Aprilia tightens grip at Jerez test as Ogura pips Fernandez in Trackhouse 1-2

 Jerez Test

Aprilia leaves Jerez as the reference point

If Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix made the case that Aprilia had become the benchmark package of early 2026, Monday’s official Jerez test made that argument harder to dismiss. Four Aprilias had finished in the top six in the Grand Prix, and less than 24 hours later, the RS-GP sat 1-2-3 on the combined test timesheets, with Trackhouse pair Ai Ogura and Raul Fernandez split by just five-thousandths and championship leader Marco Bezzecchi close behind. Ogura’s 1m35.944 came right at the close, pinching top spot from Fernandez’s 1m35.949, while Bezzecchi’s 1m36.272 kept the factory bike in the conversation all day.

That outcome mattered not only because of the headline time, but because it backed up what Aprilia had already shown across the race weekend. Bezzecchi still leaves Jerez leading the championship on 101 points from Jorge Martin on 90, with Fabio Di Giannantonio third on 71 and Pedro Acosta fourth on 66, while Raul Fernandez, Alex Marquez and Ogura are all clustered just behind. In other words, Monday’s pace came from riders who are already central to the 2026 story, not from outsiders producing a flattering one-lap headline.

Trackhouse finds what it came for

Trackhouse arrived at the test wanting answers on one-lap speed, and by the end of the afternoon, it looked to have found them. The fastest-lap progression shows Fernandez steadily pulling the benchmark down late in the session, first to 1m36.741, then 1m36.316, then 1m36.232 and 1m36.228 before finally dropping into the 1m35s with a 1m35.949. Ogura then had the final word with a 1m35.944 in the closing minutes. They were the only two riders to crack the 1m35 barrier.

More interesting still was how they got there. Both riders spent much of the day on medium Michelin rubber rather than chasing a glamour lap too early, while also working through electronics, chassis set-up, suspension and new aero. Fernandez said they may finally have found something useful for the time attack, but he also stressed the bike had been consistently fast on the medium rear, not just in the soft-tyre sting at the end.

Ogura’s side focused on development parts and weak points, such as starts, and the sector analysis suggests both riders extracted more from the package than anyone else: Fernandez owned the best T1 and T3 sectors and the best ideal lap at 1m35.734, while Ogura produced the best T4 and almost perfectly matched his own ideal with a 1m35.944 against a theoretical 1m35.941. That is usually the sign of a lap that has very little left on the table.

The stopwatch says Aprilia, but the sector sheet says the gap is still alive

The outright order favoured Aprilia, but the sector sheet shows the pack behind is not quite resigned to it. Pedro Acosta was fastest through the speed trap in the afternoon and was second on the ideal-lap table at 1m36.092, with Marc Marquez next on 1m36.093. Bezzecchi himself was only fifth on ideal time at 1m36.207. So while Aprilia controlled the final classification, KTM and Ducati both had raw pace that suggests the fight is still alive if they can connect the sectors more cleanly.

KTM, in particular, leaves with something tangible. Acosta was fifth overall on 1m36.299 and topped the afternoon top-speed chart at 299.1 km/h, while also leading the average of each rider’s five fastest speeds at 297.8 km/h. Dani Pedrosa, working through KTM’s test programme, was second on both lists and was quickest through the traps in the morning session, and Enea Bastianini’s numbers were also strong. The Austrian marque’s own feedback pointed to fresh aero, general set-up work and suspension, with Acosta talking about more traction and a fairing that appears to work, while Binder reported gains in turning, rear grip and corner entry calmness from a revised fairing and rear shock combination. Those are exactly the sort of gains that should matter at Le Mans, where drive and braking stability count for more than long, flowing commitment.

Ducati still has weapons, but it is no longer dictating terms

Ducati was hardly missing. Marc Marquez was fourth, Alex Marquez sixth, Di Giannantonio eighth and Bagnaia tenth, with the factory and satellite camps all cycling through parts. Ducati’s Jerez work centred on front feeling again, with aero, chassis work and other detail changes all part of the programme, while VR46 tested visible aero and less visible stopping-and-entry improvements.

Di Giannantonio’s pace was solid enough that he led at stages and remained only 0.533s off top spot by the end. But Monday did underline a change in tone. Ducati is still fast, still deep and still capable of winning, yet it now looks like the company is doing the chasing rather than the company setting the terms.

Alex Marquez’s own day summed that up nicely. He had won the Grand Prix on Sunday, but on Monday, he finished sixth overall with a morning time of 1m36.394 and did not improve in the afternoon. That does not make his test a poor one, but it does reinforce the sense that Jerez belonged more to Aprilia’s development arc than Ducati’s reset.

Yamaha and Honda found clues, not yet a cure

Yamaha’s Monday was a little better than its Sunday result sheet, but it still looked like a factory searching for structure rather than breakthroughs.

Fabio Quartararo was the top Yamaha in seventh on 1m36.439 after an exhaustive programme that included chassis, aero, swingarm, electronics and set-up work. The encouraging part was that he reported improved front feeling, and that matters because it has been central to Yamaha’s complaints. The discouraging part was the speed chart: Quartararo’s 294.2 km/h top speed was the best Yamaha effort, but the four Yamahas occupied the bottom four places on the afternoon top-speed table, with Quartararo averaging 292.9 km/h across his five fastest passes, Rins 292.3, Miller 291.6 and Razgatlioglu 290.8. Miller and Razgatlioglu also worked methodically through additional options, with Toprak losing some time to a minor crash while focusing heavily on electronics and adapting to MotoGP’s braking and engine-braking demands.

Honda’s day was similar in spirit: useful, constructive, but not yet transformational. Johann Zarco remained the fastest Honda overall in ninth thanks to his morning 1m36.658, while Diogo Moreira, Luca Marini and Joan Mir were tightly bunched from 13th to 15th. Moreira was also fourth on the top-speed chart at 296.7 km/h, which hints that the RC213V is not completely starved on outright performance. But Zarco’s own summary went to the heart of the matter: fast corners and natural turning remain the issue, and tyre management is wrapped up in that. Honda worked mainly on set-up and electronics rather than headline parts, which may yet pay off more at Le Mans than it did at Jerez.

What it means for Le Mans

The championship leaves Spain with Bezzecchi still on top, Martin still well within range, Di Giannantonio now third, and Acosta still lurking as the rider most likely to turn raw KTM speed into a bigger score if the package comes together.  Marc Marquez is only fifth after the Jerez crash, Raul Fernandez is now firmly in the thick of it, Alex Marquez’s win has put him back in the frame, and Ogura’s test pace suggests his next step may be coming sooner rather than later. There is a lot of racing still to go in 2026…

Le Mans should ask a different set of questions. It is tighter, more stop-go, heavier on braking zones and harder acceleration, so the fluent rhythm that suits Jerez will matter a little less. That may help Ducati if its work on front confidence and braking support translates, and it may also suit KTM if the traction and aero gains Acosta and Binder described are genuine rather than track-specific. Yamaha will hope its improved front feeling survives the trip north, while Honda may quietly fancy a cleaner comparison on a circuit less dominated by long, loaded corners. But right now, the team leaving Jerez with the clearest body of evidence is Aprilia. Sunday already hinted it. Monday’s 1-2-3 made it harder to argue otherwise.

One final strand runs beyond Le Mans. Even as the race teams pack for France, some factories remain in Andalusia with test crews continuing work on the 850cc projects and on 2027-spec machinery on Pirelli tyres through midweek. So Jerez was not only a test of what 2026 has become. It was also an early glimpse of what comes next.

Jerez MotoGP Test Combined Times

Pos

Rider

Bike

Time/Gap

1	A. Ogura	Apr	1m35.944
2	R. Fernandez	Apr	+0.005
3	M. Bezzecchi	Apr	+0.328
4	M. Marquez	Duc	+0.333
5	P. Acosta	KTM	+0.355
6	A. Marquez	Duc	+0.450
7	F. Quartararo	Yam	+0.495
8	F. Di Giannantonio	Duc	+0.533
9	J. Zarco	Hon	+0.714
10	F. Bagnaia	Duc	+0.727
11	J. Martin	Apr	+0.739
12	E. Bastianini	KTM	+0.743
13	D. Moreira	Hon	+0.934
14	L. Marini	Hon	+0.952
15	J. Mir	Hon	+1.033
16	B. Binder	KTM	+1.036
17	J. Miller	Yam	+1.064
18	F. Aldeguer	Duc	+1.095
19	F. Morbidelli	Duc	+1.127
20	D. Pedrosa	KTM	+1.539
21	T. Razgatlioglu	Yam	+1.546
22	A. Rins	Yam	+1.597
23	L. Savadori	Apr	+1.793

2026 MotoGP Championship Standings

Pos	Rider	Points
1	M. Bezzecchi	101
2	J. Martin	90
3	F. Di Giannantonio	71
4	P. Acosta	66
5	M. Marquez	57
6	R. Fernandez	54
7	A. Marquez	53
8	A. Ogura	48
9	F. Bagnaia	34
10	E. Bastianini	30
11	B. Binder	28
12	L. Marini	27
13	F. Morbidelli	25
14	J. Zarco	24
15	F. Aldeguer	20
16	F. Quartararo	11
17	D. Moreira	9
18	J. Mir	4
19	A. Rins	3
20	T. Razgatlioglu	1
21	J. Miller
22	M. Viñales
23	M. Pirro
24	A. Fernandez

2026 MotoGP Calendar

Rnd	Date	Event	Circuit
1	01 Mar	Thai	Chang International Circuit
2	22 Mar	Brazil*	Autodromo Internacional Ayrton Senna
3	29 Mar	US	Circuit of the Americas
4	26 Apr	Spain**	Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto
5	10 May	France	Le Mans
6	17 May	Catalonia	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
7	31 May	Italy	Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello
8	07 Jun	Hungary	Balaton Park Circuit
9	21 Jun	Czech	Automotodrom Brno
10	28 Jun	Netherlands	TT Circuit Assen
11	12 Jul	Germany	Sachsenring
12	09 Aug	GB	Silverstone Circuit
13	30 Aug	Aragon	MotorLand Aragon
14	13 Sep	San Marino	Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
15	20 Sep	Austria	Red Bull Ring-Spielberg
16	04 Oct	Japan	Mobility Resort Motegi
17	11 Oct	Indonesia	Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit
18	25 Oct	Australia	Phillip Island
19	01 Nov	Malaysia	Petronas Sepang International Circuit
20	08 Nov	Qatar	Lusail International Circuit
21	22 Nov	Portugal	Autodromo Internacional do Algarve
22	29 Nov	Valencia	Circuit Ricardo Tormo