Moto2, Race: Holgado wins ahead of Ortola and Escrig – drama for Guevara

Forward rider Alex Escrig secured pole position in Saturday’s Moto2 qualifying session in Doha. Behind him, championship leader Manuel Gonzalez (Intact GP) finished in second place. Izan Guevara (Pramac) managed only seventh place, putting him on the third row of the grid.

However, on Saturday evening, the FIM MotoGP stewards revised the qualifying results. Due to ‘slow riding’ on the racing line, a total of eight riders were demoted by three places following Q2 – including the two championship rivals Gonzalez and Izan Guevara. They slipped back to fifth and tenth place respectively. Pole-setter Escrig was not among those penalised and retained pole position.

The starting grid in Qatar was therefore as follows: Alex Escrig, Daniel Holgado and Celestino Vietti made up the front row. Row 2 consisted of Collin Veijer, Manuel Gonzalez and Jose Antonio Rueda. Filip Salac, David Alonso and Senna Agius started from the third row. Izan Guevara, Daniel Munoz and Adrian Huertas were on the fourth row.

Holgado got off to the best start – he took the lead, but Escrig countered immediately after the first corner. Veijer crashed in the first corner, allowing Gonzalez to move up to third place. The Intact rider was then overtaken by Daniel Munoz. Guevara settled into eighth place.

The order after the first lap: Escrig, Muñoz, Holgado, González and Alonso.

Topic of the week

World Champion Kimi Antonelli: record-breaker, heart-breaker, the Tifosi’s dream

With his third-place finish at the Mexican Grand Prix, Kimi Antonelli has become the youngest of the 36 Formula 1 world champions to date. The 20-year-old Italian is on a record-breaking run. The Tifosi are dreaming of Antonelli in a Ferrari.

Read More

TV Program

Today

Lusail: Rennen MotoGP

MotoGP World Championship

08.11.2026 - 16:15

On the second lap, Guevara overtook Agius to move into seventh place, whilst Gonzalez found himself battling with Alonso. At the end of the second lap, Gonzalez was overtaken by Alonso.

Escrig was able to extend his lead at the front – by the end of the third lap, his lead over fellow German Daniel Munoz stood at 0.7 seconds.

Forward-Ass Alex Escrig führte das Moto2-Rennen lange an

Foto: Gold and Goose

Guevara now found himself up against Ivan Ortola, who, in turn, had got off to a very good start.

On the fourth lap, Holgado overtook Munoz. Ortola overtook Izan Guevara – the World Championship runner-up was now down to eighth.

Lap 5: Ortola showed tremendous drive – he overtook Rueda and was now sixth. Ortola then set his sights on Gonzalez. Guevara was overtaken by Salac and was then ninth. Right behind him was Senna Agius, Gonzalez’s team-mate.

The top five at the start of the sixth lap: Escrig, Holgado, Alonso, Muñoz and González. The gap between Escrig and Holgado remained constant at around 0.8 seconds.

Escrig was clocking up the laps and putting in a strong performance. Behind him, the two Aspar drivers were lying in wait. Gonzalez overtook Muñoz and was now fourth. Guevara had regained eighth place. Agius was right on his tail.

On the eighth lap, Gonzalez was overtaken by Ortola. Alonso overtook his team-mate Holgado to move into second place. The Australian Agius overtook Guevara, with Vietti closing in behind him.

Halfway through the race, Alonso had reduced the gap to Escrig to three tenths of a second. Holgado was able to keep up with the pace set by his Aspar team-mate. Vietti overtook Guevara.

Drama für Pramac und Guevara: Die Technik versagte, null Punkte

Foto: Gold and Goose

The order at the start of the tenth lap: Escrig, Alonso, Holgado, Ortola, Gonzalez, Munoz, Rueda, Agius, Vietti and Guevara.

Then Holgado overtook Alonso again. Escrig managed to pull away slightly once more. At this point, Ivan Ortola was the fastest rider on the track – he was chasing down the Aspar duo.

On lap 11 of 18, Escrig had a 0.6-second lead over the Aspar duo. Was this the Forward rider’s big day? Taiyo Furusato crashed at Turn 9.

At the start of lap 12, Ortola overtook Alonso. At the front, Escrig and Holgado had managed to pull slightly clear.

Gonzalez, in fifth place, was already two seconds behind Alonso ahead of him. Daniel Muñoz was right on the heels of the Intact rider.

At the start of lap 14, the moment finally arrived: Holgado overtook Escrig and took the lead. Zonta van den Goorbergh crashed in turn 15.

Ivan Ortola zeigte eine starke Aufholjagd

Foto: Gold and Goose

Then came the drama for Guevara: the title contender was forced to retire due to a technical fault with his Boscoscuro. Pramac team director Gino Borsoi confirmed shortly afterwards that there had been a problem with the engine.

Meanwhile, Daniel Munoz overtook Gonzalez. The championship leader was now sixth. Right behind him was his team-mate Agius.

At the front, Holgado pulled away – with three laps to go, his lead was already 1.7 seconds.

At the start of the final lap, Holgado had built up a lead of over two seconds over Escrig. Gonzalez, in sixth place, had a lead of just under a second over Agius.

Daniel Holgado didn’t put a foot wrong on the final lap – the Spaniard won with a 2.265-second lead over Ivan Ortola. Ortola had just pipped Alex Escrig to the line. David Alonso and Daniel Muñoz rounded off the top five.

Manuel Gonzalez finished sixth – he extended his World Championship lead over Izan Guevara, who takes zero points from Qatar, to 13.5 points. The Intact rider will have his first chance to clinch the title in two weeks’ time at Portimão.

Agius, Rueda, Salac and Vietti rounded off the top 10 in Qatar.