David Almansa clinched his maiden Moto3 victory in a photo finish in the first race of the 2026 season at the Thai Grand Prix.
The Spanish rider led the majority of the race after starting from pole position, but came under pressure from Maximo Quiles throughout the later stages.
Both riders were level coming out of the final corner on the last lap of the race, but Almansa was awarded the win following Moto3’s closest-ever finish.
Almansa made the best start from pole position and held onto the lead going down into the first corner.
Quiles also had a strong start from fourth position and used the slipstream to get into second place by Turn 1, and had the opportunity to pass Almansa at Turn 3.
However, despite almost making contact with third placed Alvaro Carpe, Almansa was able to turn underneath Quiles to maintain his position in the lead of the race.
As Almansa continued to set the pace, the front five started to form their own group with Adrian Fernandez and Ryusei Yamanaka.
However, the Japanese rider suffered a heavy crash at Turn 5 and limped away after his race ended early.
Fernandez then decided it was time to attack, making his first overtake on Carpe to move into the podium positions.
However, rookie Veda Pratama set four consecutive personal bests to get back in contact with the group, dragging Valentin Perrone along to make a lead group of six.
Carpe ran wide coming out of the final corner to start Lap 7 and lost a position to Fernandez, before dropping behind Pretama at Turn 3.
The Indonesian rookie continued his charge, putting a move on Fernandez to move into the podium positions, before Perrone took advantage of Carpe running wide again at Turn 12 for fifth.
The battling between the four allowed the leading duo to open up a gap, with Almansa and Quiles moving over two seconds clear of the podium battle.
Quiles decided to strike moving onto Lap 12, putting an overtake on Almansa to take the lead of the race with eight laps remaining and the chasing pack almost four seconds behind.
Almansa regained the position one lap later as Quiles ran wide at Turn 1, but still had plenty of time to rejoin the circuit ahead of the second group of riders.
With two laps to go, the battle for the final podium position raged on, as the four riders continued to switch positions throughout their tour of the circuit.
At the front, Quiles squandered his opportunity at the final corner, running wide on the penultimate lap to give the advantage to Almansa on the final lap.
However, the Aspar rider had the pace on the final lap to get back on terms with Almansa, and had the chance to make his move at the last corner.
Quiles had to take the wider line, but came out of the corner level with Almansa as the pair crossed the line.
Almansa took the victory by just 0.003s over Quiles, as the pair reached the flag almost 10 seconds ahead of the chasing group.
Perrone ran out victorious in the battle for the final podium position, with the Argentine rider taking third out of the final corner.
Carpe finished in fourth place, while rookie Pretama completed the top five ahead of Fernandez in sixth.
Brian Uriarte led the third group over the line after the Spanish rookie completed the race in seventh, 0.266s clear of Argentina’s Marco Morelli in eighth.
Joel Esteban took the flag in ninth, while David Munoz recovered from running wide at Turn 1 to complete the top 10.
Casey O’Gorman finished his race in 11th, as Scott Ogden led CIP GreenPower team-mate Adrian Cruces over the line for 12th and 13th.
The MLav Racing pair completed the points finishers, with Joel Kelso taking 14th ahead of new team-mate Eddie O’Shea in 15th.
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