There was always the feeling that, in Jorge Martin, here was more than a one-title talent; that his 2024 title-winning season had not been a flash-in-the-pan. 2025 would have gone better had he been fit and, now that he is – and with the best bike on the grid just as it reaches its peak – he’s showing all his old flair. Even if he had been fit in 2025, would the combination of Martin and Aprilia RS-GP have been enough to stop Marquez? We’ll never know, of course, but on the evidence of France 2026, is it so far-fetched an idea?
It has taken Martin a bit longer to get to grips with the Aprilia RS-GP than Bezzecchi, but that is only to be expected, given the work Bez put in through 2025, ending that year and starting 2026 undefeated for five races. Now that Martin has found his rhythm and feeling on the bike, he could really be a thorn in Bez’s side. The contract shenanigans in which he indulged while injured in 2025 didn’t do his reputation any good, but he’s just so good to watch on track that you have to forgive that indiscretion, coming at a time when he should have been thinking about nothing other than recovery and not giving in to the demons in his head.
His Sprint race victory in France was just like the Martin of 2024, devastating the six riders in front of him on the grid to lead out of the chicane on the first lap. Who goes round the outside of the leader – his teammate, don’t forget – in the first corner of the chicane on the first lap? It’s just not done. Well, now it is.
From that point, he was never in any trouble from the chasing pack. Marquez, for his part, slumped backwards before a hideous-looking high-side took him out. That broke a bone in his foot to go with the shoulder that still isn’t fully healed. His still-recovering and fragile body doesn’t need any more incidents like that, and you’d have to say that his chances of retaining the title are looking slim right now.
You have to wonder, if Marquez knew about the shoulder issue, why didn’t he opt to miss the French GP in favour of surgery immediately after the Jerez race, to be potentially fit for the Barcelona Catalunya race and the test immediately after, which is vitally important for any manufacturer? Now he may miss Barcelona and also Mugello, which, in the light of the Aprilia dominance, means he is going to be too late to mount a serious championship challenge, given that he is already 71 points down on Bezzecchi and only one less on Martin. Another three races, like France and either Martin or Bezzecchi, will be uncatchable, except by each other.
There’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the GP26 – Alex Marquez ran away with the Jerez race convincingly on one such, and Marquez has two Sprint wins to his name, not to mention the new lap record in Q1 in France – but, as we have seen so often throughout history, just because a bike is a winner, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to ride. If anyone can get the best out of it, it’s Marc Marquez, but the question of whether it suits Marquez has been masked by his physical issues. The second half of the season, with perhaps a fully-fit Marquez, will be interesting.
So, a dominant win for Martin, a fine second place for Bagnaia and a damage-limiting third for Bezzecchi in the Sprint. But what could the main race bring? Was there any way it could be as entertaining as the Sprint?
It always seems to rain at Le Mans. A statistic flashed up on the screen before the race began: 12 out of the 25 races held there have been wet, so it’s still less than half, but it feels like more. Sure enough, race day dawned wet, although while the Moto3 guys raced on a wet track, by the time of the Moto2 race, the track was dry and the MotoGP riders went to the grid with full slicks and a dry set-up, although it was notable that all the “wet” bikes were lined up prominently in the pit lane. As flag-to-flag races invariably deliver thrilling races and unexpected results, is it wrong to wish for rain halfway through a race?
Sure enough, on the grid, just as riders had made their tyre choices for the race, there were a few drops of rain, and nothing must put the shivers up a rider’s spine more than seeing drops of rain on the screen when you have slick tyres on at the start of a race. It ultimately came to nothing and, perhaps in light of what came to pass, it’s good that it didn’t.
Martin failed to make as good a getaway as in the Sprint and remained in seventh, while Bezzecchi went serenely on his way, Quartararo, Acosta, DiGiannantonio and Bagnaia following close behind. Quartararo was looking good, but he was running a soft front tyre when all the others were running a hard one, and it was obvious he would fade as the race went on. Fade he did, but not as drastically as in other races. I like Quartararo, and I’d love to see him fighting at the front with a genuine chance of winning, not just through taking risks on setup or tyre choice.
And then there is the mercurial Bagnaia. Pole position, second in the Sprint, running fourth in the Main race, getting up to second, only to lose it at the chicane on lap 17 and be done for the day. The pole position was encouraging, as was his race pace, but he has no answer for the Aprilias, and his consistency sucks. With Marquez out through injury and Bagnaia crashing, that brings the factory Ducati’s Grand Prix podiumless streak to ten races. Certainly not enough to set alarm bells ringing, but not encouraging either.
Acosta was making a nuisance of himself, fighting with Quartararo over second early on, but despite this, Bezzecchi wasn’t getting away at the front, the gap being a second and a bit at its widest. Martin was making progress, passing Ogura and DiGiannantonio, but being 2.5 seconds behind the leader, could he make a difference at the front?
Before you knew it, however, this was looking like a possibility. Bagnaia’s crash removed one obstacle, but Martin’s sheer pace meant that a showdown with Bezzecchi was becoming increasingly inevitable, and so it came to pass, Martin passing DiGiannantonio and Acosta before closing the gap quickly and taking the lead with three laps to go. When last did we see Bezzecchi being overtaken for the lead of a race? Martin showed us two completely different ways of winning a race in one weekend – lead from the front and fight from behind – showing us that we have not heard the last of this internal Aprilia struggle.
Meanwhile, Ai Ogura was yet again proving his worth on the Trackhouse Aprilia and was working his way up to third, to give Aprilia its first-ever podium lock-out and the first Japanese rider dry-race podium place since 2006. He threatened to do it in America before mechanical gremlins spoiled his party, but now, he has his first MotoGP podium. Is it too much to regret on his behalf Ogura’s decision to leave Aprilia at the end of 2026? Of course, there’s no knowing if Aprilia will enter the new-rules era with any form of success, but success breeds success.
After his stunning start to the season, Bezzecchi leaves France with another two podiums, but when your teammate has closed the points gap to one point with a double-victory, mere podiums are not going to cut it.
Yamaha yet again endured a difficult race, Quartararo’s sixth place notwithstanding. Toprak Razgatlioglu’s Yamaha expired on the sighting lap, meaning he had to race his back-up wet set-up bike, meaning that, if it did start raining, he had nothing to swap to. Rins finished an anonymous 12th, and Miller finished behind Toprak.
KTM were in a similar position; Acosta and, to a lesser extent, Bastiannini were working away at the front, finishing fifth and seventh, while their fellow-KTM riders had races to forget; Binder crashed out on lap 21, having qualified second to last, while Viñales’ replacement Jonas Folger crossed the line 73 seconds behind the winner! Where is the logic of replacing a rider with another who clearly has no right to be there? What possible good does that do KTM in terms of in-race development data?
In terms of behind-the-scenes activity, Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta explained that it was taking time to ratify a new agreement between Liberty Media/Dorna and the teams for 2027 onwards. The teams are looking for a larger slice of the revenue pie in light of Liberty’s acquisition of a majority holding in MotoGP. That will probably happen, and neither side seems worried by the delay, but one consequence is that rider announcements have been put on hold, for whatever reason.
At the start of the season, everyone concerned was confident that decisions and announcements would be made almost before the first wheel had turned in anger at the first round. That didn’t happen and, despite the rumours, we’re still not much clearer as to who will ride where in 2027. We do know that Bezzecchi is staying at Aprilia, with Zarco and Moreira remaining at LCR Honda. Marc Marquez is likely to stay at Ducati, but Bagnaia is being linked with a move to the factory Aprilia team, while Jorge Martin might be off to Yamaha to replace a Honda-bound Quartararo, Ai Ogura joining Martin at Yamaha, while Moto2 star David Alonso could join Quartararo at Honda.
DiGiannantonio looks set to head to the factory KTM team, replacing factory Ducati-bound Acosta. Will Alex Marquez bag the second factory KTM seat and, if so, where does that leave Brad Binder or Maverick Viñales, who was rumoured to be heading to the factory KTM team from Tech3 KTM, which might become Tech3 Honda next year?
Gresini will stay with Ducati and could field Enea Bastiannini and another Moto2 star, Dani Holgado, while current Gresini rider Fermin Aldeguer could move to VR46.
Confused? You should be!
Just a week to wait for the next race, in Barcelona, Catalunya. Personally, I’m not making any predictions. OK, so Martin just had a good weekend, and it’s been building for a while, but such is the see-saw nature of MotoGP at the moment, who’s to say that he will be in the ascendancy next time out? Look at Alex Marquez; dominant winner in Jerez, only to crash out early in France. If Martin or Bezzecchi can’t dominate in Barcelona, then who will?
