Catalunya next test for Aprilia as Ducati regroups without Marc Marquez

Round Six – Catalunya- Friday

MotoGP heads straight from Le Mans to the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this weekend, and the question has changed rather quickly. Not long ago, the 2026 story was still being framed around Ducati’s depth and Marc Marquez’s title charge. After France, the paddock arrives at Montmeló with Aprilia holding both momentum and the championship lead, while Ducati tries to respond without Marc on the grid.

Jorge Martin’s Le Mans weekend was a genuine momentum shifter. His Sprint and Grand Prix double was already important in its own right, but the manner of it made the statement louder. Martin had to work through the Sunday race, catch Marco Bezzecchi, then beat his Aprilia team-mate in the closing stages as Ai Ogura completed the Noale marque’s first MotoGP podium lockout. Bezzecchi still leads the championship, but only by a single point from Martin after France, with Fabio Di Giannantonio third and Pedro Acosta fourth.

Jorge Martin arrives in Catalunya with momentum, confidence and Marco Bezzecchi’s championship lead firmly in his sights.

Catalunya now asks whether Le Mans was a peak, or the start of Aprilia properly taking control of this season. The venue does not look like a bad place for the RS-GP on paper. Aprilia’s most famous Barcelona moment came in 2023, when Aleix Espargaro led Maverick Viñales home for the factory’s first MotoGP 1-2. Espargaro also won the Sprint there in 2023 and again at the 2024 Catalan GP, while Jorge Martin has four MotoGP podiums at the track and clinched his 2024 title there at the Solidarity GP.

A year after uncertainty around his Aprilia future, Martin now heads to Catalunya looking every bit a title threat.

The intra-Aprilia battle is now central. Bezzecchi has been impressively consistent, scoring points in every Grand Prix so far this season, but Martin’s confidence is clearly building and Catalunya is a circuit where the Spaniard has a much stronger recent record. Bezzecchi’s best MotoGP result at Montmeló is ninth, and his 2025 weekend was a bruising one, with crashes in both the Sprint and Grand Prix. Martin, by contrast, arrives looking for back-to-back Sunday MotoGP wins for the first time in his premier-class career.

Bezzecchi has been Aprilia’s benchmark for much of 2026, but Martin’s Le Mans surge has tightened the fight within the Noale camp.

Trackhouse also has a serious opportunity to prove Le Mans was not a one-off high. Ai Ogura’s first MotoGP podium in France lifted him to fifth in the standings, and the Japanese rookie already has good Barcelona form, having finished sixth there in his first MotoGP race in 2025.

Raul Fernandez has the speed to produce a headline result from nowhere, and on current Aprilia form that makes him dangerous at Catalunya.

Raul Fernandez is even more intriguing. His results often arrive in spikes rather than steady waves, but Catalunya has previously brought out his best: he qualified third at the 2024 Catalan GP, led the Sprint before crashing, and has a best MotoGP result at the circuit of sixth. If there is a place where the fourth Aprilia can again enter the podium conversation, this is not an unreasonable candidate.

Ogura has gone from surprise package to regular podium threat, helping turn Aprilia’s depth into one of the key stories of 2026.

Ducati, though, has plenty of reason to believe Barcelona can halt Aprilia’s run. Marc Marquez will miss the round after the heavy Sprint crash at Le Mans that left him with a fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot, but the red corner is not short of weapons. Francesco Bagnaia won both MotoGP races at Barcelona in 2024, while Alex Marquez won the 2025 Catalan GP from pole. A Bagnaia victory this weekend would also be Ducati Lenovo Team’s 100th MotoGP win, but if the factory team again misses the Sunday podium, it would stretch its wait to 11 consecutive Grands Prix without a podium — its longest such run since 2012-14.

Bagnaia has the pedigree to hit back at Catalunya, but Ducati arrives under pressure after Aprilia’s Le Mans lockout.

Alex Marquez may be the key Ducati storyline outside the factory garage. His Le Mans race ended almost before it began, but he returns to the scene of his 2025 victory and a circuit where the Gresini Ducati rider looked fully at home last year. If there is a moment for him to rediscover that rhythm and begin a more sustained run, Catalunya provides both the memory and the pressure.

With brother Marc sidelined, Catalunya might be the perfect stage for Alex Marquez to again step up and lead the Ducati fightback.

Pedro Acosta also heads to Barcelona with unfinished business. He looked capable of threatening the podium at Le Mans before rear-tyre drop-off left him vulnerable to Fabio Di Giannantonio late in the race. That makes Catalunya a fascinating test for the KTM, because the circuit is notoriously low grip and hard on tyres. Acosta has a previous Sprint podium at the venue and finished fourth in the Grand Prix last year, but if rear management was the issue in France, Montmeló will give him very little hiding room.

Pedro Acosta left Le Mans with unfinished business, and Catalunya’s tyre-management test could play to the KTM rider’s strengths.

KTM’s broader form line is mixed. Enea Bastianini appears to be finding his feet again on the RC16, coming from 14th on the grid to seventh at Le Mans and returning to a circuit where he finished third in the Grand Prix last season. Brad Binder, by contrast, remains in a more awkward phase, with speed arriving only in patches and the results not yet following. Maverick Viñales returns for Red Bull KTM Tech3 after shoulder surgery, and Catalunya is a logical place for him to restart: it is his home Grand Prix, and also the circuit where he finished second behind Aleix Espargaro in Aprilia’s 2023 1-2.

Maverick Viñales returns from injury at his home Grand Prix, giving Tech3 KTM a timely boost alongside Enea Bastianini.

Honda’s progress is harder to quantify, but there are signs of life. Luca Marini has scored in every Sunday race so far this season and is scheduled to make his 100th premier-class start this weekend, while Joan Mir has repeatedly shown flashes of genuine speed on the RC213V. Mir’s problem remains the same as ever: converting that speed into a clean Sunday. He left Le Mans with stitches in his right hand after another crash, but returns to a home round at a circuit where he finished on the MotoGP podium in 2020. If Honda is going to properly enter the conversation rather than simply nibble at the edge of the top ten, Mir staying upright is non-negotiable.

Mir has the pace to lead Honda’s charge, but staying upright remains the first box to tick at his home round.

Yamaha has both history and a development agenda at Catalunya. The factory has more MotoGP wins at Barcelona than any other manufacturer, while Fabio Quartararo has won there twice in the premier class, in 2020 and 2022. Quartararo’s sixth in France was one of Yamaha’s more encouraging Sundays for some time, and Montmeló will help show whether the direction found at the Jerez test and confirmed at Le Mans has broader value. Alex Rins has home-track motivation, Jack Miller wants to build on the small step forward Pramac Yamaha found in France, and Toprak Razgatlioglu arrives at a circuit where he has enjoyed WorldSBK success, albeit now facing it for the first time on a MotoGP bike. Augusto Fernandez is also entered as a Yamaha wildcard as the factory continues its testing programme.

Fabio Quartararo has strong Catalunya history, but Yamaha needs that history to translate into 2026 points rather than just memories.

The circuit itself will be a major part of the story. Michelin identifies Barcelona’s low grip and rear wheelspin as the defining technical challenge, with teams needing to manage electronics, power delivery and bike balance to preserve rear-tyre performance across both Sprint and Grand Prix distances. Michelin has brought two symmetric front slicks, soft and medium, and two asymmetric rear slicks, also soft and medium, with reinforced right shoulders to cope with the long, loaded right-handers.

Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

That low-grip profile could make Catalunya one of the more revealing rounds of the season so far. If Aprilia dominates again, Le Mans will no longer look like an outlier. If Bagnaia, Alex Marquez or Di Giannantonio drag Ducati back to the front without Marc, the championship picture tightens again immediately. If Acosta and KTM can manage the rear tyre, if Quartararo can repeat his French form, or if Honda finally converts pace into points, Montmeló may tell us a great deal about how broad this 2026 fight really is

2026 MotoGP Championship Standings

Pos	Rider	Total
1	M. Bezzecchi	128
2	J. Martin	127
3	F. Di Giannantonio	84
4	P. Acosta	83
5	A. Ogura	67
6	R. Fernandez	62
7	M. Marquez	57
8	A. Marquez	55
9	F. Bagnaia	43
10	E. Bastianini	39
11	L. Marini	33
12	J. Zarco	29
13	B. Binder	28
14	F. Aldeguer	27
15	F. Morbidelli	27
16	F. Quartararo	26
17	D. Moreira	10
18	J. Mir	8
19	A. Rins	7
20	T. Razgatlioglu	4
21	J. Miller	1
22	M. Viñales
23	J. Folger
24	M. Pirro
25	A. Fernandez

Moto2

Senna Agius heads to Catalunya needing a reset rather than a rebuild. France was frustrating, but seventh place still delivered useful championship points on a weekend where the Australian had to fight from traffic and ride around a straight-line speed deficit. He slipped to third in the Moto2 standings on 59 points, behind Manuel Gonzalez on 79.5 and Izan Guevara on 70, but remains very much in the title conversation.

Senna Agius left France frustrated rather than flattened, and Catalunya gives the Aussie a timely chance to relaunch his Moto2 title push.

Barcelona should suit Agius’ mindset. He likes the circuit, feels at home on the outskirts of the city, and has set his goals accordingly high. The long front straight may again test his ability to defend, but the flowing middle sectors reward riders who can carry corner speed and keep the bike settled over a race distance. After winning at COTA and Jerez before his more subdued French round, Catalunya is a timely chance to reassert himself.

Manuel Gonzalez still leads the Moto2 championship, but Catalunya now brings home pressure and two fast team-mates/rivals closing in.

Guevara arrives with the opposite energy. The BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha rider was excellent at Le Mans, taking pole and controlling the shortened restart for his first win of the season. He now sits second in the championship, 9.5 points from the lead, and returns to a circuit where he has already tasted victory, having won there in Moto3 in 2022. With a home crowd and a bike-rider package clearly working, Guevara is one of the obvious Moto2 favourites this week.

Izan Guevara arrives at his home round full of confidence after a near-perfect Le Mans weekend that moved him to second in the Moto2 championship.

 Moto2 Championship Standings

Pos	Rider	Points
1	M. Gonzalez	79.5
2	I. Guevara	70
3	S. Agius	59
4	C. Vietti	53
5	D. Alonso	48
6	I. Ortola	39.5
7	D. Holgado	38
8	D. Muñoz	36
9	A. Lopez	31.5
10	A. Escrig	30
11	C. Veijer	29.5
12	T. Arbolino	26.5
13	J. Roberts	16
14	B. Baltus	13
15	A. Canet	11.5
16	F. Salac	10
17	D. Öncü	9.5
18	A. Huertas	8
19	A. Sasaki	7
20	S. Garcia	5
21	Z. vd Goorbergh	4
22	M. Aji	3
23	A. Ferrandez	1.5
24	J. Rueda	1
25	T. Furusato
26	L. Lunetta
27	M. Ramirez
28	J. Navarro
29	D. Foggia

Moto3

Máximo Quiles has turned the opening phase of the Moto3 season into something more than a hot streak. After his wet-weather victory at Le Mans, the CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar rider has three wins from five races, has not missed the podium, and already leads the standings by 46 points.

Máximo Quiles has been the benchmark of Moto3 so far, with three wins from five starts and not a single finish off the podium.

The numbers are striking. With 115 points from the first five races, Quiles has made the best points start in Moto3 history, surpassing the early-season totals of Maverick Viñales in 2013, Jack Miller in 2014, Danny Kent in 2015 and Pedro Acosta in 2021. The challenge now is sustaining that authority at home, at a circuit where he made a mistake in the leading group last year and finished 12th.

Máximo Quiles celebrates in style after mastering a tricky wet Moto3 race at Le Mans, taking his third win of the season and stretching his championship lead.

Team-mate Marco Morelli also has a point to prove after crashing out of a podium position in France before recovering to 13th. For Joel Kelso, Catalunya is another chance to find a more consistent path forward with the Honda. There has been enough pace at times to suggest better results are possible, but the Australian needs a clean weekend to convert that potential into something more tangible.

A clean Catalunya weekend would go a long way toward resetting Kelso’s season after a stop-start opening phase on the Honda.

Moto3 Championship Standings

Pos	Rider	Points
1	M. Quiles	115
2	A. Fernandez	69
3	A. Carpe	53
4	V. Perrone	52
5	V. Pratama	50
6	M. Morelli	48
7	G. Pini	46
8	D. Almansa	41
9	B. Uriarte	29
10	J. Esteban	24
11	M. Bertelle	23
12	A. Cruces	23
13	D. Muñoz	22
14	R. Salmela	21
15	H. Danish	18
16	C. O’Gorman	16
17	E. O’Shea	14
18	S. Ogden	10
19	J. Rios	8
20	J. Kelso	8
21	R. Yamanaka	6
22	L. Rammerstorfer	2
23	M. Uriarte	2
24	Z. Mitani
25	R. Moodley
26	N. Carraro
27	C. Buchanan

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