Fernandez's Six-Race Disqualification Is Overturned as Leopard Wins Its Appeal

A disqualification that erased six races, 77 points and a championship position has been wiped out in one ruling. The FIM International Court of Appeal decided on October 15 that Leopard Racing and Adrian Fernandez were right to appeal, set aside the decisions that removed him from six of the first seven Moto3 rounds, and ordered the sporting authorities to act on it. MotoGP confirmed the practical result a day later: Fernandez’s finishing positions in the first six Grands Prix will be reinstated, and the record books for the start of the 2026 season are being rewritten in October.

Why was Fernandez disqualified in the first place?

The case was about two engine seals. Crash.net reports the FIM’s technical direction found that Leopard Racing had opened the seals on two of Fernandez’s engines without authorisation. Moto3 engines are sealed precisely so that nobody can work on them outside the approved process, so a broken seal reads as a serious breach whether or not any performance gain is shown. In June the stewards disqualified Fernandez, the younger brother of double MotoGP race winner Raul Fernandez, from the Thai, Brazilian, United States, Spanish, French and Catalan Grands Prix. Paddock GP’s publication of Leopard’s statement identifies the engines by number, 810 and 811, and the decisions under appeal as those of June 5. At the moment the penalty landed, Fernandez was third in the championship.

How did the appeal overturn it?

By going one level higher than the body that had upheld the penalty. MotoGP’s account of the process is a three-step ladder: the FIM MotoGP Stewards disqualified him, the FIM Appeal Stewards upheld the ruling when Leopard appealed at the Hungarian round, and Leopard then took the case to the International Court of Appeal. That court ruled the other way. Its statement, quoted by Crash.net, holds that the appeals were admissible, that they were upheld on the merits, and that the two decisions by the FIM Appeals Commissioners were set aside. The same statement is honest about what is missing: the detailed legal and technical grounds for the annulment will only be known once the reasoned judgment has been examined. Leopard’s own statement, published in full by Paddock GP, thanked the team’s experts, witnesses and legal team for restoring the honour and dignity of the team and its rider. Governing bodies reversing themselves on process is a familiar motorsport pattern this season, from the FIA admitting a human error handed some cars extra power in Singapore to NASCAR deciding a cooldown-lap clash deserved no penalty at all. The difference here is scale: this ruling does not adjust one result, it restores six.

What does reinstatement do to the standings?

It moves Fernandez from the midfield back into the fight, and it moves other people down. The disqualification cost him 77 points, Crash.net reports, and he currently sits 14th. With the six results restored he rises to fifth on 148 points, ahead of Marco Morelli on 146. The other side of the ledger belongs to the riders who inherited his positions in June. ASEAN Coverage works the clearest example: Veda Pratama finished fourth at the French Grand Prix and was promoted to third when Fernandez was removed, so the reinstatement hands that place, and its points, back. Every podium, points finish and championship line from those six races is being reissued, which is why MotoGP’s short confirmation, results to be updated for the first six races, carries more paperwork than its two sentences suggest.

Is the case actually finished?

The results are being restored, and the argument may not be. Crash.net reports the FIM’s Technical Commission can appeal this decision within the next four weeks and take the matter back through the courts, and notes it is not yet known whether it will. That leaves the sport in an awkward holding pattern: the standings will show a fifth place that a further appeal could, in principle, disturb again, and the reasoned judgment that explains why six disqualifications were annulled has not yet been examined in public. Leopard has its honour-and-dignity statement on the record. The technical process that produced the original finding, and the questions Crash.net raises about how the inspection system reached it, are still waiting for their document. Motorsport’s legal fights rarely end at the first verdict, as the trade-secret case between Spire and Joe Gibbs Racing keeps showing, and this one has a court window written into it.

What happens next?

Two clocks are running. The short one is administrative: the updated results and standings for the first six rounds, which MotoGP has already promised, and which will confirm the fifth place and the reshuffled midfield in official form. The long one is legal: the four-week window for a counter-appeal, and the publication of the reasoned judgment. Fernandez, meanwhile, races on with a season that suddenly looks very different from the one he has been riding since June, on a weekend when the paddock’s attention is split between Austin, where Liam Lawson is headlining a live gig before the United States Grand Prix, and a Moto3 table that has to be printed twice.