Moto3 champion Maximo Quiles was nervous: “Marc and Alex sang for me”

The 18-year-old Spaniard Maximo Quiles had the chance to be crowned world champion in the smallest capacity class at the Indonesian Grand Prix, with five laps remaining in the 2026 season. Quiles seized the opportunity with the utmost conviction. Rather than getting caught up in tactical manoeuvring and potentially postponing the title decision, the Aspar rider rode to victory from Lap 1.

Starting from sixth on the grid, the KTM rider briefly took the lead on his front wheel as early as lap 1, but then dropped back. A few kilometres later, Quiles took command. For 19 of the 20 laps, Maximo Quiles was in the lead. Luck gave his breakaway a boost, as behind Quiles the Honda riders Fernandez and Pratama scuppered an early chase by David Almansa. By the time the Intact rider and World Championship runner-up had established himself in P2, the CF-Moto-KTM had already pulled away by a good two seconds.

Neither a riding error that halved the lead nor a track-limits warning shortly before the chequered flag could rattle the rider sponsored by Marc Márquez. The final five laps turned into a showcase on the World Championship stage. After crossing the finish line, the entire Aspar team celebrated the even greater Maximus as a victorious gladiator.

Quiles holte den Titel mit dem Sieg beim Indonesien-GP auf Lombok

Foto: Gold and Goose

Drenched in champagne, the new champion found his first words: “Today I’ve closed a very significant chapter – and made a dream come true. Something that my parents and I have been thinking about and working towards my whole life.”

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Following his World Championship triumph, Maximo Quiles also thanked his sponsors, the Marquez brothers. “I’m so grateful to both of them. It’s so wonderful because I can always sense that they do it purely out of a deep inner conviction, because they want to. They’ve just sung ‘One Dream Come True’ to me in the pit lane. I’m taking all this in with gratitude, but I’ll try to make fewer mistakes than Marc sometimes did,” laughed the newly crowned Moto3 champion.

Quiles on the race itself: “It wasn’t easy, even though I knew before the race that things could go well – my pace was really good. But then riding so many laps on my own was mentally draining, and I did make a mistake – then I got a bit nervous. Also because the others were very fast and closed in on me very quickly.”

The rider from Murcia added: “By the way, I’m sorry I made my team so nervous with the track limits warning, as I’ve done so many times before. Sorry.”

And what if it had come down to a shootout for the win? The world champion: “I’d have been prepared to settle for second place, but I’m saying that now that I’ve ‘cooled down’ – I don’t know how it would have gone out on the track.

Maximo Quiles: Der Aspar-Pilot ist Moto3-Weltmeister

Foto: Gold and Goose

The record of Jose-Antonio Rueda’s successor is deeply impressive. Even in his rookie season in 2025, he secured three wins and finished third in the World Championship. In 2026, Quiles went all out, racking up ten wins and five further podium finishes. The young star only left England without any World Championship points, having broken his collarbone. Only David Alonso managed to clinch the World Championship title even earlier, back in 2024. In 2027, he will continue with his mentor and team boss Jorge ‘Aspar’ Martinez – in the Moto2 World Championship alongside Celestino Vietti.