{"id":634395,"date":"2026-04-27T16:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/634395\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T16:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T16:21:12","slug":"alex-marquez-dances-at-jerez-will-marc-ever-dance-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/634395\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex M\u00e1rquez dances at Jerez, will Marc ever dance again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aprilia<\/a> destroyed Ducati<\/a> at the first three MotoGP rounds of 2026. Marco Bezzecchi<\/a> led every lap in Thailand, Brazil and the United States, while team-mate Jorge Martin<\/a> made it a one-two in Brazil and the USA and won the COTA<\/a> sprint.<\/p>\n

When MotoGP teams arrived at Jerez<\/a> last week, there was talk of a Ducati panic, the Bologna brand\u2019s three teams throwing all kinds of fixes at its latest Desmosedici in an effort to close the gap.<\/p>\n

Aprilia had gained so much of an advantage in braking that Ducati flattered its greatest rival with imitation at COTA, equipping its factory riders Marc M\u00e1rquez<\/a> and Pecco Bagnaia with RS-GP-style seat\/leg aerodynamics. These increase rear downforce during braking, allowing riders to better use the rear tyre to help stop the bike, a critical part of current MotoGP performance.<\/p>\n

During the four-week break between COTA and Jerez, Ducati burned the midnight oil in Bologna, focusing on improving engine-brake electronics, once again to improve braking performance, because if you don\u2019t stop right, you won\u2019t turn the corner correctly and if you don\u2019t turn the corner right you will be late with the throttle, so you won\u2019t accelerate properly. In other words, your whole lap time is compromised by not having perfect braking-and-entry performance.<\/p>\n

Jerez winner Alex M\u00e1rquez<\/a> \u2013 for the second year running \u2013 never made the top five in the first three GPs and therefore benefited most from Ducati\u2019s updates.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the first three races I was not able to stop the bike in the correct way,\u201d said M\u00e1rquez, who used Ducati\u2019s new seat\/leg aero at Jerez. \u201cWe are also introducing many things in the electronics, in all parameters, not only engine-brake. Now I\u2019m not fighting with the bike, I\u2019m dancing a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Bezzecchi<\/p>\n

Bezzecchi increased his championship lead with second place ahead of Di Giannantonio and team-mate Martin<\/p>\n

Of course, the big question for the younger M\u00e1rquez was how the GP26 compares to the GP24 he rode last year, the greatest MotoGP bike of all time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling is more or less in the same point,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m struggling a little bit in braking but maybe I\u2019m a little better than last year at the apex.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next three races will be important to understand if the step we made this weekend is real or just one weekend. Aprilia is still half a step in front of us, so we need to find something to be a bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerez third-place man Fabio Di Giannantonio<\/a> says the latest Ducati is better than the GP25 he raced last year, especially since he\u2019s gone his own way on set-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur bike has a strong front and a really high level of rear grip, but I\u2019d love to have more information from the front, so I can push more and handle better some situations when the grip goes down,\u201d said the VR46<\/a> man who chased Aprilia\u2019s world-championship-leader Marco Bezzecchi throughout Sunday\u2019s race. \u201cI\u2019m really happy with the bike, but on race pace, Aprilia still has something more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Di Giannantonio raced Jerez without Ducati\u2019s aero and engine-brake updates because he didn\u2019t want to risk confusing himself during a race weekend, preferring to evaluate these upgrades in the Monday test.<\/p>\n

Jorge Martin completed the Ducati-Aprilia-Ducati-Aprilia top four and believes the two bikes are so close that it\u2019s down to the riders to make the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no gap,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Aprilia and Ducati are different \u2013 one is faster in one point, the other is faster in another. Here it seems the Ducatis were faster in the fast corners, when normally it\u2019s the opposite, so I think it\u2019s more down to the riders to adapt to the tracks and to the bikes. This race was a mix of Aprilia and Ducati. I think it will be like this all season \u2013 it\u2019s more about the rider than the bike at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alex<\/p>\n

Alex M\u00e1rquez was a joy to watch at Jerez, dancing and flowing around the packed Spanish track<\/p>\n

\n Gresini Racing\n <\/p>\n

Bezzecchi agreed with his team-mate.<\/p>\n

\u201cStability is something we are still working on, because in the fast parts here I suffered a bit,\u201d he said. \u201cThis was the biggest different between me and Alex, apart from his lines, which were super-good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bagnaia is the odd man out in the GP26 puzzle \u2013 his best Sunday result so far is a ninth in the season-opening Thai GP. The twice MotoGP king has struggled with rear-tyre degradation since the start of the year, which he also attributes to braking<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to force a lot to stop the bike in braking, so the rear tyre starts to slide,\u201d he said. \u201cSo when you need to open the throttle, you haven\u2019t turned in the correct way, so you have to force the rear tyre, which makes its grip level drop more.\u201d<\/p>\n

The elder M\u00e1rquez may have taken pole position on a drying track and won Saturday\u2019s sprint despite crashing when the rain came down, but he was never close to challenging for victory in the dry.<\/p>\n

This has nothing to do with the GP26. Quite simply, the seven-time MotoGP king\u2019s right shoulder is far from right, even though it\u2019s been almost seven months since he sustained the injury during last year\u2019s Indonesian GP. The big question now is this: if his much-mangled shoulder isn\u2019t right after seven months, when will it be?<\/p>\n

Because, of course, M\u00e1rquez didn\u2019t only damage the shoulder at Mandalika<\/a>, he\u2019s had numerous surgeries on the shoulder and the humerus bone over the years, so that part of his body is a mess.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Scoop photo of M\u00e1rquez\u2019s GP26 with cutouts (usually hidden by carbon-fibre covers) behind the steering head to provide lateral flex. The hydraulic hose suggests the frame doubles as an oil catch tank<\/p>\n

\n Peter Bom\n <\/p>\n

Back in March, M\u00e1rquez said that Jerez would tell him where he\u2019s at with fitness. Throughout the weekend, it was obvious that the shoulder is still weak and painful \u2013 the way he handled the prosecco after winning the sprint perfectly illustrated his problems. His upper right side is weak and painful, so, on a dry track, when the physical forces are far greater than riding in the rain, he can\u2019t get himself into the right position to ride at the limit while maintaining control.<\/p>\n

Did this weakness play a part in Sunday\u2019s high-speed second-lap crash? Maybe. What is certain is that the 100mph get-off only battered his bad shoulder some more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aprilia destroyed Ducati at the first three MotoGP rounds of 2026. Marco Bezzecchi led every lap in Thailand,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[307248,64,63,5745,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-634395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-2026-spanish-gp","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-motogp","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634395","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=634395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}