The Penultimate Lap Trap: A History of Drivers Betrayed by the Urge to Celebrate

The race isn’t over until the checkered flag waves. It hardly even sounds like a rule, it’s so obvious. A bit like saying a motorcycle has two wheels. Yet with adrenaline spiking and physical fatigue, sometimes you miscount.

From Frankie Chili to Aleix Espargaró, all the way to Manu González’s disaster: Silverstone 2026 is just the latest chapter in a story of blunders, of early celebrations that turn into tears.

The latest episode involves Manuel González, who celebrates a lap too early for the win that would have further extended his lead in the Moto2 World Championship standings. To add insult to injury—or rather, injury to insult—the Spaniard is even rear-ended by Daniel Holgado, damaging the exhaust and finishing 14th.

A fairly recent precedent—though evidently it didn’t serve as a lesson—happened to another Spaniard, Aleix Espargaró. In 2022, at his home track in Montmeló, the Aprilia captain waves to the crowd one lap early while sitting solidly in second. His pursuers, still tucked in, stream past him, and he realizes the blunder: he gets back on the gas, but it’s too late to reclaim the podium. He finishes fifth. After the race he blamed the mix-up on a misreading of the circuit’s light panel, which displayed L1 referring to the last lap to be completed, not the finish.

The “founder” of this special category, at least in modern motorcycling, is Pierfrancesco Chili. Not that Frankie considers it an honor—far from it: in 1992, again at Jerez, the Bologna rider would have climbed to the second step of the 250 podium behind Loris Reggiani, had he not started his victory lap too soon. As he’s being overtaken, he realizes, tucks back in, and finishes sixth. A scene similar to Espargaró’s, tears included.

The nightmare of a penultimate-lap oversight spares no category, and more than once finds its ideal stage in Barcelona. In 2009 it was Julián Simón, in 125, celebrating the win one lap early, getting passed by Iannone, Gadea, and Terol. For him too, was the trap sprung by the circuit’s illuminated lap counter?

It also happened to Alex Rins in Moto3 in 2014, this time at Brno. In the thick of the fight for victory, the Spaniard celebrates across the line too early. From first place he slips to ninth. A similar mistake to Koen Meuffels (Supersport 300) at Aragon in 2020, when, convinced he’d crossed the finish, he celebrates second place by raising his arm. In reality, there was still one lap to go.

Not even national championships are immune. Among the most well-known images is Riccardo Russo’s mistake (CIV Stock 600) at Mugello in 2012, with the crowd in the stands trying in vain to warn him the race wasn’t over.

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