MotoGP 2026
Round 16 – Motegi – Sunday
Moto2 Race
Gonzalez drama opens the door for Guevara
The Moto2 World Championship took another dramatic turn before the Japanese Grand Prix had even started.
Championship leader Manuel Gonzalez had qualified on the front row, but trouble struck as the field prepared to get underway. When Gonzalez attempted to engage first gear his Intact GP Kalex stalled, the team later tracing the problem to the clutch. His machine had to be pushed from the grid into pit lane while the rest of the field prepared to race without him.
By the time Gonzalez finally joined the race the leaders were already disappearing into the distance.
For Izan Guevara, who had entered Sunday 35.5 points behind Gonzalez, the opportunity could hardly have been greater. The polesitter made no mistake.
Guevara grabbed the holeshot and led Tony Arbolino, Filip Salač, Ivan Ortola, David Alonso and Daniel Holgado through the opening lap.
Arbolino launched superbly from fifth on the grid to second and immediately settled onto Guevara’s rear wheel, while Salač kept the leading trio bunched up.
After two laps only four-tenths covered Guevara, Arbolino and Salač. By lap five that margin was still only six-tenths, with Ortola and Alonso maintaining contact behind.
Guevara never surrendered the lead at the timing line, but there was little opportunity to relax.
The Spaniard’s strength was his consistency. From lap four through lap 18, virtually every lap was in the 1m47s, with most clustered within a few tenths.
Arbolino was every bit as relentless.
The Italian spent the entire race in second place, rarely more than half a second from Guevara, while Salač remained close enough to punish any mistake from either of them.
Vietti charges as the leading six compress
At half-distance Arbolino was only three-tenths behind the leader and Salač another quarter of a second back.
Ortola and Alonso had begun to lose touch with the podium trio, but the complexion of that fight changed when Celestino Vietti came alive.
Vietti produced three successive fastest laps on laps 11, 12 and 13.
A 1m47.607 became a 1m47.560 and then a 1m47.479, the latter standing as the fastest lap of the race.
That charge brought Vietti firmly onto the back of Ortola and Alonso and turned what had been a three-rider podium contest into a six-rider leading group separated by little more than two seconds.
Alonso responded strongly himself with a 1m47.507 on lap 16, the second-fastest lap of the race, while Ortola also found pace late.
But the main question remained whether Arbolino could get past Guevara.
At the end of lap 16, the pair were separated by just over a tenth.
Arbolino made his move at Turn 9 on lap 17.
He dived underneath Guevara but carried too much speed into the corner and ran wide on the exit. Guevara had anticipated the attack and cut straight back underneath to reclaim the position.
It proved the decisive moment.
The failed move cost Arbolino enough ground for Guevara to open almost half a second by the end of the lap, and although the Italian closed again, he could not manufacture another opportunity.
Guevara crossed the line four-tenths clear to claim his third win of the season and his second victory in succession.
Arbolino’s runner-up finish delivered his first podium of 2026, while Salač completed the rostrum just over a second behind the winner.
Ortola finished fourth, only two-tenths seconds behind Salač, with Alonso another three-tenths back and Vietti completing a top six covered by only 2.016 seconds.
Deniz Öncü claimed his best result of the season in seventh, edging Daniel Holgado by only 0.032 seconds, while Alonso Lopez and Jose Antonio Rueda rounded out the top ten.
Gonzalez pace underlines size of missed opportunity
For Gonzalez, the result sheet tells a particularly painful story.
He eventually crossed the line in 22nd position, 31.269 seconds behind Guevara.
But his deficit after the opening lap was already 28.001 seconds.
Over the remaining 18 laps, Gonzalez lost only a little over three more seconds to the winner, despite being mired in traffic throughout.
His fastest lap of 1m47.662 was only 0.026 slower than Guevara’s best and the fifth-fastest lap of the entire race.
The package clearly had front-running pace. The championship leader simply never had the opportunity to use it, and the consequences for the title race are enormous.
Gonzalez still leads on 245.5 points, but Guevara’s maximum score moves him to 235.
A championship margin that stood at 35.5 points before the race has been slashed to just 10.5 heading into Indonesia.
Agius battles grip problems to salvage points
Senna Agius endured a more difficult afternoon. The Australian started tenth but slipped to 11th on the opening lap and struggled throughout the 19 laps with the lack of grip he later described.
Agius briefly held his position around the fringes of the top ten before dropping to 12th and then 13th.
Agius eventually took the chequered flag 13.509 seconds behind Guevara.
His best lap was a 1m48.058, just under six-tenths from Vietti’s race benchmark.
Agius still collected three championship points and remains sixth overall on 152, only two points behind fifth-placed Holgado and 14 behind Alonso in fourth.
Motegi Moto2 Race Results
 |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | I. Guevara | Bos | 34m14.675 |
| 2 | T. Arbolino | Kal | +0.419 |
| 3 | F. Salac | Kal | +1.057 |
| 4 | I. Ortola | Kal | +1.247 |
| 5 | D. Alonso | Kal | +1.554 |
| 6 | C. Vietti | Bos | +2.016 |
| 7 | D. Öncü | Bos | +7.037 |
| 8 | D. Holgado | Kal | +7.069 |
| 9 | A. Lopez | Kal | +9.547 |
| 10 | J. Rueda | Kal | +11.517 |
| 11 | A. Huertas | Kal | +13.341 |
| 12 | D. Muñoz | Kal | +13.432 |
| 13 | S. Agius | Kal | +13.509 |
| 14 | A. Sasaki | Kal | +16.422 |
| 15 | Z. vd Goorbergh | Kal | +16.505 |
| 16 | B. Baltus | Kal | +16.646 |
| 17 | A. Canet | Bos | +22.026 |
| 18 | A. Escrig | For | +24.358 |
| 19 | X. Zurutuza | For | +25.062 |
| 20 | J. Roberts | Kal | +25.717 |
| 21 | L. Lunetta | Bos | +26.784 |
| 22 | M. Gonzalez | Kal | +31.269 |
| 23 | U. Orradre | Kal | +33.299 |
| 24 | M. Pawelec | Kal | +38.626 |
| Not Classified | |||
| DNF | M. Aji | Kal | 8 laps |
| DNF | T. Furusato | Kal | 11 laps |
| DNF | S. Garcia | Kal | 12 laps |
Moto2 Championship Standings
|
||
|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | M. Gonzalez | 245.5 |
| 2 | I. Guevara | 235 |
| 3 | I. Ortola | 181.5 |
| 4 | D. Alonso | 166 |
| 5 | D. Holgado | 154 |
| 6 | S. Agius | 152 |
| 7 | F. Salac | 144 |
| 8 | C. Vietti | 133 |
| 9 | A. Lopez | 117.5 |
| 10 | C. Veijer | 75.5 |
| 11 | T. Arbolino | 75.5 |
| 12 | D. Muñoz | 72 |
| 13 | A. Escrig | 63 |
| 14 | B. Baltus | 60 |
| 15 | D. Öncü | 47.5 |
| 16 | J. Roberts | 44 |
| 17 | A. Huertas | 42 |
| 18 | J. Rueda | 37 |
| 19 | L. Lunetta | 23 |
| 20 | A. Sasaki | 21 |
| 21 | A. Ferrandez | 17.5 |
| 22 | A. Canet | 17.5 |
| 23 | T. Furusato | 15 |
| 24 | Z. vd Goorbergh | 13 |
| 25 | S. Garcia | 11 |
| 26 | A. Piqueras | 4 |
| 27 | M. Aji | 3 |
| 28 | M. Ramirez | 0 |
| 29 | X. Zurutuza | 0 |
| 30 | U. Orradre | 0 |
| 31 | J. Navarro | 0 |
| 32 | D. Foggia | 0 |
| 33 | J. Roulstone | 0 |
| 34 | M. Pawelec | 0 |
Moto3 Race
Almansa leads as Motegi erupts into a multi-rider fight
David Almansa completed a remarkable turnaround at Motegi, winning a final-lap duel against championship leader Maximo Quiles.
The weekend had hardly begun smoothly for Almansa. Three separate Friday crashes made for a difficult opening day, but he recovered to take pole on Saturday and then converted that into his third victory of the season on Sunday.
Almansa made the holeshot from pole and led Brian Uriarte, David Muñoz, Quiles and Alvaro Carpe through the opening lap.
Muñoz had made a particularly strong launch from sixth and was already third by the completion of the opening lap.
Uriarte was immediately aggressive and took over the lead on lap three, with Almansa, Muñoz, Quiles and Carpe all tightly grouped behind.
Carpe worked his way forward as the leading order continued to shuffle.
By lap five eight riders remained in touch at the front, with Rico Salmela and home favourite Ryusei Yamanaka also firmly involved.
Almansa appeared content to manage his tyres rather than force the issue through the early and middle stages.
He had been shuffled back as far as third while Uriarte and Carpe pushed the pace, but remained firmly attached to the fight.
Uriarte penalty turns the race on its head
The complexion of the race changed dramatically on lap eight.
Uriarte had controlled much of the opening half of the contest, but was handed a double long-lap penalty after his team had worked on the motorcycle after the three-minute board had been displayed on the grid.
Uriarte served the first long lap on lap nine. The cost was substantial. He went from leading at the end of lap eight to fifth at the completion of lap nine, handing the initiative back to Almansa.
Almansa immediately made use of the clear track. He set successive race benchmarks of 1m54.906 on lap eight and 1m54.888 on lap nine, taking command while Carpe and Quiles continued to scrap behind.
Uriarte climbed back towards the front before serving the second part of his penalty on lap 13, which pushed him down the order again. Even then his pace remained formidable. He eventually fought his way back to fourth and set the fastest lap of the race on lap 16, a 1m54.710.
At the front, however, the contest was increasingly becoming Almansa versus Quiles.
Quiles hunts Almansa down
Quiles moved past Carpe for second on lap 12 and finished that lap only 0.282 seconds from Almansa.
The championship leader then made a mistake at Turn 8.
By the end of lap 13, he had dropped almost a full second behind.
It looked as though Almansa might finally have enough breathing room.
He didn’t.
The gap to Quiles was 0.948 seconds after lap 13.
A lap later it was 0.713.
With two laps remaining it was 0.578.
Quiles then produced a 1m54.847 on lap 16 to start the final lap only three-tenths behind Almansa.
The championship leader was right back in the fight.
Almansa survives a final-lap assault
Almansa then made a small mistake at Turn 1 on the final lap, giving Quiles the opportunity he had been waiting for.
The pair danced through the final sector virtually together.
Quiles looked for a way through under brakes at Turn 11, but Almansa placed the KTM perfectly. The same happened through Turns 13 and 14, Almansa positioning himself to deny the championship leader a clean attack.
Quiles was faster on the final lap, taking another quarter of a second out of the leader.
It wasn’t quite enough.
Almansa crossed the line just 0.046 seconds ahead to claim his third victory of 2026.
Carpe finished third, 2.738 seconds behind, while Uriarte’s remarkable recovery from two long laps delivered fourth.
Salmela equalled his career-best result with fifth ahead of Matteo Bertelle, while Muñoz finished seventh on only his second weekend back from injury.
Home rider Ryusei Yamanaka produced his best result of the season in eighth, with Joel Esteban and Adrian Cruces completing the top ten.
It was a remarkable display of KTM strength, with the Austrian manufacturer filling every position in the top ten. Veda Pratama was the first Honda home in 11th.
Kelso gains six places but misses the points
Joel Kelso faced an uphill task after his grid penalty relegated him to 23rd on the starting grid.
The Australian made steady progress through the field, reaching 20th on the opening lap and continuing forward as the race unfolded.
Kelso eventually finished 17th, gaining six positions from his grid slot, but remained just outside the points.
His best lap was a 1m55.713, placing him 11th on the individual fastest-lap ranking.
Kelso remains 14th in the championship on 67 points.
Quiles still holds a commanding championship advantage
Quiles may have missed victory by only 0.046 seconds, but second place still leaves him firmly in control of the Moto3 World Championship.
The Spaniard heads to Indonesia with 326 points.
Almansa’s victory lifts him back into second on 199, eight points ahead of Carpe on 191 and 12 ahead of Uriarte on 187.
That leaves Quiles with a massive 127-point championship advantage despite Almansa’s Motegi victory.
Quiles will therefore have another opportunity to seal the title when the paddock reconvenes at Mandalika next weekend.
Motegi Moto3 Race Results
 |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Time/Gap |
| 1 | D. Almansa | KTM | 32m45.544 |
| 2 | M. Quiles | KTM | +0.046 |
| 3 | A. Carpe | KTM | +2.738 |
| 4 | B. Uriarte | KTM | +3.610 |
| 5 | R. Salmela | KTM | +4.430 |
| 6 | M. Bertelle | KTM | +5.584 |
| 7 | D. Muñoz | KTM | +13.080 |
| 8 | R. Yamanaka | KTM | +13.166 |
| 9 | J. Esteban | KTM | +20.962 |
| 10 | A. Cruces | KTM | +21.031 |
| 11 | V. Pratama | Hon | +21.120 |
| 12 | H. Danish | KTM | +21.273 |
| 13 | A. Fernandez | Hon | +21.725 |
| 14 | V. Perrone | KTM | +21.776 |
| 15 | C. O’Gorman | Hon | +21.976 |
| 16 | R. Ogiwara | KTM | +22.472 |
| 17 | J. Kelso | Hon | +22.591 |
| 18 | M. Morelli | KTM | +27.938 |
| 19 | J. Rios | Hon | +28.113 |
| 20 | S. Ogden | KTM | +28.339 |
| 21 | Z. Mitani | Hon | +30.844 |
| 22 | R. Moodley | KTM | +38.461 |
| Not Classified | |||
| DNF | L. Rammerstorfer | Hon | 1 lap |
| DNF | E. O’Shea | Hon | 2 laps |
| DNF | G. Pini | Hon | 6 laps |
| DNF | K. Singhapong | Hon | 16 laps |
Moto3 Championship Standings
|
||
|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Points |
| 1 | M. Quiles | 326 |
| 2 | D. Almansa | 199 |
| 3 | A. Carpe | 191 |
| 4 | B. Uriarte | 187 |
| 5 | M. Morelli | 146 |
| 6 | V. Perrone | 120 |
| 7 | H. Danish | 105 |
| 8 | V. Pratama | 105 |
| 9 | M. Bertelle | 96 |
| 10 | R. Salmela | 81 |
| 11 | A. Cruces | 79 |
| 12 | G. Pini | 70 |
| 13 | C. O’Gorman | 70 |
| 14 | J. Kelso | 67 |
| 15 | J. Esteban | 66 |
| 16 | E. O’Shea | 65 |
| 17 | A. Fernandez | 62 |
| 18 | D. Muñoz | 61 |
| 19 | J. Rios | 49 |
| 20 | R. Yamanaka | 39 |
| 21 | S. Ogden | 30 |
| 22 | D. Gonzalez | 7 |
| 23 | M. Uriarte | 6 |
| 24 | C. Buchanan | 5 |
| 25 | L. Rammerstorfer | 4 |
| 26 | Z. Mitani | 2 |
| 27 | R. Moodley | 1 |
| 28 | K. Singhapong | 1 |
| 29 | N. Carraro | 0 |
| 30 | R. Ogiwara | 0 |
| 31 | L. Abruzzo | 0 |
| 32 | E. Gutierrez | 0 |
2026 MotoGP Calendar
 |
|||
|
Rnd
|
Date
|
Event
|
Circuit
|
| 1 |
01 Mar
|
Thai
|
Chang International Circuit
|
| 2 |
22 Mar
|
Brazil*
|
Autodromo Internacional Ayrton Senna
|
| 3 |
29 Mar
|
US
|
Circuit of the Americas
|
| 4 |
26 Apr
|
Spain**
|
Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto
|
| 5 |
10 May
|
France
|
Le Mans
|
| 6 |
17 May
|
Catalonia
|
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
|
| 7 |
31 May
|
Italy
|
Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello
|
| 8 |
07 Jun
|
Hungary
|
Balaton Park Circuit
|
| 9 |
21 Jun
|
Czech
|
Automotodrom Brno
|
| 10 |
28 Jun
|
Netherlands
|
TT Circuit Assen
|
| 11 |
12 Jul
|
Germany
|
Sachsenring
|
| 12 |
09 Aug
|
GB
|
Silverstone Circuit
|
| 13 |
30 Aug
|
Aragon
|
MotorLand Aragon
|
| 14 |
13 Sep
|
San Marino
|
Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
|
| 15 |
20 Sep
|
Austria
|
Red Bull Ring-Spielberg
|
| 16 |
04 Oct
|
Japan
|
Mobility Resort Motegi
|
| 17 |
11 Oct
|
Indonesia
|
Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit
|
| 18 |
25 Oct
|
Australia
|
Phillip Island
|
| 19 |
01 Nov
|
Malaysia
|
Petronas Sepang International Circuit
|
| 20 |
08 Nov
|
Qatar
|
Lusail International Circuit
|
| 21 |
22 Nov
|
Portugal
|
Autodromo Internacional do Algarve
|
| 22 |
29 Nov
|
Valencia
|
Circuit Ricardo Tormo
|
