An all-Italian derby
Aprilia 4, Ducati and KTM 1: this is currently the partial score in terms of victories considering the Sprints and GPs held at the start of 2026 in MotoGP. The Noale-based manufacturer took all the GPs and the Sprint in Texas on the last lap with Jorge Martin, KTM prevailed in Thailand with Pedro Acosta while Marc Marquez was the best on Saturday in Goiana, Brazil, ahead of brand teammate Fabio Di Giannantonio.
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The Noale-based manufacturer, at least at the start of this season, has been clearly better than the competition, including Ducati, especially in the GPs when it is important to be fast and consistent with ‘race’ tires and not with the softs through which Ducati manages to mask an unexpected competitive gap with the RS-GPs.
In any case, Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola does not want to delude himself, also because he is aware that the best Marc Marquez has not yet been seen on track due to the injury sustained in Mandalika, Indonesia, precisely as a result of a misjudgment by Marco Bezzecchi who took out the nine-time world champion.
“Perhaps the Ducati dominance is over – said Rivola interviewed by Sky – because we are competitive and we can play our cards, but that doesn’t mean they won’t win, on the contrary. They took first and second place in the Sprint in Brazil, and then we haven’t seen Marc Márquez yet. Is this forced break a disadvantage for us? It could be an advantage for Márquez because he will have more time to recover, but maybe it’s also an advantage for Jorge. Historically, breaks help those who are chasing more than those who are ahead, but it will do us good, because at Aprilia we have been stretched thin since the first test. We wanted to bring the latest aerodynamic upgrades to be able to homologate the bike in a certain way, so we put the company under a lot of stress. If someone takes a few days of relaxation, they are welcome to it, they deserved it.”
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