ROUND 10 / JUNE 26-28, 2026
TT CIRCUIT ASSEN / ASSEN, NETHERLANDS
ROAD RACE I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P70
the final chicane. He quickly wiped out the half-second deficit to
Di Giannantonio, with the pass coming again at the same place.
That
left him with four laps to bridge a second to his teammate.
He got close—three-tenths of a second the gap—but Fernandez
held on for a second Sprint win of the year. Di Giannantonio was
1.1 seconds in arrears in third.
KTM'S REPEATED
MECHANICALS
Just six days on from retiring out of
the Czech GP due to a mechanical
issue, Pedro Acosta's bike stopped
twice at the same spot—once in FP2,
once in Q2—on Saturday morning, rais-
ing serious concerns over the reliabil-
ity of the RC16. Team manager Aki Ajo
insisted the issue wasn't similar to the
one suffered by the Spaniard in Bar-
celona. He explained it was brought
about by Acosta's aggressive riding,
which triggered a sensor. "A MotoGP
bike has many sensors, and some
of them are also for safety. And this
morning, when the rider went over the
curbs, it triggered the bike's emergen-
cy mode, causing it to stop. So, there
is nothing really wrong with the bike,
the rider did everything correct. But we
needed to react in the correct way, and
now the problem is solved." Acosta
unleashed both barrels on KTM after.
"A sorry will not solve [anything]," he
said if KTM had apologized. "When
the problem is there, and you don't
know when it will come, it doesn't mat-
ter how sorry you are."
VINALES VS. KTM
Maverick Vinales' relationship with
KTM and Tech3 is a fraught one as
tension mounts over his future. It's
believed the Spaniard is frustrated
to the extreme that he still has no
contract for 2027, with the Austrian
factory insisting on improvements
to his recovering left shoulder before
offering him a deal. "If I'm not here
next year, it will only be the fault of one
person," he said on Thursday, referenc-
ing KTM management. Tech3 head
Guenther Steiner said, "I don't think it's
the smartest thing to do and I don't
know why he said this… if you're a beg-
gar, you cannot be a chooser. Maybe
he wasn't thinking when he said that."
Briefly...
