Brno Moto2/Moto3: Ortolá steals it late, Danish makes history

Round Nine – Brno

Moto2

Iván Ortolá’s first Moto2 victory did not come the easy way at Brno. A Long Lap penalty, a race leader who had controlled almost the entire distance, and a home hero closing in behind him all had to be dealt with before the Spaniard could even think about a final-corner lunge.

Iván Ortolá celebrates his first Moto2 victory after serving a Long Lap penalty and then stealing the Brno win from David Alonso at the final corner.

That final corner was where the race turned. David Alonso had led every lap until the last one, but Ortolá was close enough to make the last sector count, setting up the move through Turn 13 before diving underneath the Colombian at Turn 14. Across the line, just 0.096s split them.

David Alonso carried the Moto2 race from the front for almost the entire distance, but Iván Ortolá stayed close enough to make the final-corner move count.

Alonso had done so much right. From pole, he made the start he needed, controlled the early laps and held the front while Ortolá served his penalty. The CFMOTO Inde Aspar rider had not had a podium yet this season, and for most of the 18 laps this looked like being much more than that.

Ortolá, Alonso and Salač shared a memorable Brno podium after one of the sharpest Moto2 finishes of the season.

Ortolá wins it the hard way

Ortolá’s race was made in two parts. The first was the start, which launched him from the second row into immediate contention. The second was the response after the Long Lap penalty, where the gap to Alonso briefly opened but never became unmanageable.

The decisive Moto2 quartet at Brno: Alonso controlled the race, Ortolá chased after serving his Long Lap, Salač hunted a home podium, and Agius kept himself in the fight despite a compromised race.

Once Ortolá had rejoined, he quickly established himself as the main threat. His 1m58.636s on lap five briefly stood as the fastest lap of the race, only for Filip Salač to better it one lap later with a 1m58.590s. That mattered, because it showed the race was not only Alonso versus Ortolá. Salač was coming.

Alonso and Ortolá turned the final laps into a two-rider duel, with Ortolá’s last-corner strike deciding the win by just 0.096s.

Alonso led from lap one through to lap 17, Ortolá only appearing at the head of the field on the final lap. It was the only lap he needed to lead.

Salač delivers at home

Salač had to recover from a poor opening lap after starting from the front row. The Czech rider was shuffled back to sixth early, behind Alonso, Ortolá, Daniel Holgado, Izan Guevara and Senna Agius, but once the race settled he began to work his way back into it.

Alonso, Ortolá and Salač made up the Brno Moto2 podium battle, with the home crowd roaring Salač on as the top three were covered by just 0.701s.

By mid-distance, Salač had brought the home crowd right into the contest. The key moment came when Agius attacked Guevara at Turn 7, the move sending both riders wide and giving Salač the chance to slice through into third.

Senna Agius, Filip Salač and Manuel Gonzalez were all central to the Brno podium fight, with Salač eventually breaking through to a home rostrum and Gonzalez recovering to fifth.

From there, the OnlyFans American Racing rider briefly looked like a genuine victory threat. He was the only rider to dip into the 1m58.5s during the race and had the pace to get onto the back of the lead fight, but the final two laps saw the top two pull just far enough clear.

Filip Salač celebrates a dream home podium at Brno, the Czech rider backing up his recent form with third in front of his own crowd.

Third place, only 0.701s from victory, was still a huge result. Back-to-back podiums are one thing; doing it at Brno in front of the Czech crowd is something else entirely.

The Brno Moto2 podium: Iván Ortolá on top after a final-corner win, David Alonso second, and Filip Salač third at home.

Agius close again, Gonzalez limits the damage

Senna Agius looked a podium threat for much of the race and again left little doubt that he is now firmly part of the sharp end of Moto2.

Senna Agius was right in the thick of the lead group at Brno, fighting through a race made harder when he lost his right knee slider before still salvaging fourth.

The Australian was fourth at the flag, 2.058s from the win, but that only tells part of the story. Agius lost his right knee slider early in the race, a major handicap at a circuit like Brno where long loaded corners put so much stress through the rider’s lower body. To keep the pace together and still finish fourth was a strong salvage.

David Alonso and the CFMOTO Inde Aspar Team celebrate a breakthrough Moto2 podium, even if victory slipped away at the final corner.

Behind him, team-mate Manuel Gonzalez produced the sort of ride championship leaders need. Penalised nine grid places after qualifying, Gonzalez started from 13th but was already inside the top ten by the end of the opening lap.

Manuel Gonzalez’s final-lap pass on Izan Guevara was a key championship moment, the Moto2 leader beating his nearest title rival by just 0.033s.

The Spaniard kept chipping away from there, and the final-lap pass on Guevara was more than just a fifth-place move. Guevara is his closest championship rival, and beating him by 0.033s at the flag meant Gonzalez extended his lead to 50.5 points.

Guevara was sixth, Holgado faded to seventh after starting from the front row, and Joe Roberts took eighth. Celestino Vietti was ninth, losing more ground in the championship, while Jose Antonio Rueda completed the top ten.

Jacob Roulstone finished 24th for Idemitsu Honda Team Asia, while Aron Canet was the only rider not classified after crashing out after seven laps.

Brno Moto2 Race Results

POS

RIDER

BIKE

TIME/GAP

1	I Ortola	Kal	35m53.143
2	D Alonso	Kal	+0.096
3	F Salac	Kal	+0.701
4	S Agius	Kal	+2.058
5	M Gonzalez	Kal	+5.157
6	I Guevara	Bos	+5.190
7	D Holgado	Kal	+7.492
8	J Roberts	Kal	+7.879
9	C Vietti	Bos	+9.835
10	J A Rueda	Kal	+10.014
11	C Veijer	Kal	+10.669
12	D Muñoz	Kal	+10.944
13	A Escrig	For	+15.549
14	T Furusato	Kal	+16.400
15	Z vd Goorbergh	Kal	+17.290
16	A Sasaki	Kal	+19.676
17	S Garcia	Kal	+22.144
18	D Öncü	Bos	+22.820
19	T Arbolino	Kal	+23.246
20	L Lunetta	Bos	+23.376
21	A Huertas	Kal	+27.800
22	A Ferrandez	Bos	+28.238
23	A Piqueras	Kal	+28.501
24	J Roulstone	Kal	+34.496
25	M Pawelec	Kal	+34.857
26	X Zurutuza	For	+35.093
NOT CLASSIFIED
NC	A Canet	Bos	+11 Laps

Moto2 Championship Standings

POS

RIDER

POINTS

1	M Gonzalez	165.5
2	I Guevara	115
3	C Vietti	109
4	S Agius	107
5	D Alonso	91
6	D Holgado	85
7	I Ortola	77.5
8	F Salac	66
9	A Lopez	57.5
10	D Muñoz	45
11	C Veijer	41.5
12	T Arbolino	37.5
13	A Escrig	33
14	B Baltus	28
15	J Roberts	27
16	J A Rueda	19
17	D Öncü	15.5
18	A Canet	13.5
19	A Huertas	12
20	Z vd Goorbergh	9
21	A Ferrandez	8.5
22	A Sasaki	8
23	L Lunetta	7
24	S Garcia	5
25	T Furusato	4
26	M Aji	3
27	M Ramirez
28	U Orradre
29	J Navarro
30	D Foggia
31	J Roulstone
32	A Piqueras
33	X Zurutuza
34	M Pawelec

Moto3

If Moto2 was about one final-corner move, Moto3 was about surviving a full-race street fight and still having enough left to attack at the end.

Maximo Quiles grabbed the early initiative from pole-sitter David Almansa, setting up a six-rider Moto3 lead battle that went all the way to the final corner.

Hakim Danish started 14th after a 12-place grid penalty and still won the Czech Grand Prix. That sentence alone says plenty, but the shape of the race makes it even stronger. He was fifth by the end of the opening lap, in the lead group by lap two, and still patient enough to wait until the final lap before making the move that mattered most.

Hakim Danish takes in the moment after a landmark Moto3 win, the Malaysian recovering from 14th on the grid to claim his first Grand Prix victory.

It was a landmark win. Danish became a Moto3 race winner for the first time, gave Malaysia its first Grand Prix victory since Khairul Idham Pawi in 2016, and became the fourth new winner of the 2026 Moto3 season.

The Brno Moto3 podium: Hakim Danish on top after his maiden win, Brian Uriarte second and championship leader Maximo Quiles third.

Danish wins with racecraft rather than raw pace

The raw fastest-lap sheet does not make Danish look like the obvious winner. Veda Pratama set the fastest lap of the race on lap four, a 2m04.524s, while Danish’s best was a 2m05.146s on lap 11.

That is what made the win more impressive. Danish did not simply ride away with superior pace; he managed the chaos better than everyone else.

Maximo Quiles led much of the Moto3 contest, but the final-lap scramble left him third while still extending his championship lead to 65 points.

Maximo Quiles, David Almansa, Brian Uriarte and Alvaro Carpe all took turns shaping the lead group. Quiles led large chunks of the race, Almansa looked capable of converting pole into victory, Uriarte was aggressive and well-positioned, and Carpe remained a constant threat until the final lap.

Danish, though, was always in the right part of the group. When the final-lap elbows came out, he was close enough to profit from the contact and confusion ahead, then strong enough through the final sector to make the win stick.

Quiles, Uriarte and Danish were central to the last-lap fight, with Danish timing his attack best to turn a penalty-hit weekend into victory.

Top six covered by less than a second

The front six were in a class of their own by the flag. Danish won by 0.466s from Uriarte, with Quiles third, Almansa fourth, Pratama fifth and Carpe sixth. All six were covered by 0.906s.

After that came a gap of nearly ten seconds to Marco Morelli in seventh, which underlined how decisively the lead group had split from the rest of the field.

Morelli headed the second group home after the lead six broke away, while Scott Ogden also emerged from the pack with ninth place.

Quiles’ third place was another important championship result. He did not win, but he still extended his lead to 65 points over Carpe, while Uriarte’s second place moved him to third overall. Almansa is now fourth in the standings, only three points behind Uriarte, with Morelli fifth and Pratama sixth.

Pratama charges, Kelso bags best of 2026

Pratama’s ride deserved attention. Like Danish, he had a 12-place penalty to deal with, starting 20th after qualifying eighth. By the end of lap one he was already ninth, and by lap four he had set the fastest race lap.

Marco Morelli leads Joel Kelso in the second Moto3 group, with Morelli recovering to seventh and Kelso taking his best result of the season in eighth.

The Indonesian was in the winning group and finished fifth, only 0.900s from Danish. It was another reminder that the penalty denied him track position, not pace.

Morelli also produced a strong recovery to finish seventh, leading the second group home after an early mistake forced him to rebuild his race. Joel Kelso took eighth for GRYD Racing, his best result of the season, ahead of Scott Ogden and Valentin Perrone.

The Moto3 second group remained tightly packed deep into the race, with less than a second covering seventh through 15th at the finish.

Cormac Buchanan was 18th, while Rico Salmela’s race ended in frustration. The Finn had charged from the back of the grid into the top-ten fight before crashing on the final lap after taking avoiding action when Eddie O’Shea went down in front of him.

Moto3 again delivered the wildest race of the day, but there was a little more to it than usual. Danish did not just get lucky in the last-lap mess. He had already done the hard work from 14th on the grid, and when the final chance came, he was ready.

Brno Park Moto3 Race Results

POS

RIDER

BIKE

TIME/GAP

1	H Danish	KTM	33m34.264
2	B Uriarte	KTM	+0.466
3	M Quiles	KTM	+0.629
4	D Almansa	KTM	+0.741
5	V Pratama	Hon	+0.900
6	A Carpe	KTM	+0.906
7	M Morelli	KTM	+10.724
8	J Kelso	Hon	+10.925
9	S Ogden	KTM	+11.080
10	V Perrone	KTM	+11.394
11	M Bertelle	KTM	+11.573
12	A Cruces	KTM	+11.635
13	M Uriarte	KTM	+11.735
14	A Fernandez	Hon	+12.026
15	R Yamanaka	KTM	+12.187
16	G Pini	Hon	+13.811
17	J Rios	Hon	+15.031
18	C Buchanan	KTM	+26.587
19	Z Mitani	Hon	+26.617
20	R Moodley	KTM	+26.814
NOT CLASSIFIED
NC	R Salmela	KTM	+1 Lap
NC	E O’Shea	Hon	+1 Lap
NC	N Carraro	Hon	+3 Laps
NC	L Rammerstorfer	Hon	+10 Laps
NC	C O’Gorman	Hon	+11 Laps
NC	J Esteban	KTM	+14 Laps

Moto3 Championship Standings

POS

RIDER

POINTS

1	M Quiles	186
2	A Carpe	121
3	B Uriarte	92
4	D Almansa	89
5	M Morelli	86
6	V Pratama	82
7	H Danish	73
8	V Perrone	66
9	D Muñoz	52
10	G Pini	48
11	A Cruces	46
12	J Esteban	44
13	M Bertelle	42
14	R Salmela	35
15	E O’Shea	35
16	C O’Gorman	34
17	J Kelso	30
18	S Ogden	27
19	J Rios	24
20	A Fernandez	21
21	R Yamanaka	12
22	M Uriarte	6
23	L Rammerstorfer	4
24	C Buchanan	2
25	Z Mitani	2
26	R Moodley	1
27	N Carraro

2026 MotoGP Calendar

Rnd	Date	Event	Circuit
1	01 Mar	Thai	Chang International Circuit
2	22 Mar	Brazil*	Autodromo Internacional Ayrton Senna
3	29 Mar	US	Circuit of the Americas
4	26 Apr	Spain**	Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto
5	10 May	France	Le Mans
6	17 May	Catalonia	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
7	31 May	Italy	Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello
8	07 Jun	Hungary	Balaton Park Circuit
9	21 Jun	Czech	Automotodrom Brno
10	28 Jun	Netherlands	TT Circuit Assen
11	12 Jul	Germany	Sachsenring
12	09 Aug	GB	Silverstone Circuit
13	30 Aug	Aragon	MotorLand Aragon
14	13 Sep	San Marino	Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
15	20 Sep	Austria	Red Bull Ring-Spielberg
16	04 Oct	Japan	Mobility Resort Motegi
17	11 Oct	Indonesia	Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit
18	25 Oct	Australia	Phillip Island
19	01 Nov	Malaysia	Petronas Sepang International Circuit
20	08 Nov	Qatar	Lusail International Circuit
21	22 Nov	Portugal	Autodromo Internacional do Algarve
22	29 Nov	Valencia	Circuit Ricardo Tormo