Is Aprilia – and by association its lead rider Marco Bezzecchi, winner of the last two Grands Prix of last season and the first two of this one – really the favourite for the 2026 MotoGP title?

We’re about to find out.

Every MotoGP qualifying, practice and race LIVE and ad-break free from lights out to the chequered flag. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >

The Italian couldn’t have done much more in Portugal and Valencia to close 2025, nor Thailand or Brazil to open ’26. Three poles, four wins, all 101 Grand Prix laps led; it’s uncharted territory for both rider and machine, but a run that now faces its biggest test as MotoGP heads north from Goiania last weekend to Austin for the Grand Prix of the Americas.

In Texas, since MotoGP first visited the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in 2013, there’s historically been only one sheriff.

Either Marc Marquez beats everyone, or Marc Marquez beats himself.

The reigning world champion took his first MotoGP victory in just his second race in the category in 2013, won for the following four years, then crashed out of the lead in 2019 – the only race he didn’t finish on the podium that season.

He somehow won – between shoulder surgeries and nowhere near fit – in 2021, then recovered to sixth after dropping all the way to the back of the pack after botching the start in 2022. He missed 2023 with injury, then crashed – from the lead – twice in the past two years.

MORE MOTOGP NEWS

‘FEEL SORRY FOR HIM’ Yamaha boss sympathetic as Miller’s milestone falls flat

UP, THEN OUT? How MotoGP’s most restless champ is back as a formidable force

If Marquez remains upright, there’s typically been only one outcome at COTA; between them, Aprilia quartet Bezzecchi, his resurgent factory teammate Jorge Martin, and Trackhouse Aprilia duo Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura have yet to stand on the Austin podium, let alone its top step.

It’s why, even as his team basked in the glow of just its second-ever 1-2 finish in Brazil last Sunday, Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola grabbed a handful of brake when asked if his outfit has replaced Ducati as MotoGP’s hunted, rather than being the hunter.

“The role is still the same, two race weekends don’t change Aprilia’s status,” Rivola reasoned.

“They’ve certainly changed the standings … but our job is to stay focused every day. We’ve started off on the right foot, but we’re heading to one of the many tracks around the world that’s Marc’s home turf. We’re not used to being in the lead.”

COTA offers a jarring contrast to the tight, twisty Autodromo Internacional Ayrton Senna circuit in Brazil last weekend, its 14 corners crammed into just 3.8km. COTA – 5.5km and 20 corners with a 1200-metre back straight where the bikes will hit nearly 350km/h – plays right into Marquez’s wheelhouse, the 11 left-hand corners and the esses in the first sector in particular feeling like they were designed with the 33-year-old’s strongest suit in mind.

Add to that Michelin’s more ‘standard’ rear tyre allocation for Austin – the first two rounds in Thailand and Brazil required the use of the stiffer Michelin rubber to combat the baking track conditions for both circuits, which helped the more pliable Aprilia with its better feeling under braking and stability in acceleration – and you can see why Rivola, and his riders, won’t be quite as bullish this weekend as last.

Marquez, too, will be another week further along in his recovery from right shoulder surgery following his season-ending crash in Indonesia last October, which saw him miss the final four rounds after he’d clinched his seventh premier-class title in Japan a week earlier. Coming to one of his happiest hunting grounds after what, for Marquez, was an outlier of a result in fourth last weekend – his first non-podium in a Grand Prix where he’s seen the chequered flag in 11 months – will mean motivation will be high to stop Aprilia’s winning ways, and could reset the season ahead of the four-week break before the Spanish Grand Prix in late April.

Others – KTM’s Pedro Acosta, most notably – will undoubtedly be in the mix. But we’ll know on Monday if 2026 as a whole really is developing into something Marquez has rarely been in Texas, an underdog who needs to dig deeper to retain what he reclaimed in 2025 after six years in an injury-prompted wilderness.

‘Away’ fixtures don’t come much tougher for Aprilia, which is why this weekend shapes as so instructive for what’s to follow.

Here’s your Friday form guide to the third round of the 2026 MotoGP season, with the 19-lap Grand Prix of the Americas set for 7am (AEDT) on Monday after the 10-lap sprint race at 7am Sunday (AEDT).

The story behind SA hosting MotoGP | 02:13

TOO EARLY FOR TITLE TALK, SAYS RAMPAGING ITALIAN

Bezzecchi arrives in Texas on the verge of adding his name to an elite list reserved for the very best in MotoGP history, with the 27-year-old Italian chasing a ninth premier-class success this weekend.

The Aprilia rider would need to lead just the first three laps on Sunday to surpass Jorge Lorenzo’s modern-day MotoGP consecutive laps led record of 103, set for Yamaha between the Spanish and Catalan Grands Prix in 2015, while a fifth victory in succession would see him join Marquez and Valentino Rossi as the only riders to win five straight since the dawn of the MotoGP category in 2002; Marquez and Rossi each achieved that feat three times.

PIT TALK PODCAST: Renita and Matt review Brazil’s chaotic return to the calendar after a 22-year absence, discuss what Marco Bezzecchi’s fourth straight win does to the championship picture, and ponder if Jorge Martin is really back to his old self. Listen to Pit Talk below.

With a career-best result of just sixth at the Texan track, the Aprilia rider was preaching caution in Thursday’s pre-event press conference.

“I feel good, I feel happy … it’s of course been a good moment, but now we start another race weekend – it’s always a new chapter,” Bezzecchi said.

“We [still have] 40 races between sprints and GPs, I think it’s a little bit early,” he added, when asked if he felt like the favourite for the title.

“Marc [Marquez] in this track has always been amazing … I think he has more wins in this track than me in my MotoGP career, so it will not be an easy weekend.

“I would love to be competitive for all the season, it’s my target … but at the moment I don’t want to make my mind full of these kinds of thoughts.”

Marquez, chasing his 100th victory across all world championship classes in Austin, was the most recent rider to win the first three races of a season, which came in 2014 when he opened the defence of his maiden world title with 10 successive victories.

On Thursday – while pointedly calling Bezzecchi “the favourite because he’s leading the championship” – the Spaniard said he felt like he was getting back towards full fitness after being cautious with his recovery following last year’s surgery on the right shoulder that has been operated on four times since 2020.

“Every time we are closer and closer – in Thailand I was far [but] in Brazil I was a bit closer,” he said.

“Let’s see if in the next races, I don’t know if here or Jerez [Spain], but the target is be more consistent during the race distance.

“We showed in the qualifying practice [that] we have the speed, but we need to find the way to be more consistent and to make the lap times in an easier way.

“[COTA] is a track that I love, but it’s a track that I haven’t won at in the last four years. We will try to stop [Bezzecchi’s] performance, but it will be difficult because at the moment he is the fastest rider out there.”

Marquez led comfortably in Austin last year before crashing out of first place in Texas for the second successive season. (Photo by Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

MILLER’S TWO-PRONGED APPROACH THE ‘KEY’, SAYS FELLOW AUSSIE

MotoGP race-winner Chris Vermeulen has paid credit to compatriot Jack Miller’s adaptability, after the Pramac Yamaha rider became the first Australian and just the 10th rider ever to reach 200 premier-class starts in Brazil last weekend.

Vermeulen, winner of the 2007 French Grand Prix for Suzuki, told Fox Sports’MotorRacing 360 that the 31-year-old’s evolution from teenage tearaway to a rider renowned for his technical acumen has extended his career, and is critical for Yamaha as it attempts to climb its way out of the MotoGP basement.

MORE MOTOGP NEWS

TALKING POINTS Brazil fairytale turns to farce as prisoner move exposes mayhem

RACE REPORT Italian surges to series lead after winning shortened GP in Brazil

“He’s very good at developing a bike … some riders just want to go fast [but] he goes fast and has an understanding of what’s underneath him, which helps a lot,” Vermeulen said.

“If you can give that feedback and work with the engineers and improve to bring the whole project forward, that’s nearly as important as winning races. That’s Jack’s key now.

“He’s 31 years old, so getting to the later stages of his Grand Prix career, one of the elder statesmen in the category, but with his development prowess … he’s ridden the Honda, the Ducati, the KTM, and he’s bringing that information to Yamaha.

“Yamaha changed dramatically this year, they’ve had an inline-four motorcycle for so long and they’ve gone to a V4, completely different configuration. They brought it out very quickly, so they’re on the back foot at the moment. But Miller has ridden a few V4s over his career, so that information that he can bring to them really helps.”

Miller will be focused on bouncing back after a 200th Grand Prix to forget in Brazil last weekend. (Photo by EVARISTO SA / AFP)Source: AFP

Miller cut a despondent figure after a chastening weekend in Goiania, where he finished last in the 15-lap sprint race and crashed out two corners into the second lap of the Grand Prix the following day.

On Thursday in Austin, the Australian said he felt the reversion to the standard Michelin rear tyre – which the sport hasn’t used across the test and Grand Prix in Thailand, plus last weekend in Brazil – can help he and the other three Yamaha riders to rediscover the feeling and confidence they’ve lacked.

“It’s been pretty hectic since the Thailand test to now in terms of Thailand being so unique, last weekend [in Brazil] was so unique,” he said.

“Here … also a unique track, but it also feels like we’re getting back into the normal swing of things in terms of the race tracks, the tyres and the way the bike performs.

“We’ve not used this [rear tyre] casing since we left Malaysia [in pre-season testing] … I felt we left Malaysia in a pretty decent frame of mind, and while we knew the weak points of the bike, it was behaving rather normal. We had to adapt ourselves when we got to Thailand, and we’ve been chasing that feeling the last couple of weekends with that tyre combination.”

Asked about his motivations and aims given the lack of recent results, Miller was equal parts pragmatic and defiant.

“Finishing last [in the sprint] and not finishing the second race [Grand Prix] last weekend, I can assure you that doesn’t feel very f**king good,” he said.

“That’s not why I want to be here. I want to improve, I want to get better, I want to make headway. I’m throwing everything I can and am working harder than I ever have, trying to make this thing work. Doing what I can with the tools I have in my hands, the only thing I can work on is what I have control over.

“As soon as the helmet goes on, you’re trying to beat whoever is in front of you.”

‘Mature’ Acosta still chasing first win | 03:47

CRYSTAL BALL: FOUR FEARLESS PREDICTIONS FOR TEXAS

Winner: Marc Marquez (Ducati). Hardly the boldest of choices given that, since 2013, he’s won seven of the eight races he’s completed at COTA. The ‘completed’ part of that sentence is the catch … if Marquez is still circulating after 19 laps, he’s likely to have nobody in front of him.

Closest challenger: Jorge Martin (Aprilia). ‘The Martinator’ might be a candidate for the worst nickname in MotoGP, but there’s no doubt the 2024 world champion is arriving – fast – back to his best, and where he resided for most of 2023 and ’24 before last year was wrecked by injury. The belief is returning, and a big result feels imminent.

Podium smoky: Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati). It’s unusual to refer to a two-time MotoGP champion as an outsider, but given Bagnaia hasn’t finished six of the seven Grands Prix he’s started dating back to Japan last year where he won from pole, the 29-year-old feels like a smoky. His COTA record is solid – he won there last year when Marquez crashed and has two poles and another podium on his CV – and ‘Pecco’ is more than overdue a strong showing.

Miller prospects: After last weekend’s milestone race to forget in Brazil, the only way is up for a rider who sits 22nd in the standings, last of the full-time riders. Miller’s strongest race last year came in Austin, where he rode a smart first lap to vault into contention and then saw off several rivals to finish fifth; that feels like a stretch 12 months on, but Texas shapes as the weekend where his 2026 points tally gets off the mark.