MORBIDELLI FIGHTS BACK TO 11TH IN QATAR AS MOTOGP EXIT NEARS

Franco Morbidelli’s difficult season continued at the Qatar Grand Prix, where he finished 11th after starting from the back of the field. The result left him 16th in the championship with 70 points, making him the lowest-ranked Ducati rider. His VR46 teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio, by contrast, is sixth and was considered a title contender during the first half of the season.

Morbidelli qualified 13th and came home 14th in Saturday’s sprint, ahead of only the injured Maverick Viñales and Honda stand-in Jake Dixon. Sunday’s 22-lap race brought a better finish, but not the top-10 result he had hoped for. A poor launch dropped him to last at the first corner. He then worked his way forward, eventually passing Fermín Aldeguer at the final corner on the last lap to get close to 10th.

“I had a terrible start and was in last place at Turn 1,” Morbidelli said. He explained that he tried to fight back but ran wide before gradually recovering positions. “In the last lap, I overtook Aldeguer at the final corner and got close to 10th. But we were too far back in the early stages, and that’s a shame.”

Despite missing his target, Morbidelli said the pace offered some encouragement: “We had the rhythm to get close to our goal, and that’s positive.”

The Qatar weekend was another contrast with 2025, when Morbidelli and Di Giannantonio finished sixth and seventh respectively in the standings. With only the Portimão and Valencia rounds remaining, Morbidelli is now looking to bring his MotoGP career to a good close. The 31-year-old, a 2020 MotoGP runner-up and 2017 Moto2 champion, will move to Ducati’s factory team in the Superbike World Championship next year.