Aprilia’s Jorge Martin took a dominant win at the 2026 French MotoGP race in Le Mans, ahead of teammate and the championship favourite so far, Marco Bezzecchi. Trackhouse Racing’s Ai Ogura finished third to make it all Aprilia riders on the podium for the first time in MotoGP.
- Bezzecchi leads the standings ahead of Martin by just one point
- Ogura scores first ever MotoGP podium
- Marc Marquez crashes out and undergoes successful double surgery
Martin charges through the pack to take victory
Martin didn’t have a great qualifying session landing him a starting grid position of eighth - seventh after Marc Marquez’s crash on Saturday forced him to retire from the main race - on the third row of the grid. Unlike the Sprint race where he had an electric start to take the lead in a matter of moments and then stay there, the main race was a different story altogether. Bezzecchi was the Aprilia rider who had a beautiful start to the main race and for 24 of the 27 lap race distance, the Italian stayed in the lead.
Martin was mired down in the midpack battle with the likes of Alex Marquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio and home hero Fabio Quartararo. One by one, Martin overtook them all and soon found himself snapping at the heels of the top trio - Marco Bezzecchi, Francesco Bagnaia and Pedro Acosta.
Dispensing with Acosta first, Martin then began the long and slow trudge toward the front of the race and started to hunt down Ducati’s leading light in this race, Bagnaia. However, he would not get that opportunity because Pecco lost the front at T3 on Lap number 16, promoting Martin to second position.
Martin’s deficit to race leader Bezzechhi was nearly 1.5s with 10 laps remaining but the 2024 World Champion rode his heart out to put himself within striking distance of his teammate. At T3 on Lap 24, Martin made the decisive move on Bezzechhi and the Italian didn’t have anything in terms of a response. From there on, the Spaniard actually even built up a comfortable buffer to his Italian teammate until he crossed the finish line to take victory.
Ogura scores maiden MotoGP podium
So far this year, Ai Ogura has mounted impressive charges late in the race to finish inside the top five multiple times but that first MotoGP podium had so far eluded him.
Ogura - like Bastianini - seems to be something of a tyre whisperer, doing some of his best work on worn tyres in the latter half of the race. Ogura had engaging battles with Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and KTM’s Pedro Acosta before overtaking them both to place his Trackhouse Aprilia machine on the final step of the podium - his first one so far in the premier class.
Marc Marquez crashes out and undergoes successful double surgery
While Aprilia locked out the podium in Le Mans, the other Italian team, Ducati, had a weekend to forget. Saturday’s Sprint race was a decent affair with polesitter Bagnaia scoring a silver medal for the Bolognese team. However, reigning World Champion Marc Marquez suffered a huge highside which injured his ankle. Subsequently, Márquez underwent surgery to stabilize his ankle as well as to fix a past injury in his trauma-riddled right shoulder.
2026 MotoGP standings
With Martin winning both the races at Le Mans, he trails Bezzecchi by just a solitary point in the World Championship. VR 46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio trails both the Aprilia riders by over 40 points. So far this year, it seems like Aprilia Racing is on course to win its first ever MotoGP title, although it remains to be seen which of its two riders will take the honours. MotoGP now heads to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the weekend of May 15-17.
Unnatee Gidithuri
