Moto2Qatar: A flurry of heavy penalties shakes up the grid!

After the qualifications of the Grand Prix Moto2 of Qatar 2026, the race direction imposed grid penalties to several drivers for driving too slowly on the ideal racing line in Q2, causing problems David munoz launched into his fast lap at turn 1.

Main penalty: eight drivers drop three places.

Eight riders received a six-place grid penalty for breaching FIM Regulation 1.21.2 (M2-SR9 type offense: slow riding in a group on the race line). Here is the list of penalized riders, with their initial qualifying positions :

• Manuel González (P2)

• Senna Agius (P6)

• Izan Guevara (P7)

• Adrián Huertas (P9)

• Barry Baltus (P11)

• Zonta van den Goorbergh (P15)

• Xabi Zurutuza (P16)

• Ayumu Sasaki (P18)

This sanction directly altered the composition of the starting grid, particularly for title contenders Manuel González and Izan Guevara , who dropped to 5th and 10th positions respectively.

Additional sanction: an official warning

In addition to these grid penalties, another driver received a separate sanction for an incident that occurred during free practice:

• Luca Lunetta received an official warning (without a grid penalty) for also slowing down on the ideal racing line in Turn 1, impeding Joe Roberts during the second free practice session. As this was his first such infraction this season, the penalty remained a simple warning.

The old grid, according to the lap times achieved:

Here is (without guarantee) what our calculation of the new full starting grid of the category Moto2 for the Qatar Grand Prix, incorporating the official qualifying positions and the application of penalties: