Moto2 forced to revise standings after scoring error
Motorcycle racing’s governing body the FIM has admitted that a scoring ‘error’ occurred following Sunday’s twice red-flagged opening Moto2 race of the 2026 season at the Thai Grand Prix.
As flagged at the time by multiple parties, the decision to award full championship points for the shortened race has now been confirmed to have been incorrect.
The 22-lap race at Buriram was first stopped on lap four following a crash involving polesitter Senna Agius, preseason favourite David Alonso, and American Racing rider Filip Salac, with the red flags coming out after Alonso was struck by both machines but fortunately escaped without serious injury.
It was then restarted for an intended 11-lap distance, only for a stoppage to again occur on the opening lap following a crash involving Speed Up rider Luca Lunetta and Gresini Racing’s Sergio Garcia.
The race was again restarted, this time for seven laps, with Manu Gonzalez emerging as the winner ahead of Izan Guevara and Alonso’s Aspar teammate Dani Holgado.
However, with the Moto2 rule book stating that full championship points will only be awarded should at least two thirds of a race’s scheduled distance take place, there was confusion afterwards about why Gonzalez had been awarded the full 25 points rather than 12.5, with a representative of governing body Dorna explaining initially that the combined completed distance had been taken into account.
That has now been refuted by the FIM, though, with a statement issued on Friday correcting the record and confirming that the wrong decision was initially taken by race control.
“Following a review of the Moto2 race results from Thailand,” they confirmed, “an error has been identified in the total race distance completed.
“The results were initially issued with full championship points. Under normal circumstances, race control software issues a prompt indicating that 50% of original race distance has not been completed in order to award half points.
“Due to the multiple starts that took place at the Grand Prix of Thailand, the single lap completed on the second start, which should have been null and void, was incorrectly added to the overall race distance.
“In accordance with the sporting regulations, the race distance actually completed requires half points to be awarded. The points allocation has therefore been corrected and updated championship standings will be published.
“Additional verification steps will be implemented to prevent any similar events in the future.”
Moto2 standings
1 Gonzalez 12.5
2 Guevara 10
3 Holgado 8
4 Ortola 6.5
5 Veijer 5.5
6 Vietti 5
7 Lopez 4.5
8 Munoz 4
9 Oncu 3.5
10 Sasaki 3
11 Canet 2.5
12 Escrig 2
13 Arbolino 1.5
14 Baltus 1
15 Ferrandez 0.5
