Pity the poor historian who, decades into the future, is writing about MotoGP in the first half of the 21st century. In front of him will be a list of winners and podium finishers and, of course, World Champions. Facts and statistics that can’t be disputed.
As we well know, however, the stats are only a part of the story, perhaps the least important part of the story. The story is always what happens second by second, yard by yard on the race track, not who crosses the finish line first; it’s what happens in the pits and behind closed doors both before, during and after the races.
If the first half of the 2026 season has had a story arc, it has to be that of Aprilia first sweeping all before it, closely followed by Aprilia shooting itself in the foot. It started with Bezzecchi leading every lap of the first three Grands Prix, then winning a fourth, but not after Martin had broken his Aprilia duck. A story of sixteen podium places; first and second in the championship, running away with it. Then, it all falls apart; Martin taking three-quarters of the Aprilia squad out – including Bezzecchi – in Hungary’s Grand Prix and gaining a double long-lap penalty for the next race; Bezzecchi losing his rag in the Brno Sprint and being barred from the Grand Prix on Sunday. Records will show another Marquez victory, but they won’t show any of the intrigue and machinations behind the scenes that made the victory possible or, at least, more likely.
And then there is another chink in Aprilia’s armour; Ducati. Far from being down-and-out, as it looked at the beginning of the season, with Aprilia taking four victories out of five races, Ducati has fought back, with three wins out of the last four races and four 2026 wins in total. The only saving grace for Aprilia is that Ducati’s victories have been split between the factory team (two victories), VR46 and Gresini (one each), thus diluting the title challenge, but when one of the riders is Marc Marquez, taking superiority for granted is not something Aprilia can afford to do.
The reason for Bezzecchi’s disqualification from the Grand Prix is simply explained; in frustration, he hit a marshal who was helping clear the crashed Aprilia from the gravel. Forget all that “marshals are volunteers” nonsense, indicating that they should be treated differently because they are giving their time up for free. Marshals are a legal requirement, so whether they are being paid or not makes no difference. But they are there to do a job, without which the races do not happen, so they do deserve respect. Yes, the adrenaline is flowing in the middle of a race and all the more so after you’ve crashed out; the gander is well and truly up and perhaps rationality is not at the front of your mind.
But what Bezzecchi allowed to happen is not acceptable, and the penalty was justified. He is a professional athlete, and that definition goes way beyond simply his ability and performance on the track. Yes, he is only human, with all the frailties and imperfections that implies, but anyone who performs at that level has to have an unusually high intelligence and quickness of thinking, and there can be no excuse for the “red mist” coming down at any moment.
What made it even worse was Jorge Martin’s double long lap penalty for his part in the Hungary first-corner mêlée, effectively taking him out of the victory hunt, although he did salvage a ninth position to move to only eight points behind his team mate. But, as a team and manufacturer, Aprilia doesn’t need the title cup to be dashed from its lips just as everything seems to be going right, the culmination of a long, hard road.
The most stable element of Aprilia right now is Ai Ogura. He’s actually been the revelation of 2026, his late-race pace while all others around him struggle on ageing tyres defies logic. His pole position – and record lap – in Brno was stunning, and, if he was relegated to a pair of second places in both Sprint and GP, then they certainly weren’t the results of a rider in the right place through fortuitous circumstance; he fully deserved them and convincingly outrode Bagnaia in the GP. If the factory Aprilia team is making a hash of things right now, then Ogura on the satellite Trackhouse Aprilia is standing in the wings, ready to pick up the pieces. Come 2027, Yamaha’s gain will be Aprilia’s loss, as Ogura moves to the factory Yamaha team.
If there’s one thing that is certain at most MotoGP weekends, it is that KTM will manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of mediocrity. If Acosta is the only rider out of the four who can do anything meaningful with the RC-16, then the factory is failing to give him a reliable bike with which to do even the basics, such as finish a race. Not content with a lack of pace nor a bike that any of the riders can do anything with, KTM has now dialled in a measure of unreliability rarely seen in MotoGP today; reliability that nearly cost Alex Marquez his life in Catalunya, when Acosta slowed suddenly right in the Ducati rider’s path on a fast part of the track.
Given the Austrian company’s recent financial woes – brought back from the brink only through huge additional investment by Bajaj Auto – continued underwhelming performance in MotoGP does not bode well for KTM maintaining a presence on the grid. Spending $50,000,000 annually on populating the bottom half of the results sheets doesn’t sound like a good investment, and you can be sure that Bajaj is painfully aware of this.
Of more pressing concern to South Africans is that Brad Binder’s talent and best years have been squandered by staying with the manufacturer. His long-term contract was seen as a good thing at the beginning, but it has become a noose around Binder’s neck as the bike has failed to progress to a consistent race-winning prospect, and it’s not looking at all hopeful that he will have a seat next year, unless he can move to the satellite Tech3 KTM team. But even that might be a case of jumping out of the frying pan, into the fire.
If Acosta was the last rookie to burst onto the scene with a huge amount of hype and largely justify that hype, then, in Diogo Moreira, we apparently have the Next Big Thing. Maybe his appearance in the top echelon has coincided with a resurgence of Honda; maybe he has come in with nothing to unlearn about MotoGP bikes, so he is riding around the RC213V’s problems without realising they are problems, but he is certainly punching way above his weight. Fine, he crashed out of third place on lap one of the Sprint race in Brno and could only finish 11th in the GP, but he had qualified sixth, six and nine places respectively ahead of the factory Honda riders Mir and Marini!
Commentators like to talk about a “generational talent”, and in Moreira, here is one. He is certain to stay with Honda in 2027, but whether that is as a factory team rider or remaining with the LCR team is not known as yet, and who is to say that Moreira on a new 850 cc Honda in 2027 won’t be mixing it at the front?
As usual, however, all eyes were on one rider. With his second consecutive Sunday victory, combined with a Sprint win in Hungary and a third place in the Brno Sprint race, Marc Marquez has caught up 62 points on championship leader Bezzecchi in a month; this from a rider who, only a month ago, declared his title hopes “completely over”, thanks to missing races due to injury and being 102 points behind Bezzecchi.
After Brno, he had to concede that “I’m in the game now”. That is the strength of the man, both physically and mentally. Hungary’s Balaton Park was “easy” for a still-recovering Marquez; anti-clockwise, mainly left-hand corners, relatively low speeds, less stress on the injured right shoulder. By comparison, Brno should have been impossible for Marquez, but he only goes and takes two podiums, including a win, crucially when his title rivals are on the ropes. To come back yet again from injury to defy the odds and win is where the mental side comes in; he knows he can win again after injury, and the important thing is, his rivals know that as well, so that’s half the battle won right there. If Aprilia and either Martin or Bezzecchi lose the title, the Hungary and Czechia weekends will be pinpointed as the moment when that happened.
A short week and we’re at Assen, a track where Marc Marquez claims he’s never been at his best. After Brno, I’m unwilling to take much notice of him when he says things like that.
