The opening round of the 2026 MotoGP championship was held in Thailand this past weekend and a new brand (not Ducati) emerged as dominant.
After taking pole position, Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) crashed out of the lead of the Sprint race on Saturday, but bounced back to take a commanding win in Sunday’s main event.
After Bezzecchi’s crash, the Sprint saw a back-and-forth battle between defending champ Marc Marquez (Ducati) and KTM’s Pedro Acosta. Marquez was penalized during the race for an aggressive pass on Acosta and was forced to surrender the lead to Acosta just prior to the finish line. Finishing third behind this duo was the Aprilia of Raul Fernandez.
On Sunday, Bezzecchi took the hole shot and never looked back. Behind him a battle raged for the podium spots with Acosta ultimately taking second place ahead of Fernandez in third. Marc Marquez was fighting for a podium finish during the middle of the race before hitting a curb on a corner exit that caused his rear rim to bend and his tire to lose pressure. He retired from the race unhurt.
Former champ Jorge Martín, who was recovering from recent surgeries, impressed with a fifth place on Saturday and a fourth place on Sunday.
Sunday’s race was notable for a couple of reasons, including the fact that Ducati did not make the podium and Aprilia’s four riders finished first, third, fourth and fifth.
Acosta leads the championship after round 1. The next race is in Brazil on the weekend beginning March 20.
For full results and points for Saturday’s Sprint race, visit the MotoGP site here. For full results and points for Sunday’s MotoGP race, visit the MotoGP site here.
Kayla Yaakov! Anyone? Anyone? {Scratches head}
Why is Moto GP going from Thailand to Brazil in consecutive races? Those logistics do not make sense financially, environmentally, or on the teams.
Then they go back to Qatar after the US.
Or maybe not…
F1 does the same sort of thing. They talk green, then they set up an insane schedule that wastes resources like no tomorrow. I think it’s some crazy bid to keep a wide audience engaged. Good luck with that. It’s just a bunch of European guys and the occasional Aussie riding around on four strokes no matter where and when the races are.
Nice! Bagnaia made almost the same exact rear tire spin comments as Razgatlioglu did, except the part where Ducati has a handle on that. It seems the team has found a way to park Pecco in 9th place rather than have him embarrassingly wallowing at the back of the pack. I wonder if they will give him a decent bike for Japan again. Whatever, last year I said he should go to Aprilia. And so that’s where he’s going. Make ’em suffer Pecco!
Ducati must be happy to see him go. I’m sure there are members of the team that aren’t happy with the team politics. I would have certainly quit. Hampering a rider’s bike is the zeroth deadly sin. Ducati is dead to me. I should probably replace the Multistrada with a pre ride by wire Yamaha Tracer (only sold in Europe) a remarkably similar riding bike, and the Hypermotard with a Kramer, which I would have to modify to remove ride by wire. Garbage cans are the only proper place for ride by wire systems.
Good race.