straight premier class podiums
since Tohru Ukawa in 2002.
Fernandez was a safe third.
Likewise, Acosta finished an
impressive fourth. The real ac-
tion came in the fight for fifth.
Having
caught Martin on lap 22,
Bagnaia began to harass his
old adversary.
"He was struggling with the
front, I was struggling with the
rear, so we were compensating,"
said the Italian, as they canceled
each other out. Martin just hung
on by a tenth for a crucial fifth.
Quartararo did well to claim
seventh ahead of Luca Marini
(HRC Castrol), the late-charging
Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM),
up from 15th early on, and Brad
Binder (Red Bull KTM).
Martin's (208 points) advan
-
tage now stands at 14 points
with
Ogura (194) lurking. Marc
(190) is up to third, with Bezzec-
chi (186) and Di Giannantonio
(24)
still very much in the mix.
Moto2
Is it too late to add another name
to the championship picture?
Ivan Ortola (MSI Kalex) picked
a fine time to post the finest
performance of his Grand Prix
career, overcoming a late charge
from Dani Holgado (Aspar Kalex)
while some of the champion
-
ship's big hitters struggled.
This
was originally a five-
way scrap with Izan Guevara
(Pramac Boscoscuro), Senna
Agius (IntactGP Kalex) and Da-
vid Alonso (Aspar Kalex) just be-
hind the lead pair, with Manuel
Gonzalez (IntactGP Kalex) some
way
off. Soon after overtak
-
ing Agius for fourth, Alonso's
charge
came undone on lap 18,
as he highsided on the exit of
turn three. Rumors that Honda
is considering placing LCR's
Diogo Moreira in its factory Mo
-
toGP team at the Colombian's
expense
no doubt played a role.
By that point, Ortola's relent-
less rhythm was tearing the
group
apart, with Holgado the
only name left to hang on. With
five to go, the gap between the
pair stood at six-tenths of a
second. On the penultimate lap,
that was all but gone.
Yet Ortola hung on, despite
the left of his rear Pirelli near
-
ing its end, to record a second
Moto2
success in three. Unlike
his opportunistic first win in the
class, this lights-to-flag success
earmarked him as a real threat
ROUND 11 / JULY 11-12, 2026
SACHSENRING CIRCUIT / SACHSENRING, GERMANY
MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P96
Ivan Ortola
leads the Moto2
class en route to
victory, saying
the championship
isn't over yet.
