{"id":595734,"date":"2026-04-09T13:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595734\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T13:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T13:32:08","slug":"aprilia-duo-so-smart-as-team-braces-for-motogp-title-fight-tension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/595734\/","title":{"rendered":"Aprilia duo \u201cso smart\u201d as team braces for MotoGP title fight tension"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Paolo Bonora says Aprilia would welcome the \u201cdifficult situation\u201d of a MotoGP title fight between team-mates Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/aprilia-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aprilia <\/a>duo currently lead the world championship standings, with Bezzecchi winning all three grands prix so far this season.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Italian has made costly errors in two Sprints, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1452\/jack-miller\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Martin<\/a> and KTM\u2019s Pedro Acosta are the only riders to have scored in every race.<\/p>\n<p>Martin\u2019s highlight is a debut Aprilia victory in the COTA Sprint, but he has also finished runner-up to Bezzecchi in the last two grands prix and continues to gain physical strength and experience on the RS-GP.<\/p>\n<p>That leaves <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/995158\/marco-bezzecchi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bezzecchi<\/a> just four points clear of the 2024 MotoGP champion heading into the European opener at Jerez later this month.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Further intrigue surrounds a potential all-Aprilia title battle since Bezzecchi has already re-signed until 2028, while Martin is rumoured to have lost his seat to Pecco Bagnaia.<\/p>\n<p>Aprilia team manager Bonora echoed Massimo Rivola\u2019s sentiments that a team-mate vs team-mate title battle is a nice problem to have, while praising the \u201csmart\u201d working relationship between the riders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember Massimo Rivola answered this question and said he would be happy to manage this difficult situation!\u201d Bonora told TNT Sports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he was fully right. We are happy to manage this difficult situation [of a team-mate title battle].<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know that we have in our garage two very strong, talented riders. But we have seen that they are so smart, and they are working together in a very positive way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Although Martin fought fellow Ducati rider Bagnaia for the MotoGP crown in 2023 and 2024, they were riding for different teams.<\/p>\n<p>The last time riders from the same team finished first and second in the final MotoGP standings was 2015, with factory Yamaha stars Jorge Lorenzo and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1999\/valentino-rossi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Valentino Rossi<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That contest ended in acrimony when Rossi accused Marc Marquez of trying to assist Lorenzo\u2019s championship chances, and clashed with the Honda rider at Sepang.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paolo Bonora says Aprilia would welcome the \u201cdifficult situation\u201d of a MotoGP title fight between team-mates Marco Bezzecchi&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595735,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[18009,10669,64,63,5744,10732,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-595734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-aprilia","9":"tag-aprilia-racing","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-jorge-martin","13":"tag-marco-bezzecchi","14":"tag-motor","15":"tag-motor-sports","16":"tag-motosport","17":"tag-motosports","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}