Lusail, Qatar 2026
After a week filled with speculation and conversations over the possibility of drone strikes mid-race, the Qatar Grand Prix was upon us.
Clearly, the fans were even less deterred than the riders, as a record-breaking fifty-five thousand, one-hundred-and-twenty-strong crowd descended upon the sandy circuit.
Moto3:
Kelso celebrated his hundredth Moto3 race start this weekend. Well done.
We also spotted a new, yet familiar young face in the line-up:
Little KJ Mononyane has grown up, all the way up and onto a Moto3 machine!
Pratama was pushed back six spots on the grid for disrespecting the mighty Yellow Flags in FP1, while Cruces started the race with a Long Lap Penalty preloaded.
The opening lap went by incident-free by Moto3 standards. Then, at the first corner on the second lap, Munoz went for a gap inside of Uriarte only he could see. Since there wasn’t any space in reality, this led to the two riders clashing and Uriarte sliding off, clinging to the handlebars like a frightened orangutang.
While Uriarte did manage to rejoin the race, Munoz was given a Long Lap Penalty for his transgressions.
On Lap Three, Cruces crashed at Turn Fourteen. He didn’t even have time to serve his Long Lap Penalty. What a shame.
Esteban went skidding off the track at Turn Nine on Lap Five, earning the Moto3 Sparky Award, after suffering a high-high-side.
During Lap Six, O’Shea found himself on the outside of Munoz going through Turn Fourteen, before being launched out of his seat and, ultimately, out of the race.
Was there a feather of contact between them? Judging by the Double Long Lap Penalty Munoz was served almost immediately, yes. Yes, there was.
Track Limits caught out one rider this weekend – Singhapong had to serve a Long Lapper for touching the forbidden green too many times.
We noticed Kelso looking over his shoulder more than he was looking ahead of him. Was he practicing his K53?
In the end, Almansa claimed a distant victory. Fernandez took second place, while a clearly not happy Quiles crossed the line in third.
Moodley finished in twenty-first, followed by Mononyane in twenty-second.
The Moto3 Team Champions were finally confirmed: congratulations to CFMoto Gaviota Aspar!
Uriarte was also officially crowned Rookie of the Year. Well done!
Moto2:
The Dawdler’s Club apparently now held team exercises, judging by the eight riders who were all penalised with a three-position drop on the grid after they collectively blocked Munoz while the latter was on a flying lap in Quali. These were, in no real order, the following: Gonzalez, Guevara, Baltus, Sasaki, Van den Goorbergh, Zurutuza, Huertas, and Agius. Truly a diverse membership.
Veijer was so adamant on winning the Moto2 Sparky Award, that he did so in the very first corner of the first lap, by tripping over the rear wheel of an unsuspecting Vietti.
Judging by his head-shaking retreat from the gravel, Veijer was not satisfied with his attempt.
We had a Mystery Yellow Flag at Turn One on the fourth lap.
During Lap Eleven, Furusato executed a super clean skid out of Turn Nine, just so he could squat down at the edge of the tarmac. Taiyo, no!
Van den Goorbergh crashed on the thirteenth lap, at Turn Fifteen.
Calamity struck Guevara at the start of Lap Fourteen, when his motorcycle abruptly lost all its Go, switching over to Limp Mode until he could pull into the pits.
Oncu was handed a Long Lap Penalty for ‘Causing a Crash’ – we could only assume it had something to do with Van den Goorbergh’s retirement.
Victory went the way of Holgado, while Ortola nicked second position across the line. This left Escrig in third – from his maiden pole, and leading a large portion of the race, to having second place snatched from under your nose at the finish line? How diabolical.
MotoGP:
Martin was back, broken wrist wrapped in three rolls of duct tape, and intent on fighting for the championship.
The grid was four Yamahas smaller this weekend, the two teams opting to stick to global company travel bans to the Middle East.
No Alex Marquez, either, though not for the same reason – the Young(er) Marquez had gone in for some shoulder surgery, and needed to recover before returning.
Sprint Race:
The Saturday evening race started off hot and hard, the battle for the race lead getting off to a brilliant start.
Then, at the end of Lap One, Turn Sixteen bore witness to something catastrophic.
Aldeguer shot down the inside of the corner, undercutting two riders in one go. Ahead of him, Bagnaia had just started to lean into the corner…
The moment Aldeguer cleared Acosta’s KTM, he saw the red machine ahead of him and immediately realised he’d made a blunder…
There was no way to avoid a collision and he ploughed Bagnaia’s rear wheel out from under him, sending the red Ducati hurtling off the track as its rider booked a last-minute flight on Qatar Airways. His flight ended in a rough landing on the tarmac. It was a back-first landing, one that would rearrange every vertebra in your spine from your coccyx right up to the base of your skull.
Aldeguer, face paler than usual under his helmet, took an avoiding detour as to not run over the rider he’d just dismounted, before disappearing down the track.
Moments before the front runners completed the second lap, the Red Flag popped up. Poor old Bagnaia, conscious though he was, was in visible pain as the marshals heaved him onto a stretcher and carried him off to an already waiting ambulance.
Since there hadn’t even been two full laps of racing, the race was set to restart with the original grid line-up, fifteen minutes after the initial race start.
Aldeguer would start the race with a Double Long Lap Penalty in front of his name for his kamikaze attack on Bagnaia. We wish Pecco a speedy recovery.
Just before the Red Flag had come out, Ogura was given a one-position-drop penalty, and once the race had restarted, everyone was mildly baffled when the penalty was carried over.
One controversy behind us, we looked to the new, now-ten-lap Sprint for more.
The race remained clean(ish) until the fourth lap when Marquez (look, it’s obvious which one, okay?) seemed to run wide into Turn One…
Seeing the gap open up ahead of him, Bezzecchi let off the brakes in order to swoop down Marquez’s inside. Alas, as they reached the exit, Marquez pulled back towards the racing line, which happened to be the exact place Bezzecchi found himself at the time.
There was airbag-popping contact, and Bezzecchi went sliding off in a rain of sparks, somehow not wiping the wheels from under Marquez in the process, remaining seated until he came to a full stop.
When Marquez was eventually cleared and no penalties were levied, mister Rivola appeared to be Heavy Mad.
According to Marquez, however, he’d not run wide, but instead had run the exact same line through that corner that he’d run all race long.
After that, a short, spirited battle ensued between Marquez and Martin, Marc eventually pulled away. The remainder of the race was a demonstration of just how different these riders were put together, Martin refusing to acknowledge his broken right wrist as he fought tooth and nail for second place.
Marquez improved his existing Sprint win record to twenty-five, while DI Giannantonio eventually got the better of Martin and snatched up second. Martin, somehow, still finished on the podium in third place.
Binder finished the race in twelfth.
As we switched to Martin’s dashcam during the Cooldown Lap, we saw a man in deep, gut-wrenching pain. How did he do it? We bet not even he knew.
In Parc Fermé, he had to sit down, and one of his team members had to pull off his gloves for him. He was utterly spent.
Main Race:
According to the math people (not to be confused by the equally unsettling meth people) Marc Marquez could be crowned champion if he won the race, AND Martin didn’t score a single point.
The chances were rather slim.
Marini withdrew from the race once again, still struggling with his unexplained fatigue issues, along with the strange numbness in his extremities. We’ll be honest, it doesn’t sound good, Luca.
After his nasty Sprint crash, Bagnaia was sidelined with a broken foot.
On the grid, we spotted an unusual Brolly Girl frolicking around Dixon’s box: it was none other than Cal Crutchlow, and he was having a really good time.
The race itself was unusually crash-free, even with the first three or so laps consisting mainly of high volumes of overtakes.
Relatively early in the race, Acosta suddenly let Marquez through – a sure sign of some kind of tyre pressure concern.
At the end of Lap Fifteen, Moreira peeled into the pits, gesturing to his right arm as he hopped off his bike.
During the sixteenth lap, Binder slowed to a cruise, nursing his KTM back to the pits where he would gesticulate something to do with his gears. Sure enough, it was later confirmed that his KTM’s gearbox had developed a terminal illness.
From pole to the checkered flag, Bezzecchi took the win, keeping his championship hopes alive. Barely.
Second place went the way of Marquez, while Mister Broken Fingers Fernandez rounded off the podium in third.
Honorary mention to Martin, who made sure his championship hopes were also still very much alive by finishing the race in a painful seventh.
Race win number twelve for Bezzecchi has earned him a brand spanking new record as the first-ever MotoGP rider to take his first twelve race victories at twelve different venues.
There were fireworks. And a little more fireworks. Then, a few more.
Now we take a two week break before returning to the MotoGP action in Portugal.
