Moto2, qualifying: Holgado sets record lap – Guevara 3rd, Gonzalez 4th

The situation in the 2026 Moto2 World Championship ahead of the final three races of the season is thrilling. Intact rider Manuel Gonzalez leads the championship standings by a mere 3.5 points. Lurking in second place is his Spanish compatriot Izan Guevara (Pramac Yamaha). Ivan Ortola, in third place and 77 points behind the leader, no longer has any mathematical chance of winning the title.

FP1 will be followed on Friday by the 40-minute free practice session in the Moto2 class. The aim here is to secure a direct place in Qualifying 2, which is only open to the fastest 14 riders. The remaining riders must take part in Q1 on Saturday, from which the top four then progress to Q2.

Aspar rider Daniel Holgado was the fastest in FP1 in Qatar. Celestino Vietti and Guevara followed in second and third place. Gonzalez set the fourth-fastest time.

At the start of qualifying at 6.05 pm local time, the air temperature was still 30 degrees Celsius. The floodlights bathed the Lusail International Circuit in full light.

After five minutes, Forward rider Alex Escrig topped the timesheets with a lap of 1:56.578. By way of comparison, Manuel Gonzalez had set the Moto2 lap record in 2025 with a time of 1:56.301. Alonso Lopez and Ivan Ortola followed in second and third place. On the next lap, Ortola set the second-fastest time – he was one-tenth of a second slower than Escrig.

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07.11.2026 - 10:25

WM-Leader Manuel Gonzalez (Intact GP): Platz 4 im Losail-Zeittraining

Foto: Gold and Goose

Shortly afterwards, Guevara set the fifth-fastest time. Gonzalez was in eighth place at that point.

After ten minutes, Gonzalez set a new fastest time of 1:56.411 minutes. His Intact team-mate, Senna Agius, surged up to fifth place. However, his time was disallowed for exceeding the track limits. One lap later, the Australian moved up to sixth place.

The order halfway through the session: Gonzalez, Escrig, Ortola, Lopez and Vietti. Guevara was in eighth place.

A few minutes later, KTM Ajo rider Collin Veijer surged up to third place. The Dutchman will continue to race in orange in 2027.

With 14 minutes to go, the moment finally arrived: Manuel Gonzalez set a lap record of 1:56.146! He beat his previous record by one and a half tenths of a second. World Championship rival Guevara was only ninth at that point.

The final battle for the fastest times unfolded in the last eight minutes. At first, the pace was very slow – many riders were looking to secure the best slipstream.

Then Holgado set a new lap record of 1:56.039! Baltus raced up to third place and Forward rider Zurutuza moved into fifth behind his team-mate Escrig. Shortly afterwards, Agius surged up to fourth place.

Izan Guevara kämpfte sich auf Platz 3

Foto: Gold and Goose

With four minutes to go, Holgado set another lap record of 1:55.897 – the rider set to join MotoGP next year was unstoppable. Filip Salac set the second-fastest time. Veijer moved up to fourth place. Shortly afterwards, Guevara set the third-fastest time – putting him just ahead of Gonzalez. David Alonso set the fifth-fastest time. Shortly afterwards, Vietti was faster and moved into fifth place.

On his final lap, Gonzalez set the second-fastest time. However, this was disallowed – he had exceeded the track limits.

No one else came close to Holgado’s time. Holgado, Salac, Guevara, Gonzalez, Vietti, Agius, Alonso, Veijer, Lopez, Baltus, Rueda, Escrig, Zurutuza and Huertas all secured direct qualification for Q2.

As is usual in the Moto2 class, it was a very close affair. 21 riders were within a second of each other!