Marco Bezzecchi
Aprilia have left Ducati and Marc Marquez behind so far in 2026, with the Noale outfit grabbing a 1-2 finish at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Marquez’s title defence has not got off to a great start, having retired from the Thailand GP after his rear rim exploded in the closing stages. Admitting he was not comfortable after his 2025 injury, he had three weeks to get to full fitness for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The weekend in Goiania was hampered by several delays due to the track surface, with Marquez expressing anger over the sinkhole that pushed back the start of the Sprint race. He would go on to win the race.
Marco Bezzecchi dominates the Brazilian Grand Prix! Four on the spin for Bez as he secures an Aprilia 1-2, have they officially dethroned Ducati?
Michael Laverty felt Fabio Di Giannantonio was too cautious with Marquez on Saturday as he narrowly lost the win from pole position. But the VR46 rider would get one back over the Ducati star on Sunday as he clinched P3.
Marco Bezzecchi won the Brazilian GP over Aprilia teammate Jorge Martin, with Marquez finishing four seconds behind the winner in fourth.
Marc Marquez says Aprilia have the extra ‘point’ that Ducati had in 2025
Many people believe that Aprilia have closed the gap to Ducati in the last few months, especially in Marquez’s absence at the end of 2025. Francesco Bagnaia felt Ducati were not the fastest anymore in Thailand, and in Brazil, his teammate agreed.
Speaking to DAZN after the race, Marquez felt that Aprilia have gained the extra ‘point’ with the RS-GP that Ducati had in 2025.
“What was I lacking? Speed,” he said. “We’re in MotoGP. If you don’t have speed, you’re missing that little bit. When I got into fourth place, it didn’t help, because I was using up a lot of front tyre.
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“I wanted to do 3-4 laps a bit more calmly, because when the rear tyre is new, it pushes the front tyre a lot, and that overtake threw us off our game.
“Then, I wasn’t able to get close enough to Di Giannantonio to overtake him. And when I finally did, in that corner where the asphalt was coming up, I almost crashed, I went wide onto the kerb, and I decided to sacrifice a bit of position to score points.
“If we look at the sprint finish plus the race, we scored good points, but, obviously, we’re missing that one point, which is the one we had last year, and this year it seems Bezzecchi and Martín have it with Aprilia.”
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Marc Marquez admits Ducati do not have the speed that they had last year
Marquez added that he was still not comfortable on the GP26, and that he was lacking the pace that he had last season when he won the championship with five rounds to spare.
“Looking at the zero points in Thailand, that’s what happens. When you get a zero, it’s most noticeable in the first few races.
“Obviously, when you don’t have the speed we had last year, scoring points is even more important, so today, like in Thailand, I was focused on scoring points because, at the moment, we don’t have the speed we had last year and I’m not yet comfortable.
“I hope that little by little I’ll feel more comfortable and that we can also gain speed.”
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