Marc Marquez has pointed to Alex Marquez\u2019s Jerez victory pace as proof that MotoGP development must keep moving forward, rather than chasing a past \u201cfeeling\u201d.<\/p>\n
Although Alex Marquez<\/a> has not yet found the same level of comfort with the GP26 as with last year\u2019s GP24, the Gresini r<\/a>ider won the Spanish MotoGP<\/a> with a race time 7.5s quicker than his own victory the year before.<\/p>\n Most Ducati riders are still seeking better front-end feeling, an area where the GP24 was especially strong.<\/p>\n A logical move might therefore be to \u2018unwind\u2019 developments back to the GP24 spec, something reigning champion Marquez said remains possible, but would be a mistake.<\/p>\n \u201cI only did two runs on the 24 in Catalunya Test [that year], then I just jumped directly to the 25,\u201d Marquez said at Monday\u2019s Jerez test.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cBut in the end, what I understand from the engineers, is we can ride with a 24 bike. It’s just a mix of parts\u2026 The base is the same bike. Then if you want to come back, you can come back.\u201d<\/p>\n Marquez stressed that lap time gains across the field mean development cannot stand still.<\/p>\n \u201cThis year, Alex here in Jerez was seven seconds faster with the 26 than the 24,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo in competition, if you [go] back\u2026 \u00a0You always [remember] the feeling of that year that you won with the bike and it was amazing.<\/p>\n \u201cBut then the competitors are gaining tenths and tenths and tenths, and we need to keep going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n While Marc and team-mate Pecco Bagnaia failed to finish Sunday\u2019s Grand Prix, Alex wasn\u2019t the only Desmosedici GP26 rider to make a significant step over the year before.<\/p>\n VR46\u2019s Fabio di Giannantonio, finished in third place with a race time 9.0s quicker than his fifth place on the GP25 last year.<\/p>\n But the rider with the biggest progress was Aprilia\u2019s title leader Marco Bezzecchi, who suffered his first grand prix defeat of the year, but was still a massive 30-seconds faster than in 2025.<\/p>\n That included running through the gravel trap last year. But removing that mistake from last year\u2019s race time, Bezzecchi was still around 12 seconds faster in 2026.<\/p>\n The other comparable Aprilias also made big gains with Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez 22-seconds quicker and team-mate Ai Ogura finding 8.5s.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n The same Aprilia trio then filled the top three places at Monday\u2019s test, when Jorge Martin – fourth in the grand prix – also reported big progress.<\/p>\n Marc Marquez said that Aprilia’s progress was clear even before Jerez.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you start the year in three different racetracks, three different layouts, with three different tyre casings, and the winner was Aprilia, it means that the bike is working well,\u201d Marquez said.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only with Bezzecchi, but also with Ogura, Fernandez, Martin.<\/p>\n \u201cFor that reason, Ducati is working, as we saw today, and as a team we are trying to improve.<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n \u201cBut last Sunday, the winner [Alex Marquez] was riding a Ducati,\u201d he highlighted.<\/p>\n Marc Marquez was the fastest Ducati at the test, in fourth.<\/p>\n Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc Marquez has pointed to Alex Marquez\u2019s Jerez victory pace as proof that MotoGP development must keep moving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[8454,64,63,17197,8456,8455,4280,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-638300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-alex-marquez","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-ducati","tag-ducati-lenovo-team","tag-gresini-racing-motogp","tag-marc-marquez","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638300","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=638300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}