughout the session. He once again had to settle for a 2nd place start. While he was slightly disappointed it wasn’t pole position, it was a lap time to be extremely proud of.
The afternoon session was once again going to be in the hotter conditions and progressing the bike for the race condition was the priority of this session. Senna’s fastest time was a 1:44.2, however he was able to consistently lap in the 1:44’s, which we were confident would be good enough to challenge Tulovic for the win.
In a rookie’s season there will be many mistakes, and this is ok provided they are learned from. Valencia was one of those lessons, and with two races at this round it was better to ride smart in the first one and bank a finish. Tulovic is currently in his 5th year of riding a Moto2 bike and is a very experienced rider, Senna has a lot he can learn from him. This time rather than taking the lead early, it was decided that it’s better to sit behind him for a bit and watch, while applying some pressure. Then if he was still there and felt he had the pace after 10 or so laps, that would be the time to challenge for the lead.
As per the other rounds, although this time slightly better, the start was probably one of the weakest points and one we will continue to work on. Senna got relegated to 3rd off the start and then a slight mistake in turn 4 put him into 4th position behind Aleix Escrig and Alex Toledo. Showing maturity and growth, Senna was calm and patient in making the passes needed to put himself back into 2nd, in this time however, Tulovic had managed to pull a 1.4 second gap. Senna then had clear track and 16 laps to hunt down the lead. He got to work and within two laps was right on Tulovic’s tail, posting the fastest race lap of 1:43.761 in the process. We all were surprised how quickly he had bridged the gap, including Senna himself, he clearly had the superior pace.
Five laps to go was Senna’s trigger to attack, however after seeing +0 on his pit board for almost eleven laps, Tulovic had started riding quite defensively which made it more difficult for Senna to execute his move. Senna tried the same move Vietti used a week prior for the win, gassing up the inside of turn 10, but couldn’t make it stick when he came into contact with Tulovic. Finally, he made the pass on the penultimate lap when Tulovic ran slightly wide coming onto the back straight, instantly pulling a gap and took his first ever Moto2 race win by +0.668 seconds.
Race 1 was quite stressful for him, leaving the attack so late and finding it difficult to pass a defensive Tulovic, he was worried he was going to run out of laps to get done.
It was decided for race 2, if he felt that he had the speed and could execute the pass earlier, then he should do so. The start was a repeat of first race, this time being pushed back to 4th in turn 1. Again he rode a mature first lap and didn’t risk unnecessarily to make the pass, lining up the drive onto the straight and using the slip stream to put himself back into 2nd. Once again, Tulovic had pulled a gap of more than one second and Senna pulled it back within a few laps.
While the tyres were good at the start of the race Senna knew he had a clear advantage, on lap five he lined up the drive out of turn 9 and executed a perfect block pass into and through the braking zone in turn 10. By the time Senna had navigated the final three turns the gap was already at 0.3, which then continued to grow all the way to the end of the race, with Senna winning by 12.1 seconds!
It was an impressive performance. Not only had won two races, he had also posted the fastest race lap of the weekend and lapped fairly consistently in the 1:44’s for both races. For me personally though, the impressive part is his ability to learn and adapt. He learned from the first race and adjusted his strategy for the second one. He rode his own race, to the conditions and finished the weekend with a perfect score.
The whole Promo Racing team also play a huge part in the learning process and ultimately the success of the rider. Senna is doing a phenomenal job and with a solid team around him he is thriving. While he celebrated with some lemonade on the podium (yep, he is only just 17 [DOB 9/6/2005] and still too young for Prosecco) and a banoffee from our local in Andorra, then it was back to training as he looks ahead to how we can keep improving for our next round in Jerez this weekend.
“Today was a result of our process.” – Senna Agius
This weekend was just another race weekend for us. We didn’t do anything special, or out of the ordinary. We just worked with our team and followed the same process we have this past twelve months. This is just another progressive step in the long journey towards his goals, but it is nice to see his hard work and dedication being rewarded.
