David Almansa produced a flawless ride from the opening corner of the Moto3 Qatar GP to deny newly crowned champion Maximo Quiles a historic single-season record.
As the sun was setting on Qatar, David Almansa snatched victory from Maximo Quiles, denying the newly crowned 2026 Moto3 World Champion the opportunity to equal David Alonso’s record-breaking 14 wins in a single season.
Almansa got off to a flyer to grab the holeshot from pole-sitter Quiles into Turn 1, with Brian Uriarte also slipping up the inside of the champion. Quiles quickly found himself under heavy attack from Adrian Fernandez, allowing David Munoz to slide into fourth and dropping Quiles down to fifth, and eventually seventh as the early scrap unfolded.
Once clear of the opening-lap chaos, Almansa never looked back, steadily extending his advantage lap after lap. A mistake from Quiles with three laps to go threatened to end his podium hopes altogether as Adrian Fernandez took P2, but the champion mounted a late recovery to claw his way back to P3. Up front, Almansa took the chequered flag 2.516 seconds clear of Fernandez to claim his fourth victory of the season, while Quiles settled for the final step of the podium.
Following a fierce battle for fourth, Veda Ega Pratama secured the position, recovering impressively from 14th on the grid after serving a six-place grid penalty. Alvaro Carpe completed the top five ahead of Joel Kelso in sixth.
Hakim Danish took seventh place ahead of David Munoz in eighth. After fighting at the sharp end early on, Munoz was forced to serve a Long Lap penalty then a double Long Lap one after triggering two separate incidents, first colliding on Lap 2 with Brian Uriarte, before taking down Eddie O’Shea a few laps later.
Ryusei Yamanaka finished ninth, leading Scott Ogden, Guido Pini, Rico Salmela, and Zen Mitani from ninth through 13th. Despite an early-race collision that dropped him to the very back of the field in 25th, Uriarte remounted to salvage 14th place, securing two crucial points to officially seal the Moto3 Rookie of the Year title. Marco Morelli rounded out the points-paying positions in 15th.
The Qatar Moto3 race was also punctuated by several incidents, including crashes for Adrian Cruces at Turn 14 on Lap 4 and Joel Esteban at Turn 9 on Lap 5.
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