El Diablo Finishes P5 in Dramatic 2026 MotoGP Catalonia
Team ENEOS kept their focus during a dramatic 2026 MotoGP Catalan GP. Riders Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins wrapped up the 12-lap second restart following two red flags in P7 and P11, and as Rins was given a 16sec penalty post race for tire pressure infringement, the Frenchman moved up to P5 in the revised rankings while the Spaniard ended in P14.
The original race was red flagged after a massive incident involving three riders approaching Turn 10 on lap 12. Race 2 was also red flagged on the first of 13 laps due to an incident involving three riders in Turn 1. Race 3 would be 12 laps, and Quartararo and Rins started it from P13 and P17 respectively.
El Diablo started strong and pushed to P4 on the opening lap but lost a position crossing the start/finish line for the first time. Unable to stick with the top four riders, Quartararo focused on defensive riding, standing his ground but dropping to P8. After a rival crashed out on the last lap, he took the checkered flag in P7, 4.876sec from the winner. The post-race penalties shifted him up to P5 in the revised rankings.
“Doing 12 laps in the first race, we left rubber on the track, which automatically improved our grip for the third race,” said Quartararo. “I started the second race with a new soft tire but had to reuse it for the restart because there were no more new ones left. I could’ve gone faster in the third race but was blocked.”
Rins had a good opening lap to climb up to P11 and was part of a group fighting for seventh place, but dropped a position on lap 6. He pushed on and had a late charge but ultimately finished P11, 6.916sec from first. A 16sec penalty for the tire pressure infringement pushed him down to P14 in the revised classification.
“We struggled a lot in this race,” said Rins. “The pace wasn’t bad but not where we wanted to be.”