Qualifying at Mandalika: Two red flags, fastest time for Izan Guevara

With 40 minutes remaining on the clock, the Moto2 field took to the sweltering tarmac of the Mandalika Circuit shortly after 2 pm local time. In this crucial free practice session, the aim was once again to secure a place in the top 14 and thereby qualify directly for the second qualifying session on Saturday.

Things got off to a bizarre start for championship leader Manuel Gonzalez – the Intact rider lost his helmet visor before he’d even completed his first flying lap. The Spaniard had to return to the pits to change his helmet. The plastic visor caused even more of a stir. Race control decided to interrupt the session to retrieve the visor, which was lying on the racing line at Turn 9.

With 35 minutes remaining on the clock, the session resumed. By this point, 19 riders had already set times. Ivan Ortola was the fastest Moto2 rider, ahead of Alonso Lopez and Senna Agius. Izan Guevara, who had set the fastest time ahead of Alex Escrig in FP1 that morning, will be doing everything he can at Mandalika to further reduce the gap to Gonzalez (10.5 points).

Once all the riders were back on the track, the order changed rapidly. Whilst Alonso Lopez set the first time in the 1:32s, RW Racing rider Sasaki crashed his Kalex in the fast Turn 11. Manuel Gonzalez clocked a time of 1:33.2 – putting him in 6th place. But he was soon dropped back to 8th, as Izan Guevara had taken the lead, with Arbolino moving up to 7th. The Pramac rider’s pace was nothing short of spectacular. The Yamaha MotoGP rider-to-be had missed the lap record by just one tenth of a second.

Alex Escrig

Foto: Gold & Goose

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MotoGP World Championship

10.10.2026 - 02:35

Shortly afterwards, the marshals were called into action again – Deniz Öncü lost control of his Boscoscuro in Turn 14. The bad news: the Marc-VDS team’s bike was completely wrecked. The mechanics later had to carry the remains of the motorbike back to the pits – session over and Q1 was out for the Turkish rider.

In the following laps, both Intact riders improved their times – but Guevara continued to hold the top spot, 0.3 seconds ahead of Senna Agius. With Gonzalez, Holgado, Salac, Ortola and Alonso, the top seven in the class were safely through to Q2 at this stage. With a quarter of an hour to go, Zonta van der Goorbergh was in the dreaded 14th place.

The final sprint of the qualifying session was postponed, as the session had to be halted 12 minutes before the end due to technical problems with the track safety systems. The problem: both race control and the timing system had been paralysed by a power cut. After a long 30 minutes, the field set off for the final session, which turned into a qualifying session with 28 riders.

On the first flying lap, Holgado moved up to second, but was then overtaken by Alex Escrig (Forward), who climbed to second place, whilst the Indonesian Mario Aji crashed in Turn 1. Returnee Angel Piqueras also went off the track, securing him a place in Q1. Ayumu Sasaki, whose bike had been repaired, made a massive leap forward. He went from 23rd to 8th, securing his place in Q2.

Mit Kühlweste ins Q2: Intact-Pilot Senna Agius

Foto: Gold and Goose

Impressive, Izan Guevara. The World Championship runner-up initially stayed in the pits, but took to the track four minutes before the end to improve his time at record pace: 1:32.337 mins. Manuel Gonzalez jumped up to fourth place in his final laps, just ahead of his team-mate Senna Agius. Second and third places remained with Escrig and Aspar rider Holgado. David Alonso finished in 10th place.

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Collin Veijer staged a convincing comeback. The Dutchman, who had missed the Japanese Grand Prix with a broken collarbone, guided his Kalex to 18th place. His team-mate and rookie Jose-Antonio Rueda finished the qualifying session in 16th place. Friday’s session proved a bitter one for the race winners Aron Canet (Fantic) and Celestino Vietti. The Spaniard once again failed to make it through to Q2, whilst Vietti (SpeedRS) finished in 22nd place.