Maximo Quiles extended his championship lead in the 2026 Moto3 standings with victory at the Circuit de Barcelona – Catalunya.
Quiles put together a mature ride as he claimed his fourth win of the year after starting from the third row of the grid, and held firm on the final lap to take victory by 0.094s.
At the start of the race, it was Brian Uriate who took the holeshot from the inside of the grid; closely behind were David Munoz and David Amansa.
Into Lap 2, Uriate was relegated from the lead to third place, after Almansa took the lead and Munoz briefly took second place.
The third lap saw Uriate retake the lead, as Almansa dropped back to third place, with Munoz remaining in second, with Hakim Danish making his way through the order into fourth.
Uriate fell through the order on Lap 5 as the Spaniard ended up in sixth place, as Almansa, Munoz and Adrian Fernandez made up the podium places.
An 8-rider group had appeared at the front on Lap 7 as Fernandez led from Uriate, Almansa, Jesus Rios, Quiles, Alvaro Carpe, and Danish.
By Lap 10, the group of 8 continued at the front with Uriate, Fernandez and Munoz holding the podium spots, with Quiles lurking down in eighth.
A group of three began to make a charge at the front on Lap 12 as Uriate, Almansa and Munoz had opened up a half-second gap to Rios in fourth.
Lap 14, and the group at the front had been caught by the riders behind as Almansa was in the lead from Quiles and Carpe, who had started to make moves through the group.
Entering Turn 1 on Lap 15, the group of 8 had become a group of 10, as Casey O’Gorman and Marco Morelli had joined the fight for the final 3 Laps of the race.
On the penultimate lap, Rios crashed out of the race after running within the top 10 for the entirety of the race.
At the start of the Last Lap, Quiles took the lead from Uriate and Munoz, as the riders began scrapping for victory in Catalunya.
Quiles took victory in Barcelona after taking contact in the final sector and secured his fourth win of the season.
Carpe took second place on the Red Bull KTM Ajo machine, and was joined on the podium by Dynavolt rider, Munoz.
Despite leading the majority of the Grand Prix, Uriate had to settle for fourth place as he missed out on the podium, which was a similar situation for Almansa in fifth.
After re-joining the front group in the latter laps, Morelli was able to finish in sixth, with Danish in seventh after a mistake on the final lap.
Veda Pratama made up 12 places during the race and crossed the line in eighth, with Fernandez in ninth place on the Leopard Honda.
O’Gorman completed the top ten as he made up 14 places during the race, with Eddie O’Shea behind him in 11th place.
Valentin Perrone dropped 11 places throughout the race in Barcelona and crossed the line in 12th place, with Adrian Cruces in 13th on the CIP Green Power machine.
Completing the point scoring positions were Matteo Bertelle and Ryusei Yamanaka in 14th and 15th, respectively.
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