Raul Fernandez has completely given up hope of fighting for the 2026 MotoGP title following his retirement from the Aragon Grand Prix.
The Trackhouse rider qualified a strong fourth at MotorLand last weekend, but slipped down the order in the sprint, finishing a distant eighth. However, the real damage was done on Sunday, when he retired from sixth place due to an undisclosed mechanical issue.
Heading into the weekend, Fernandez stated he didn’t consider himself a title contender because of his lack of experience, but vowed to fight for the championship until he had a mathematical chance.
But his worst-performing weekend of the year has left the British GP winner seventh in the standings, 70 points behind championship leader Jorge Martin, with several of his rivals in top form.
As the Aragon weekend pointed to a three-way championship fight brewing between Martin, Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi, Fernandez conceded he is no longer in contention.
"We had already reached an agreement with [team principal] Davide Brivio to keep scoring points in each race and finish the season with a chance. But if there was even a small chance, it vanished today," he lamented.
"It's okay, it's part of the game, so now we'll focus on the next race."
Trackhouse made several changes to Fernandez’s bike on Saturday after he struggled for performance in the sprint.
The team seemingly achieved a breakthrough in the warm-up session, allowing Fernandez to run in sixth place in the early stages, before he was forced to pull into the pits on lap seven of 23.
The Spaniard wouldn’t be drawn on the exact nature of the issue, which is believed to be related to the gearbox.
"I can't tell you, it was a mechanical problem,” he said. “I want to thank the team for their work, because it hasn't been a weekend as I expected.
"This morning I felt competitive, I thought a victory was possible, but from the beginning I had problems, with each lap it got worse, and those vibrations– which we don't know where they come from– in the end forced me to stop.”
