Moto2 qualifying at Silverstone: Crash and red flags – Guevara on pole

The fastest Moto2 lap so far at the Silverstone meeting was set on Friday afternoon by Daniel Holgado (CF Moto Aspar) in a record time of 2:01.815 minutes. Whilst the top 14 from the timed practice session progressed directly to Qualifying 2 on Saturday, the remaining Moto2 riders had to battle it out in Q1 for one of the four places in the decisive session.

The Moto2 riders encountered summery conditions during qualifying – sunshine and an air temperature of 26 degrees Celsius. In Q1, Joe Roberts set the fastest time of 2:02.187 minutes. This meant the American rider from Team American Racing was 0.267 seconds faster than Tony Arbolino (Reds Fantic Racing) as well as Ayumu Sasaki and Zonta vd Goorbergh (both RW Racing).

In Q2, 18 motivated riders took to the track in pursuit of pole position. The top 10 in the overall standings were all present. After five minutes, Alonso Lopez (Italjet Gresini) set the first serious lap time of 2:01.969, but just moments later, Izan Guevara (bLU cRU Pramac) roared across the line in 2:01.483 – a new record!

Red flags following a crash involving van der Goorbergh and Aji

Whilst numerous riders were setting their personal best lap times, a violent crash at Turn 11 brought the session to a halt. Van der Goorbergh and Mario Aji (Idemitsu Honda) made contact at high speed, causing both to crash. Whilst both riders escaped with only minor injuries, their motorbikes were badly damaged.

With 8:41 min remaining on the clock, qualifying resumed – a challenging situation for the riders, particularly on a long circuit such as the 5.9 km Silverstone Circuit. At that point, Guevara, Ivan Ortola (QJ Motor MSI), Alonso Lopez, Manuel Gonzalez (Intact GP) and Daniel Muñoz (Italtrans) occupied the top five positions.

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MotoGP World Championship

09.08.2026 - 10:35

With four minutes remaining, Arbolino, Escrig and Holgado were on course for the fastest time, but it wasn’t quite enough to move up the order at the finish line.

With one minute to go, Guevara remained in the lead and the top five remained unchanged. Now came the decisive phase. López surged into second place, 0.326 seconds behind, pushing Ortola down to third – and that’s how it stayed!

Guevara will start Sunday’s Moto2 race from pole position, followed by López and Ortola. World Championship leader Manuel González secured a good starting position in fourth place. Muñoz and Filip Salác complete the second row of the grid. Senna Agius had a disappointing qualifying session, finishing eleventh.

WM-Leader Manuel Gonzalez in Silverstone: Startplatz 4

Foto: Gold and Goose