Marco Bezzecchi
Jorge Martin believes that a new phase of the MotoGP world championship will begin when the season resumes in Spain. He is braced for Ducati to strike back in their battle with Aprilia.
Martin is currently second in the world championship, just four points behind Marco Bezzecchi in an Aprilia factory one-two. The Spaniard claimed a landmark victory in the US GP Sprint then followed his teammate home in the main Grand Prix.
Marc Marquez is 32 points behind Martin and 36 adrift of Bezzecchi, while Aprilia have more than doubled Ducati’s tally in the teams’ championship (158 vs 70).
Here’s the MotoGP championship standings after the United States GP!
It is Aprilia's to lose already?
Jorge Martin says ‘normal’ service will resume for Ducati in Jerez
Ducati hoped Aprilia’s advantage was down to Michelin’s harder tyre casing, a heat-resistant measure for Thailand and Brazil. But on a conventional rubber in Austin, a venue where Marquez has been near-unbeatable past, the supremacy of the RS-GP26 continued.
Marquez crashed heavily in practice and was also hampered by a long-lap penalty after colliding with Fabio Di Giannantonio in the Sprint, but the fact remains that Ducati have only scored one podium in three Grands Prix across all of their riders.
Still, Massimo Rivola warns that Aprilia haven’t faced the ‘real’ Marquez yet, and Martin is inclined to agree. Whatever happens, the 2024 world champion has already surpassed his own personal expectations on the back of an injury-ravaged season.
Will Ducati return to form when the season resumes?
Jorge Martin thinks so!
Martin told DAZN, via MARCA: “In Jerez everything will return to normal, Ducati will return to normal, and we have to keep going like this, helping each other.
“We’re making the difference. The end of the year is usually my time, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself. I’m sure it will be a year to enjoy.
“I’ve already done much more than I expected all year, which was just to get a podium finish, so I’ll just enjoy the moment, because that’s important. I need to recover, because we have a month ahead of us to rest and disconnect a little.”
Fabio Di Giannantonio warns Ducati that the gap to Aprilia is ‘huge’
Di Giannantonio is surprisingly the lead Ducati in the standings on 50 points, five ahead of Marquez, but even he is struggling to keep up with Aprilia and KTM high-flyer Pedro Acosta.
The VR46 rider doesn’t share Martin’s confidence in Ducati right now and says they can’t compete in the braking zones.
“Being the best Ducati rider is good,” he said, via Speedweek. “But much more important is that we close the gap to the rest, because the gap to the competition is now huge!”
“When I was behind the Aprilia and behind Pedro Acosta, I couldn’t slow my bike down as much as they could!”
Before the 2026 season started, Ducati were on a streak of 88 consecutive podiums. They entered the year as favourites after an impressive performance in testing, so it’s no surprise that scepticism remains around Aprilia.
But with each race that passes, it becomes increasingly clear that Bezzecchi and Martin have a very real opportunity to do something that’s almost unprecedented in MotoGP: beat an active Marc Marquez to the world championship.
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