As Motorsport.com Deutschland reports, Izan Guevara's Grand Prix of Qatar ended in a brutal disappointment when a technical failure forced him to retire on lap 14. Starting from position ten despite a three-place grid penalty, the Spaniard had fought his way up to seventh before settling into tenth while battling for a top-ten finish. The timing could not have been worse. Arriving in Lusail with a deficit of just 3.5 points to Manuel Gonzalez, Guevara saw that gap stretch to 13.5 points as his title rival claimed sixth place and ten world championship points. With two rounds remaining, the Pramac rider remains in the championship fight, but a massive chunk of his points buffer has vanished.
This was Guevara's first retirement since the Grand Prix of Japan last year, yet data analysis revealed that the trouble ran much deeper than a single race-day glitch. Team manager Alex De Angelis made it clear that the squad had been wrestling with insufficient engine performance stretching all the way back to Sepang. Watching the machine slow to a halt by the side of the track was a devastating sight for the outfit, especially given how tightly contested the Moto2 crown is right now. Telemetry showed that the motorcycle had been shedding time on the straights even before the final breakdown, culminating in a gearbox failure. De Angelis noted that the team had been addressing a lack of expected power since Friday in Qatar, though a concrete cause for the failure remains missing.
Guevara himself backed up the timeline, pointing out a persistent top-speed deficit across three consecutive weekends. Even when tucking into a slipstream, the Spaniard lost roughly five km/h compared to his rivals, rendering defensive driving or counter-attacks nearly impossible. The handling issues compounded in Qatar, beginning with a delayed throttle response exiting turn six when shifting from first to second gear. Five laps from the end, approaching the first corner, the gearbox flat-out refused to function properly during a downshift, leaving the rider stranded. Despite the frustration, Guevara praised the incredible work of his crew in handling the ongoing speed deficit.
De Angelis rushed to defend his mechanics, emphasizing that the root cause did not lie within the team. The manager insisted that Pramac had continuously worked to understand the difficulties and find solutions, demanding a thorough investigation from the technical partner responsible for preparing the Triumph Moto2 racing engines. Externpro handles the preparation of the 765-cubic-centimetre three-cylinder units supplied by Triumph, the exclusive engine provider of the middle class since 2019. De Angelis stressed that the team was not looking to pass blame, but insisted that accountability and clear answers were needed from the responsible parties.
Despite the bitter setback, Guevara refuses to throw in the towel on the world championship. Sitting on 273 points in second place behind Gonzalez—who now holds 286,5 points—the rider knows there are still 50 points on the table across the final rounds in Portimao and Valencia. Emphasizing a strong overseas tour and a manageable 13.5-point gap, Guevara remains determined to keep a cool head, trust in the team's potential, and leave everything on the line as the season reaches its climax.
Moto2
