Moto2 Qatar: Escrig takes his first pole, but González is smiling; Guevara slips to the third row

Moto2 qualifying for the Qatar GP could have a major impact on the title race. Manuel González will start from the front row in second place. His rival Izan Guevara, who is just 3.5 points behind him in the standings, will start seventh, from the third row. Pole went to Álex Escrig, his first in the intermediate class.

Escrig stopped the clock at 1'55"241, and no one managed to get close to that time. The Forward rider finished 126 thousandths of a second ahead of González's Kalex from the Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP team, with Daniel Holgado third, 233 thousandths back on his Aspar bike. According to Speedweek, the Spaniard was 1.3 seconds faster than in any other session of the weekend.

Escrig secured pole early. On his first flying lap in Q2, he had already clocked 1'55"466, then dipped below 1'55"3 on his next lap. At the halfway point of the 15-minute session, he had a lead of more than half a second over Guevara, who was second at the time on the Pramac team's Yamaha. His time was also faster than the 1'55"897 with which Holgado had topped Friday's practice.

The closing stages played out under the floodlights, with the track temperature down to 33 degrees, and completely reshuffled the standings. González found his best lap on his final attempt. He came close to pole, but second place is still worth a great deal in the all-Spanish battle for the world title.

Saturday ended badly for Guevara. The Pramac rider was slowed by a rival during his final time attack. He was improving on his first few sectors and was on course for a time that could have put him on the front row. In the end, he finished more than half a second behind Escrig and will have to make up several places on Sunday to catch his rival.

Between the two title contenders on the second row will be Celestino Vietti, Collin Veijer and Senna Agius. On the third row, Guevara will be joined by José Antonio Rueda and Adrián Huertas. Filip Salač rounded out the top 10, while Barry Baltus will start 11th, ahead of David Alonso.

Ivan Ortola, third in the world championship, had to go through Q1 and only just made it into Q2, with the fourth-fastest time. David Muñoz, Zonta van den Goorbergh and Ayumu Sasaki also progressed from the first session.

The Qatar Grand Prix is the 20th round of the 2026 Moto2 season and will start on Sunday at 15:15 Italian time. With just 3.5 points separating the two Spaniards, González will have six fewer riders to contend with in Lusail than Guevara. At this stage of the championship, that could make a big difference.

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