Ángel Piqueras proved that it doesn’t matter how you start a Moto3 Grand Prix weekend, but how you finish on Sunday. The #36 Spaniard took out his fourth 2025 win at the Catalan GP, stealing the victory from José Antonio Rueda in the final lap. Taiyo Furusato secured his second podium, finishing in third. Read further for all the Moto3 race results and how we got there.
Rueda Untouchable on Friday Morning
Round 15 of the 2025 Moto3 World Championship got underway with Friday’s Free Practice 1 session. The riders trickled out of the pit lane as thirty-five minutes on the clock began counting down. We had a familiar face return to racing with Luca Lunetta cleared to participate after a lengthy recovery from a broken leg.
The weekend for Leopard Racing got underway with some grim news, as talk circulated that both of their riders, Adrián Fernández and David Almansa, will be out of a seat for the 2026 season. As the session went on, the lap times continued to increase in pace. We saw Fernández, Ryusei Yamanaka, Piqueras, Máximo Quiles, and Rueda jump up to the top spot after fifteen minutes.
Halfway through the session, David Muñoz found himself in the top 3 with a time of around 1:48s. We had our first crash of the weekend in Sector 4 with Quiles looking incredibly rattled as he staggered beside the barriers. His bike lost the front end between Turns 13 and 14, sending both the motorcycle and rider tumbling into the gravel.
Nicola Carraro lost the front end in arguably the slowest corner of the circuit. Ricardo Rossi was another victim claimed at Turn 5, washing out as he chased Almansa. He was able to get the bike started and return it to the pit lane himself. As the checkered flag ended the session, Rueda reminded everyone why he is the current championship leader, setting the fastest time of 1:47.483.
Perrone Leads the Charge From Practice to Q2
Later in the afternoon, another thirty-five-minute session began for the Moto3 Practice. It was noticeably warmer as the track temperature had risen by eight degrees compared to the morning session. The first few minutes were spent getting another feel for the track before times were set. The goal? To skip Q1 and proceed directly to Q2 on Saturday.
Yellow flags came out in Turn 10 as Carraro crashed for the second time for the day. But he wasn’t alone at that corner. Scott Ogden was also involved in the joint incident that was subsequently investigated. Quiles appeared in good condition after his earlier morning tumble, setting his best lap time of the session at 1:48.045.
Meanwhile, the FIM stewards announced that an incident involving Rueda and Quiles at Turn 1 was under investigation. Upon review, something appeared to fall off the bike of the #93 as Quiles was on the racing line behind him.
Within seconds of the riders coming back out, two separate crashes occurred, ending the session for Denssi Racing – BOE teammates Ruché Moodley and Cormac Buchanan. The rest of the grid had hoped to have more time to set a flying lap. However, another yellow-flagged sector for Arbi Aditama’s crash resulted in some big names landing in Q1 for a shootout to come. Valentín Perrone was not one of them, the #73 rider advancing to Q2 with a time of 1:47.584.
Added Stress in FP2 For Leopard Racing
As the new day kicked off with the Free Practice 2 session, most riders had decided not to push too hard through the hazy morning. However, not everyone was able to leave the session unscathed. Quiles had his second crash for the weekend. There was no hiding his frustration after he was unable to restart the bike initially. The #28 managed to return to the pit lane, and with excellent speed from his team, came back out on the track with over three minutes of the session remaining.
Another Q2 advancer, Fernández, also created some extra stress for his team with a massive highside crash coming out of the exit at Turn 4. The #31 and his Leopard machine slid all the way down into Turn 5. Despite this, he still placed second in the Practice session after Piqueras.
Almansa Snaps Up First Pole Start in Moto3
Some surprising names featured in the Moto3 Q1 session on Saturday. Piqueras found himself battling it out after his final best lap time in Practice had been deleted. His Frinsa – MT Helmets – MSI teammate, Yamanaka, joined him. Both riders went out for the first run, but returned to their pit boxes a few minutes later. They came out again for the final run, taking the top two spots and pushing Carraro out of Q2 contention.
Dennis Foggia took his time coming out of the pit lane, five of the fifteen minutes in the session already gone. The strategic decision paid off as the #71 placed third and advanced to the second round. Buchanan rounded out the top four, nearly six-tenths behind Foggia’s best lap time.
The Q1 graduates joined Perrone, Muñoz, Almansa, Guido Pini, Quiles, Jacob Roulstone, Joel Kelso, Rueda, Rossi, Lunetta, Fernández, Furusato, and Álvaro Carpe. Despite fifteen minutes on the clock, the real action for the pole shootout did not heat up until a few minutes were left.
Almansa slowly crept up as his lap times continued to improve, as did both Piqueras and Yamanaka. The top spot up until this point had been Fernández, but the last flying laps of Kelso and Muñoz pushed him to sixth overall. As the checkered flag waved, the grid for the race was complete. Or, so we thought.
KTM Crowned Moto3 Constructor World Champions
There was some housekeeping before the Monster Energy Grand Prix of Catalonia began. Yamanaka was sent to the back of the grid for riding slow online and impeding Ogden. Despite the disadvantage, the Japanese rider was able to crawl all the way to finish ninth.
Piqueras had an awful start, dropping to eighth in the first sector, making his task of getting back to the podium even harder. Kelso tried to hang on, but fell down the order as he was passed by one rider after the next. Rueda was quick to serve his long lap penalty from the Friday Practice slow riding incident. So was Carraro, who incurred his penalty after causing the crash with Ogden on Friday.
Ogden’s teammate, Noah Dettwiller, was handed a long lap penalty for irresponsible riding, finishing off a disappointing weekend for CIP Green Power. Past the halfway point of the race, Roulstone suffered a mechanical issue, forcing the dejected Australian to retire. Buchanan added yet another DNF for his 2025 season, crashing in Sector 3.
While Rueda lost first place to Piqueras, it was still a victorious Sunday for KTM as they secured the title of Moto3 Constructor World Champions. Rueda himself is now sixty-four points clear of Piqueras in the Riders’ Championship.
Top 15
Here are the fifteen Moto3 riders who scored points at the Catalan GP: