Fermin Aldeguer’s 2026 nightmare: also misses the Malaysian GP

Gresini Racing will be without Fermin Aldeguer again at the next round in Sepang, with Iker Lecuona stepping in once more.

Fermin Aldeguer will not be fit for the Malaysian GP, so Iker Lecuona will race in his place again, continuing to compete after wrapping up his finest season in the World Superbike Championship. The World Championship runner-up with Aruba Ducati, with four wins to his name—including a hat-trick of victories at Cremona—and a new father to a baby girl, he is now back in his former championship, MotoGP, where he also secured a seventh-place finish as a substitute at the Hungarian round. After this Australian GP (currently running seriously behind schedule due to bad weather), Gresini Racing will once again have to rely on a substitute following yet another injury for Aldeguer, who is certainly having a 2026 to forget...

This post refers to this GP, but it applies to the next one too, as the situation is exactly the same.

The calendar year had barely begun when the Murcian, the best MotoGP rookie at the end of the previous season, suffered a nasty crash while training at the Aspar Circuit. He fractured the shaft of his left femur, underwent surgery in Barcelona, and had to miss both all the winter tests and the first GP in Thailand. He returned in Brazil, but the effects of that serious injury would linger for many months... Then, in June, came another setback: during Friday’s practice/pre-qualifying session at Assen, Aldeguer suffered a violent highside that left him with a fracture of the T7 thoracic vertebra. He missed another three GPs before returning at Aragon, but his MotoGP comeback lasted only a few rounds.

During Sunday’s race in Indonesia, he crashed—perhaps not too seriously, were it not for the fact that, in frustration, he punched the asphalt... The result was a fracture at the base of the first metacarpal in his right hand, another trip back to Barcelona for surgery, followed by rehabilitation. Gresini Racing had hoped to have him back for the Sepang round, but the Murcian is ruled out once again and will once more be replaced by Iker Lecuona. Yet another injury in a difficult season for him and others, with injuries occurring all too often.

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