Malaysia Moto3 winner gets 2026 Moto2 move with Honda Team Asia
Taiyo Furusato will move up to the Moto2 World Championship in 2026.
Just a few days on from his maiden Moto3 World Championship race win, Taiyo Furusato has been announced as a Honda Team Asia Moto2 rider for the 2026 season.
It’s a move for Furusato that had been an option for him in the past, but he had elected to remain in the lightweight class with the target of winning races before he made the step up to the intermediate category.
Now moving up in 2026, Furusato will replace his compatriot, Yuki Kunii, in Honda Team Asia’s Moto2 effort, Kunii having returned to the grand prix paddock this year (after an underwhelming Moto3 career in the past) following his title winning Asia Road Racing Championship ASB1000 campaign in 2024, but has so far been unable to score a point.
Furusato will partner Mario Aji, who gets a third year in Moto2 next year after scoring his first intermediate class points in 2025.
The 20-year-old’s move up to Moto2 opens up a spot in Moto3, where Honda Team Asia will also drop Tatchakorn Buasri.
Two rookies will fill the Moto3 positions as 2025 Red Bull Rookies Cup runner-up Veda Pratama gets his chance alongside Zen Mitani who is currently 10th overall in this year’s JuniorGP standings and who made his Moto3 World Championship debut with the Snipers team earlier this season in Indonesia, replacing Nicola Carraro.
Mitani and Pratama are the latest in a list of rookies set to move into the Moto3 World Championship next season, with Rico Salmela and Brian Uriarte having already been announced at the Tech3 and Ajo KTM teams, respectively, while Hakim Danish will make the step into the World Championship with the MSi team having debuted at Malaysia last weekend.
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
