{"id":621317,"date":"2026-04-21T12:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621317\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T12:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T12:06:08","slug":"giacomo-agostini-real-2026-motogp-title-fight-begins-at-spanish-gp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/621317\/","title":{"rendered":"Giacomo Agostini: \u201cReal\u201d 2026 MotoGP title fight begins at Spanish GP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MotoGP legend Giacomo Agostini believes the \u201creal\u201d 2026 MotoGP title fight will begin this Sunday, as he backs reigning champion Marc Marquez to bounce back.<\/p>\n<p>After three rounds of the new campaign, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/aprilia-racing\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aprilia<\/a> has emerged as the clear favourite, with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/995158\/marco-bezzecchi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marco Bezzecchi<\/a> winning all Sunday races so far.<\/p>\n<p>Bezzecchi leads Aprilia team-mate Jorge Martin by four points, while <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/ducati-lenovo-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ducati<\/a>\u2019s underwhelming start has seen it score just one Sunday podium.<\/p>\n<p>Reigning world champion <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1654\/marc-marquez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marc Marquez<\/a> has struggled at the start of the season, with the shoulder he injured last year continuing to hold him back.<\/p>\n<p>After the first three races, he is fifth in the standings with a best result of fourth, a far cry from the two grands prix wins he had at the same stage last year.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>However, speaking at the Laureus Awards in Madrid on Monday, eight-time MotoGP champion Agostini backed Marquez to begin his title defence properly this weekend at Jerez.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, at the end of last year, he was hit by another rider,\u201d he told Marca.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, he started the season less prepared than the others. That\u2019s why I think the real world championship starts Sunday at Jerez.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ducati\u2019s Gigi Dall\u2019Igna noted earlier this week that he feels the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/news\/1093237\/1\/ducati-boss-backs-marc-marquez-be-100-fit-spanish-motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April break will have helped Marquez get back to 100% fitness.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Agostini: My records are there to be broken<\/p>\n<p>Should Marquez win the world title this year, it will move him equal to eight with Agostini, who has held the record since 1975.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Agostini also holds the record for most grand prix titles across all classes at 15.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s difficult, but records are meant to be broken,\u201d he said. \u201cI hope not, but if it were to happen, I\u2019d celebrate with them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On the current crop of riders who excite him, Agostini added: \u201cI love the rider, not the name.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI root for whoever excites me, for whoever gives 100% and leaves you speechless.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor whoever gives 100% and entertains you.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhether it\u2019s M\u00e1rquez, Bezzecchi, Bastianini, or others doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI support whoever does things that others, at that moment, can\u2019t do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Marquez gives 100%, I\u2019ll root for him. If Bezzecchi does it, I\u2019ll root for him. The same goes for Bagnaia or Martin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MotoGP legend Giacomo Agostini believes the \u201creal\u201d 2026 MotoGP title fight will begin this Sunday, as he backs&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,4280,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-621317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-marc-marquez","11":"tag-motor","12":"tag-motor-sports","13":"tag-motosport","14":"tag-motosports","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621317","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=621317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}