{"id":668194,"date":"2026-05-13T12:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/668194\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T12:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T12:37:09","slug":"yamaha-confirms-fifth-motogp-rider-for-catalunya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/668194\/","title":{"rendered":"Yamaha confirms fifth MotoGP rider for Catalunya"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fresh from the Yamaha V4\u2019s best-yet MotoGP result, in the hands of Fabio Quartararo at Le Mans, a fifth machine will be back on the grid for this weekend\u2019s Catalunya round.<\/p>\n<p>Factory test rider<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1018388\/augusto-fernandez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Augusto Fernandez <\/a>will be making his second wildcard appearance of the season at Barcelona.<\/p>\n<p>The Spaniard will be seeking his first points of the season after qualifying as the top Yamaha rider in 16th at a wet Jerez.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gng_1305881_hires_1600x900.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Augusto Fernandez, 2026 Spanish MotoGP.\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.78\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Augusto Fernandez, 2026 Spanish MotoGP.<\/p>\n<p> \u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n<p>However, Fernandez failed to score in the races, reaching the chequered flag in 20th after losing his rear brake following early contact with Jack Miller in the grand prix.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>As at Jerez, this weekend\u2019s event is followed by an official post-race test.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m excited to go racing, and again in Spain,\u201d Fernandez said. \u201cBarcelona is a track that I like, so I&#8217;m looking forward to having a good weekend and continuing with our bike development programme.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Who will win the 2026 Catalan MotoGP race?Pedro Acosta<\/p>\n<p>0% (0 votes)<\/p>\n<p>Marco Bezzecchi<\/p>\n<p>17% (2 votes)<\/p>\n<p>Pecco Bagnaia<\/p>\n<p>0% (0 votes)<\/p>\n<p>Fabio di Giannantonio<\/p>\n<p>0% (0 votes)<\/p>\n<p>Jorge Martin<\/p>\n<p>58% (7 votes)<\/p>\n<p>Alex Marquez<\/p>\n<p>25% (3 votes)<\/p>\n<p>Ai Ogura<\/p>\n<p>0% (0 votes)<\/p>\n<p>Other<\/p>\n<p>0% (0 votes)<\/p>\n<p> Total votes: 12<\/p>\n<p>Quartararo qualified sixth, then finished fifth (Sprint) and sixth (Grand Prix) in his home Le Mans races.<\/p>\n<p>Before Sunday\u2019s result, Fernandez\u2019s 14th as a wildcard at last year\u2019s Misano round remained the V4\u2019s best grand prix finish, albeit matched by the full-time riders at Buriram, Brazil and COTA this year.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/monster-energy-yamaha-motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Yamaha\u2019s<\/a> concession status means the factory is allowed six wildcard entries, with a maximum of three before the summer break and three after.<\/p>\n<p>Wildcards will no longer be allowed in MotoGP from 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh from the Yamaha V4\u2019s best-yet MotoGP result, in the hands of Fabio Quartararo at Le Mans, a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,39401,63,10671,806,805,803,804,85,3561],"class_list":{"0":"post-668194","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-augusto-fernandez","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-monster-energy-yamaha-motogp","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-yamaha"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}