Marco Bezzecchi has revealed the key areas where Ducati held the advantage in the Spanish Grand Prix, after witnessing Alex Marquez end Aprilia’s winning streak in MotoGP on Sunday.
Bezzecchi arrived at Jerez having led every lap of the opening three grands prix of the season, giving Aprilia a decisive early edge in the championship fight.
But the first European round was widely expected to pose the biggest challenge of the year for the Noale factory, given its relatively modest track record and Ducati’s previous results.
While Aprilia locked out four spots within the top six on Sunday, Bezzecchi had no answer to Gresini rider Marquez, who snatched the lead on the second lap and scored a monumental victory for Borgo Panigale.
Bezzecchi explained that Aprilia’s weekend was compromised by rain showers on Saturday morning, preventing the team from gaining valuable mileage on Michelin’s medium tyre.
While he and the team nevertheless managed to make a major step overnight, as they had done after every sprint setback across the opening flyaways, it ultimately wasn’t enough to outgun Marquez.
“This weekend was not the best for us,” he admitted. “We started in a decent way on Friday, but we made a strategy to work with the soft on Friday, expecting to work with the medium on Saturday, but unfortunately, rain on Saturday stopped us, so we started today with some doubts on our feeling.”
Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing
Photo by: Jorge Guerrero – AFP – Getty Images
Even so, it was clear from Friday that Ducati had a decisive advantage at Jerez, with Marquez and VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio particularly excelling in practice.
Bezzecchi identified high-speed corners as a key area where Marquez was able to make the difference on the GP26: “Alex here has always been very fast [at Jerez], especially from last year.
“He was very good in the first braking of corner one, but especially in the fast and flowing [corners] like [in] sector three and sector four, he was very quick on the right side. But also at Turn 8, he was very good. In fact, he passed me in the braking of Turn 9.”
Aprilia has made significant strides in the last six-to-nine months to turn the RS-GP into a credible challenger that can perform at a wide variety of tracks. But the Jerez weekend exposed some remaining weaknesses, with Bezzecchi pointing to stability and performance in high-speed sections as areas for improvement.
“I asked many [things from Aprilia] because I try to be more precise,” he said. “The factory worked super hard in Noale, and they bring us many items to try.
“The stability is something that we are still working on, and in the fast part, maybe I suffer a little bit. This was the biggest difference between me and Alex, apart from his lines that were super good.”
Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Despite his dominant win, Marquez suggested that Aprilia still has the best overall package on the grid.
Both manufacturers are expected to bring upgrades to Monday’s in-season test, before gradually shifting attention to the 2027 regulations overhaul.
“Tomorrow, we’ll have a really important test for us and for Ducati to try a few things because I think Aprilia still is a half-step in front of us,” he said. “We need to find something to be a little bit better.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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