San Marino GP: Hakim Danish Fight From Back Row to 4 Points
A day after a promising Qualifying 1 lap turned sour in Q2, Hakim Danish delivered the answer on race day, cutting through the Moto3 field from a penalized grid slot near the very back to finish 12th and collect four championship points at the Red Bull Grand Prix of San Marino and the Rimini Riviera 2026, at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, Rimini.
Danish's Saturday had already ended with him 18th and last in the Qualifying 2 group. A stewards' grid penalty — applied to riders #10, #11, #13, and #83 — then demoted him further still, dropping the AEON Credit - MT Helmets - MSI rider seven places to 25th on the 26-bike grid.
Only Nicola Carraro started behind him, and Carraro was one of two riders who crashed out before completing the opening lap, meaning Danish effectively had the entire surviving field ahead of him from the moment the lights went out.
He wasted no time responding. By the end of lap 1, Danish had already moved up to 22nd, and he continued picking off riders in steady fashion through the opening third of the 20-lap, 84.52km race — 19th by lap 3, 18th by lap 4, into the mid-teens by lap 7.
He continued to improve in small steps deep into the race: 14th by lap 11, then a battle in the 13th-to-15th range that lasted most of the second half as he ran in close company with a group that included his teammate, Ryusei Yamanaka.
The defining moment came right at the flag. Danish and Yamanaka ran nose-to-tail for lap after lap in the second half of the race, with Danish sitting just behind his teammate as the laps ticked down.
On the final lap, Danish produced his fastest race lap by some margin — a 1'41.278, quicker than anything he'd managed all afternoon — to snatch with it 12th place overall by the finish, edging Yamanaka by just 0.315 seconds.
Danish crossed the line 12th, 22.335 seconds behind race winner Maximo Quiles, earning four points for his championship tally. It capped a race that will read as a genuine highlight of his weekend: a rider who started 25th finishing ahead of faster-qualifying names like Alvaro Carpe (17th) and David Gonzalez (11th, just barely), while beating his own teammate to the line by the length of a straight.
At the front, the race itself went down to the wire — Quiles held off David Almansa by just 0.021 seconds, with Brian Uriarte completing the podium 1.343 seconds back.
Credit Photo : ZK Racing
