Moto2 qualifying, Phillip Island: Izan Guevara narrowly ahead of Senna Agius

In both the MotoGP FP1 session and qualifying, Australians Jack Miller and Joel Kelso had shone with interim fastest times. However, it was up to Intact GP rider Senna Agius to follow up with further success in Moto2. Agius, who won at Phillip Island a year ago, had got off to a good start with third place in FP1.

With track temperatures exceeding 40 degrees – an unusually high figure for Phillip Island – it was initially Pramac rider Izan Guevara who set the pace once again: 1:30.444 mins. The World Championship runner-up was thus faster than Senna Agius and Adrian Huertas – who had set the fastest time in FP1 – after the opening laps.

The session was still in its early stages when the marshals had to intervene following a heavy crash by Aron Canet at Turn 11. No sooner had the Spaniard been brought to safety than his compatriot Sergio Garcia (Gresini) went down in Turn 6, and World Championship fourth-placed rider Dani Holgado also caused little joy for the Aspar team with his crash in Turn 10. Things went better for his team-mate David Alonso. The rider, who will be joining the Honda LCR MotoGP team next year, was listed in 5th place behind Alonso López at the halfway point.

Championship leader Manuel Gonzalez spent the first half fine-tuning his Kalex, before the most successful Moto2 rider to date moved up to fourth place. Whilst the Aspar technicians were doing everything they could to get Holgado back on track, the stopwatches were already ticking away on the circuit.

Agius, Alonso, Salac, Escrig and Gonzalez mounted successful attacks. Senna Agius set a new fastest lap of 1:30.034 mins. As a result, Guevara had quickly dropped from P1 to 6th. Then Holgado returned to the track, hoping to move up from a precarious 12th place.

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23.10.2026 - 23:35

However, it was Izan Guevara who responded first. With a strong solo lap, the Spaniard reclaimed first place. Further crashes followed, with Ayumu Sasaki and Jose-Antonio Rueda failing to see the chequered flag in qualifying.

On his final lap, Dani Holgado managed to improve his time. A lap of 1:30.320 secured him third place, directly behind his team-mate. Nothing changed at the top. Guevara beat Senna Agius by 0.018 seconds. Salac, Lopez, Escrig, Gonzalez, Huertas and Furusato rounded off the top 10, with the Japanese driver trailing Guevara by just 0.46 seconds. Qualifying ended on a bitter note for Ivan Ortola. For the first time in 2026, the MSi rider must enter the first qualifying session from 16th place.