Misano: Bujosa wins, Kratochwil climbs from last to fourth

The fate of the 20th generation of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup will be decided over the next two weekends. This weekend, there are two races at Misano, followed a week later by two back-to-back races at Spielberg. Benat Fernández is currently the frontrunner in the race for the title in the junior series. However, the 18-year-old Spaniard is not having an easy ride. With his second win of the season in Germany, Kiandra Ramadhipa has put himself back in contention and moved up from 6th to 3rd in the overall standings. Ryota Ogiwara turns 18 this week and is just 17 points behind Fernández.

Penalty for dawdling

German young hopeful Fynn Kratochwil made life difficult for himself at Misano. Having dawdled during practice, the teenager from Thuringia had to start Saturday’s race from the back row. Instead of starting from 12th place as planned. At the end of qualifying for the penultimate race weekend of the 2026 Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, the top 16 KTM riders were separated by less than a second. The 18-year-old Frenchman Guillem Planques is on pole position at Misano, with his compatriot David Da Costa on the other side of the front row. Between the two is 17-year-old Spaniard Fernando Bujosa. At the decisive moment of qualifying, Bujosa and Planques worked together, with Planques benefiting from the slipstream to surge to the top of the timesheets.

The rookies tackled 15 laps in glorious sunshine on the Adriatic coast. Missing from the starting grid were Tibor Varga – the Hungarian had been injured during the summer break – and David Gonzalez, who had landed a spot as a substitute rider in the Moto2 World Championship. Despite the odd body check, everyone made it through the opening laps unscathed. Kratochwil catapulted himself up to 16th place in one go; just a few corners later, he had already moved up to 13th. At the front, Bujosa and Planques had built up a one-second lead after two laps. The chasing pack was led by the American Kristian Daniel Jr.

Fynn Kratochwil bügelt Patzer aus

Foto: Thomas Seidenglanz

But no solo run at the front

On lap 4, the Australian Archie Schmidt crashed but escaped uninjured. At the front, Bujosa and Planques were in sync and managed to maintain their lead from the first lap, even extending it by a further two tenths. Behind them, Carlos Cano tried his luck as the leader of the chasing pack. After five laps, Kratochwil had worked his way up to 15th place and had the Japanese rider Ryota Ogiwara, who is second in the current standings, ahead of him. Cano managed to close the gap to the front in the seventh lap, and the pack was back together for the second half.

Yaroslav Karpushin was the first to join the battle for victory, and together with Cano and Daniel Jr., he really shook up the leaders. Daniel, however, received a warning for not quite taking the track limits seriously enough. Planques led for the most kilometres, whilst his rivals became increasingly frantic as the race wore on. Kratochwil set the fastest time on the eleventh of 15 laps and emerged in eighth place on the 12th lap. Kindra Ramadhipa from India and Jurrien van Crugten from the Netherlands both crashed, independently of one another.

Cano auf Rang 3

Foto: Thomas Seidenglanz

In the final two laps, things once again went haywire among the rookies. Bujosa managed to dig deep and secure the win. Second place went to Planques, ahead of Cano in third. And in fourth place, none other than Fynn Kratochwil sped across the finish line. Sullivan Mounsey had crashed but was quickly back on his KTM and managed to pick up a point.