Extreme wildcard: Augusto Fernandez finishes the Jerez GP without a rear brake

Augusto Fernandez contested a survival GP at Jerez due to a major issue on lap 2.

A race without brakes. And we’re not speaking metaphorically—that’s literally what Augusto Fernandez experienced in Sunday’s full-length race at Jerez. The Yamaha test rider, in his first wild card appearance in the 2026 MotoGP World Championship, ran into trouble on the second lap after contact with a fellow brand rider, Jack Miller, which caused the rear brake to break. From that moment on—so for 23 of the total 25 laps—the Spaniard gritted his teeth and worked miracles to bring the M1 V4 to the finish line, stubbornly and with the clear goal of bringing home as much data as possible for a project that’s still green and has been brought to MotoGP too soon. A big risk that isn’t paying off, as the standings clearly show...

As mentioned, it was a rather complicated Sunday for the tester from Iwata. “The rear brake broke on the second lap after contact with Jack,” Augusto Fernandez explained. “It’s almost impossible to finish a race like that, but I tried to do all 25 laps, even if we weren’t that fast. I also got some training in to be ready for the next wild card.” He admits, however, that “It’s not easy to make a comparison, since the feeling on the bike and the data depend on this problem.” Despite everything, he did manage to reach the finish line, albeit last and 20 seconds behind Razgatlioglu in 19th—a true survival race for the poor Yamaha tester.

As if there weren’t already enough problems... Still, it was a first race weekend in which he was able to gather information on various updates to pass on to the factory riders: chassis, swingarm, electronics, aerodynamics—things later tested by Quartararo, Rins, Miller, and Razgatlioglu during the day of official testing that followed the GP. We keep repeating the same things, but alas, that’s the situation: Yamaha remains miles behind the other manufacturers, and the light at the end of the tunnel still doesn’t seem even remotely visible.