No single rider has fully taken control of this year’s MotoGP World Championship with fortunes continuing to ebb and flow but Aprilia will be kicking themselves if it’s not one of their riders as their bike remains the one to beat. Nowhere was this seen more than at the recent round at Assen in Holland where they dominated all three days.
Ogura becomes latest MotoGP winner
Qualifying saw Aprilia leave their rivals trailing in their wake, Jorge Martin taking pole position as the Italian manufacturer took the first four places for the first time in their history. And they converted that form into success in the races, Raul Fernandez leading home Trackhouse Aprilia team-mate Ai Ogura in the Sprint race to give the American their first ever 1-2.
But when it came to the feature Grand Prix, it was Ogura who prevailed to become the first Japanese rider to win a MotoGP race since Makoto Tamada was victorious at the 2004 Japanese Grand Prix.
It was the least Ogura deserved having impressed throughout the 2026 season so far, the 2024 Moto2 World Champion an almost ever-present in the top five. His only ‘blip’ came at the Catalunyan Grand Prix where he could only manage a brace of eighths but other than that, he’s been challenging for podiums, at least.
His pace in the second half of the race on worn tyres has caught the eye of many and he again utilised this strength at Assen, sitting in the leading pack before making his move late on. He had to do it twice in Holland as the ride height device locked on at one point, sparks clearly visible as the bike dragged on the tarmac.
Once sorted, he got his head down to overhaul both Fernandez and Martin and with a win and three second places at the last two Grands Prix, the softly spoken Ogura is the man in the ascendancy. He’s now just 25 points behind new championship leader Martin.
Martin seizes title land as Bezzechi falters – again
2024 MotoGP champion Martin has had an up and down season to say the least, crashes of his own as well as those involving other riders not helping his cause, the latter causing friction within the factory Aprilia team after he took out team-mate Marco Bezzechi in the Sprint race at the Balaton Park circuit in Hungary.
He also failed to score in either race at Catalunya with the Czech Republic round also seeing him struggle to ninth in the feature race. There’s been plenty of positives though with a double victory in France, a Sprint race win in America and other rostrum appearances in Brazil and Italy.
Such was his pace in qualifying in Holland, he was expected to have won at least one race there too, but he blew the start in the Sprint race and then had to settle for third behind the similarly mounted Trackhouse pairing of Ogura and Fernandez. Nevertheless, his Dutch results and a heavy crash for Bezzechi saw him inherit the championship lead by seven points, 193 to Bezzechi’s 186.
Bezzechi, meanwhile, is doing his best to throw away the title having failed to score in the last three Grand Prix races, the middle of those seeing him excluded from the Czech Grand Prix after inexplicably, and inexcusably, striking a marshal not once but twice, after crashing in the Sprint race.
That’s a far cry from the beginning of the season when he won the first three GP’s to take place and followed that up with a brace of seconds. He needs to regroup quickly but team boss Massimo Rivoli knows some tough battles lie ahead, both on and off the track, as his riders look set to battle for honours, their simmering rivalry intensifying all the time.
Fernandez shines
Spain’s Fernandez has been overshadowed by his team-mate Ogura, but the Trackhouse Aprilia rider is making his own mark in the 2026 Championship and only a lack of consistency is preventing him from mounting his own title challenge.
Fernandez is in his fifth season in MotoGP, but it wasn’t until the fourth season that he stood on the podium for the first time, 2025 also seeing him take his first MotoGP victory when he won in Australia.
He’s brought that form with him into 2026, opening the season with a bang with a brace of thirds in Thailand but although he was a regular in the top ten after that, he wasn’t challenging for the podiums like Ogura was.
A Sprint race win came in Italy although he could only finish ninth in the main race and that’s where he needs to improve. Too often he’s followed up a strong result with an indifferent one, but he’s slowly turning that around and in Holland he finished first and second in the two races for his best MotoGP weekend to date.
The 26-year old is currently in sixth overall in the title standings and, in his fourth season with Aprilia, he’s doing everything he can to maintain his presence on the grid in 2027. The Trackhouse team have yet to confirm any riders for next year but if he can maintain his strong results in the second half of this season, Fernandez will surely be one of them.
Damage limitation for Marquez
Having been forced to sit out the French and Catalunyan GP’s to have surgery on his injured arm, it’s been an up and down return for seven-time champion Marc Marquez with some circuits favouring him more than others.
Nowhere was this seen more than at Balaton Park in Hungary where he took a double victory, following this up with first and third in the Czech Republic. But at those circuits where there’s more right-handed corners, he’s exercised caution, which isn’t a phrase usually used in conjunction with the Spaniard’s name!
However, with the summer break looming, he quickly realised he needed to change his strategy, winning when he could, score decent points when he couldn’t. Taking too much risk and having further DNF’s, and further injuries, has not been an option.
His wins in Hungary and the Czech Republic combined with Bezzechi’s woes helped him cut the Italian’s advantage from 85 points to 40 after the latter but he knew he wouldn’t be able to win in Holland.
Instead, it was a damage limitation exercise although Bezzechi’s crash meant he still left the venue 40 points adrift of new championship leader Martin. With Sachsenring up next, a venue he’s won at on no less than ten occasions in MotoGP, Marquez is still very much in the title race.
Reliability concerns at KTM
2026 hasn’t been an easy season for KTM and, in all honesty, the brilliance and talent of Pedro Acosta have papered over the cracks, the Spaniard winning the first race of the season. But even he’s suffered of late.
True, he took a brace of second place finishes in Hungary but from leading the championship earlier in the season, he’s now slipped to seventh overall some sixty points behind Martin, largely due to having suffered several technical issues.
He’s failed to finish in three of the last four races and although one of those was due to nerve problems in his hand, reliability has hindered in him on every weekend not just in the races but in practice and qualifying too.
Not too long ago, KTM were predicted to be the next big thing in MotoGP, but it hasn’t panned out that way with only Acosta featuring regularly towards the front. Enea Bastianini has improved considerably of late, but the Austrian manufacturer know they need to improve their motorcycle quickly if Acosta is to stand any chance of challenging for the race wins, week in week out.
2027 line up takes shape
Coming into the season, only three riders had contracts for 2027 and with the new 850cc engines and Pirelli tyres coming into play next year, the biggest shake up in team line ups was expected. And that’s how it’s panning out.
Slowly but surely, the jigsaw pieces are falling into place with Ducati announcing Marquez has signed a new, two-year deal where he’ll be joined by Acosta. That’s meant there’s no room at Ducati for double World Champion Francesco Bagnaia and, instead, he’ll line up at Aprilia alongside Bezzechi.
That’s pushed out Martin and he’s jumped ship to the Monster Energy Yamaha team, as has Ogura. Given how strong both riders look on the Aprilia, this seems to be the strangest decision of anyone – unless, of course, they know something the rest of us don’t.
2020 MotoGP World Champion Joan Mir is leaving Honda to ride for Gresini Ducati, just as Marquez did at the end of the 2023 season. His team-mate will be current Moto2 rider Daniel Holgado.
Plenty of other teams are still to confirm their line-up but the factory KTM team is expected to be securing the services of recent race winners Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio, the latter the leading Ducati rider at present in this year’s series.
That’s two big names for Ducati to lose but they expect to have Nicolo Bulega, currently dominating World Superbikes, and Fermin Aldeguer on board the VR46 machines whilst Honda are almost certain to have signed 2021 champion Fabio Quartararo and Colombian starlet David Alonso.