MotoGP’s 2026 season opener was one for the history books with polesitter and pre-race favourite Marco Bezzecchi propelling his Aprilia RS-GP to victory in an uncontested fashion. Reigning world champion Marc Marquez suffered a broken rim, which forced him to retire, and this led to Ducati’s 88-race podium streak since the 2021 British GP coming to an end.
- Bezzecchi bounces back dominantly after Sprint race blunder
- Pedro Acosta and KTM currently lead the standings
- Both Marquez brothers retire, no Ducati in the top 5
No-contest win for Aprilia and Marco Bezzecchi
Bezzecchi takes third win in a row with Aprilia
2025 ended on a strong note for Aprilia and Bezzecchi, with the Italian claiming victory at both Portimao and the season-ender in Valencia to back up a strong season and take third place overall in the standings. Bezzecchi and Aprilia looked menacing in winter and pre-season testing, but the real first jab came when the Italian topped every single session over the race weekend to claim pole. While an early error in the half-distance Sprint race meant that Pedro Acosta and KTM won, the main race was a different story entirely.
A lightning-fast launch from pole position meant Bezzecchi took the lead at the first corner and never relinquished it. Thereafter, ‘Bez’ put his head down and got to work, setting successive fastest laps of the race to increase his lead over the rest of the field. Twenty-six laps later, as he crossed the finish line, his lead over the KTM of Acosta was more than 5 seconds, making it the third win in a row for the factory Aprilia rider.
Marc Marquez forced to retire, changing podium outcome
A cracked rim forced the 8-time world champion out of contention
While we are only at the first round of a very long season, the initial inklings after the Thai GP are that Ducati is no longer the unstoppable force it once was. However, the Bologna bullet is still a fantastically competitive machine in the hands of reigning world champion Marc Marquez; for much of the race, he was in the podium battle. With just seven laps to go, while he was in P4 closely trailing Acosta and Raul Fernandez, something very unexpected and unfortunate happened.
Marc’s rear rim cracked after hitting a kerb at T4 due to the intense weather and the stress of top-level competitive racing. The elder Marquez brother was able to nurse his bike to a complete stop off-track, potentially staving off a scary highside and the risk of more injury.
Four Aprilia riders in the top five
Martin and Ogura P4 and P5, respectively
That unfortunate Marquez incident meant that Fernandez’s Trackhouse Aprilia and Acosta’s KTM were now running second and third, respectively. While Fernandez was able to keep Acosta at bay for much of the race, in the closing stages, his shoulder troubles, caused by a troublesome crash in the warm-up session, flared up, and he had to back off. Acosta saw this and snatched second place shortly after, although Fernandez was able to retain a spot on the podium just like he did in the Sprint because fourth-placed Jorge Martin was quite some distance away.
Trackhouse Racing’s Ai Ogura was also having a good run in the latter half of the race and had picked off heavy hitters like Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Brad Binder on his way to clinching fifth position. This was likely due to the fact that Ogura, being a Japanese rider, is better accustomed to more humid racing environs, and he was able to maintain his pace as the race wore on, which was something his European peers weren’t able to do.
Toprak makes muted MotoGP debut
Moreira finishes 13th to take home points on his MotoGP debut
2026 sees ex-WSBK star and three-time world champion Toprak Razgatlioglu make his debut in the premier class with Yamaha in the satellite Pramac squad. Considering that ‘Stoprak’ is making the difficult and challenging transition from production-based machinery to MotoGP and that he’s objectively on the least competitive bike on the grid, his debut has been rather muted, although we wouldn’t call it underwhelming.
With Yamaha’s transition to the V4-powered YZR-M1 this year, as well as the impending 850cc era, it is quite unlikely that the Iwata-based marque is going to be able to catch up to the other manufacturers who have been using V4 machinery for over a decade now – barring some sort of fluke. In fact, the other 2026 MotoGP rookie, Diogo Moreira (the reigning Moto2 world champ) aboard his Honda RC213V, outscored the entire Yamaha quartet, finishing thirteenth just ahead of 2021 MotoGP world champion Fabio Quartararo – this alone should tell you how troubling the predicament Yamaha is currently in.
2026 MotoGP standings
Acosta and KTM lead the championship for the first time ever
With strong performances in both the Sprint and full-length races, KTM’s Acosta is 2026’s first championship leader with a seven-point advantage over Aprilia’s Bezzecchi. Aprilia’s strong performance in the season opener means that all four of its riders are within the top five when it comes to the championship standings. MotoGP will now return in a little under three weeks’ time (March 20-22) to the Autodromo Internacional Ayrton Senna in Brazil, which will hold its first modern-day MotoGP race since 1989.
Unnatee Gidithuri
