Aprilia 1 and 3. KTM wins the Sprint Race, on the podium in the main race and in the championship lead after round 1!
MotoGP Roundup – Buriram, Thailand
Welcome back to the MotoGP Circus, everyone! The 2026 season kicked off in spectacular style, leaving us with many plot twists and edge-of-seat moments.
And what better place to do this than at the Chang International Circuit?
Moto3:
Amongst the insane number of rookies joining Moto3 this season – ten new faces lined up on the Thai race grid this Sunday.
Indonesian sensation Veda Pratama arguably got the most screentime. And with good reason. He was toughing it out with some big guns, even making it into the podium fight. We might want to keep an eye on this one.
On just the second lap, Yamanaka’s bike whipped him out of the seat through Turn Five, resulting in Ryusei bodyslamming the tarmac hard enough to leave a dent.
Buchanan, the Moto3 rider who holds the title of Most Crashy Rider of 2025, defended his trophy with a sonic speed offing at the first corner of Lap Three. While his bike slid past him as if on polished ice, Buchanan opted for the quadruped roll-launch-roll move.
Through the last corner on Lap Three, Pini went slip-slidin’ away, but managed to remount.
While leading the race on the fourth lap, Almansa’s ride gave him an adrenaline boost by yelling ‘BOOO!’ and kicking him out of his seat. Thankfully there was no crash, and Almansa continued the race like nothing had happened, praying that none of the riders behind him pick up on the smell he’d emitted.
With two laps to go, Bertelle toppled off at the first corner, then proceeded to remount at a rather leisurely pace.
It eventually turned into a two-horse – or bike, as it were – race for the victory, with Almansa and Quiles pulling away from everyone else in order to fight in privacy.
This culminated in an insanely close photo-finish, Almansa pipping Quiles to the finish line with less than an ants booty between them.
It was so close, they made it a video-finish just to confirm.
Almansa finally snatched up his maiden Moto3 victory.
Quiles had to be content with second.
Perrone rode his way up from fourteenth to collect third place.
Our Moodley finished twenty-first, having had an anonymous first race of the season.
Moto2: AKA The crash fest.
‘…race is very long here… for the hot…’ – Holgado, pre-race.
Moto2 had a ‘mere’ five rookies on the roster on Sunday, most of whom were well-known names who’ve graduated from Moto3.
Agius lined up as just the second Australian to take a Moto2 pole position.
No Huertas on Sunday: The young Spaniard had broken his foot during practice earlier in the weekend.
On just the second lap, Piqueras’ debut race ended with his bike taking a nap in the gravelbed of Turn Five, from which a group of marshals had to forcefully remove it from its comfortable slumber..
Aji suffered a similar fate at the end of the same lap, a caterpillar of marshals scurried his bike away from the track.
All was going to Moto2 script, until Lap Three neared its end…
Tilting into Turn Ten, Alonso unexpectedly found himself on top of Agius’ rear wheel; contact was made, and Alonso’s bike went feral, tossing its rider off mid-pack, directly in the path of Salač.
With nowhere to go and not much more time to react, Salač clattered over the fallen rider and machine as Alonso drifted into the side of the still-cruising Agius, the latter opted to run off the track in order to avoid running Alonso over altogether.
We were later informed that Agius was cruising due to an unexpected technical gremlin attack of the electronic kind.
While Salač jogged to check on his co-crasher Alonso, the Red Flags were sent out, and the race stopped. Agius was seen being powered towards pit-lane on marshal power, confirming his dire technical state, while Salač managed to cruise back to his pit box under his own steam.
Alonso remained trackside, being tended to by the medical staff. Soon we were reassured that he was conscious, and complaining of pain in his arm and leg. Scans were done, and later it was confirmed that nothing was broken.
The race was quick-restarted with a new distance of eleven laps, with the grid determined by the standings on Lap Three. This meant the front row was now occupied by Holgado, Ortolá, and Guevara, Salač and Agius were able to take the restart, they had to do so from pit lane.
Spoiler alert! This race did not make it to eleven laps. In fact, we barely saw one.
To be very precise, the group made it to the third corner before chaos erupted for a second time. This time it was García and Lunetta who came off worse for wear when García lost the front mid-turn, sending rider and machine sliding out. On their way to the gravel, they swept Lunetta off his wheels, romantically carrying him with them.
García hauled himself to his feet rapidly and realised that he was, in fact, hurting. He slumped back to the ground. Lunetta, on the other hand, didn’t bother to stand up.
Both riders were soon loaded on stretchers and carried off the track.
The incident was bad enough to call back the Red Flags, however. With the same grid as ‘Race Two’, ‘Race Three’ soon got underway – a proper dash-for-cash seven-lapper.
Roberts’ race was cut short by a Turn Three tumble on the (third) opening lap, the marshal-caterpillar quickly carrying the fallen bike off to safety.
By the ninth corner of the new race, Van den Goorbergh and Rueda went off together. Both riders were physically fine, though Van den Goorbergh made it clear who he thought was to blame for the dust in his eyes and the gravel in his briefs.
For the remainder of the race, we were treated to a González versus Guevara tussle for the victory.
A tussle González ultimately won, leaving Guevara in second. Third went the way of Holgado.
MotoGP:
Sprint Race Spectacular!
The season-opener, for lack of a better description, was a doozy. If we may, could we please order twenty-one more Sprints like this one?
Bezzecchi was sitting pretty as the first poleman of the season.
Moreira’s a MotoGP rider now.
Ragzplattergiglyo debuted as a Grand Prix rookie – somehow the word ‘rookie’ sounds wrong when referring to the WorldSBK champ.
About half the field took the long way around the first lap, running off at just about every available corner.
At least one of the wide-runners had a little help: Di Giannantonio was sent on a sightseeing detour courtesy of Márquez.
Álex, that is.
They say trouble comes in threes. This was certainly the case for Bezzecchi this Saturday, having already crashed twice before he lined up for the Sprint.
Crash number three for the day came on just the second lap of the race, when Bez’s Aprilia fainted, toppling over on its right side to gently slide off at Turn Eight, its stunned rider apparently stapled to the seat.
Bez indeed earned a first place in this Sprint, though not the one he’d hoped for.
He became the first rider to crash out of a race in 2026.
With three laps to go, Toprak went shooting off at Turn Twelve after what was a healthy climb up the positions.
Meanwhile, at the front of the field, a classic scuffle was transpiring in the shape of the Marc Márquez-Acosta battle. Their war for top honours raged on throughout the race, serving up some brilliant moves…
And a dash of controversy…
During the penultimate lap, Acosta bombed down the inside of Márquez – Marc, and it’s Marc for this entire encounter, in case anyone was wondering – taking the lead back.
This move did clearly not please Marc, as he immediately (and a tad aggressively) returned the favour through the final corner, sending Acosta’s spooked KTM so wide that he could grab a snack at one of the food vendors before returning to the race.
Some argued that there was contact, others argued there was none, including a peeved post-race Tardozzi. Whichever side was right was irrelevant, as Márquez was quickly told to take a one-position penalty.
Marc honoured this penalty, letting a bemused Acosta past him on the final lap.
This resulted in Acosta claiming his first-ever MotoGP race win, and becoming the first KTM rider in history to lead the MotoGP Championship.
Marc Márquez had to settle for second, acting professional about it though his face sometimes betrayed the lemon he’d bitten into on that final lap.
Beyond the debated duo, Raúl Fernández snuck up to grab third, having come through Q1.
Binder finished a healthy sixth.
Main Race:
Just a quick congratulations to the Tuk-Tuk Challenge winning team, Razgatlıoğlu and Miller. What a team!
This time around, Bezzecchi stayed seated for the full performance.
Marc and Pedro exchanged a few pleasantries again, though lower down and not as many as during the Sprint. Concerns were raised over Marc’s shoulder not being at a hundred percent, especially through right-handed turns, and it was showing.
Acosta certainly had no reservations in fighting the big guns, the young shark not just nibbling at, but full-on biting the shins of two established World Champions simultaneously at one stage.
Márquez who?
Martín who?
Eventually the pack tapered out with the top five bolting from the rest, as well as from each other.
We feared a boring race once more…
Until on Lap Twenty-One when Márquez – Marc – had a moment so wild, he likely saw a highlight reel of his life flash before his eyes…
Entering Turn Four at over two-hundred kilometres per hour, Marc’s Ducati turned rabid. Bike and rider went bucking mid-lean off over the curb, and to everyone’s horror it was revealed that his rear tyre had gone limper than – well it went limp.
As Marc continued to pull out his best rodeo moves just to not become a human aircraft, we caught a glimpse of his rear wheel: Now we know there are weird wheels out there, but a Ditto-shaped rim is a new one. That rim was so bent, it could run for SA parliament.
Even the tyre was trying to divorce it. And it partially succeeded.
We commend Marc on not crashing during any of this. Ten out of ten saving skills. Might need new leathers coz we et they were soiled, but that’s a minor price to pay.
Seriously, that is one very skilled, lucky rider.
One lap after his big brother was almost sent to the Space Station, Álex Márquez’s Ducati abandoned him trackside at the very same corner.
By Lap Twenty-Three, Mir was seen coasting with tyre issues of his own. It was alleged that his rear tyre was splitting down the middle. We leaned toward believing this, even more so once we saw the state of the other competitors’ rear rubber post-race, not the least of who was race-leader, Bezzecchi.
By the end of the final lap he was all but cruising, and you could hear the sigh of relief as he crossed the finish line. That rear tyre was, for all intents and purposes, kaput!.
Aprilia’s Bezzecchi claimed the win, becoming the first rider ever to win three times in a row on an Aprilia in MotoGP.
KTM’s Acosta finished in second, deservedly becoming the fans’ Rider of the Race, while Aprilia rider Fernández scooped up another podium in third.
Avoiding the chaos all around him, Binder finished in a formidable seventh.
Fun fact!
With a KTM in the middle of an Aprilia sandwich, this was the first Ducatiless MotoGP race podium since 2021, bringing to an end a massive eighty-eight-podium streak for the Italian marque.
Was this weekend a taste of what’s to come this year? If so, we’re excited!
The Karr Report.
