{"id":697660,"date":"2026-05-27T10:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T10:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/697660\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T10:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T10:21:10","slug":"gresini-confirms-alex-marquezs-replacement-for-italian-motogp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/697660\/","title":{"rendered":"Gresini confirms Alex Marquez\u2019s replacement for Italian MotoGP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Gresini has confirmed that Ducati test rider Michele Pirro will replace the injured Alex Marquez in this weekend\u2019s Italian MotoGP.<\/p>\n<p>Marquez will miss the next two events, Mugello and Balaton Park, after suffering collarbone and vertebrae injuries in a massive accident at the Catalunya round.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP <\/a>rules require teams to make &#8220;every reasonable effort to provide a qualified substitute rider to fulfil their entry obligations within 10 days of withdrawal.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gng_1317022_hires_1600x900_1.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Alex Marquez's bike, 2026 Catalan MotoGP.\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.78\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Alex Marquez&#8217;s bike, 2026 Catalan MotoGP.<\/p>\n<p> \u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n<p>Pirro previously replaced Marquez\u2019s team-mate<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1043650\/fermin-aldeguer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Fermin Aldeguer <\/a>during the season-opening Thai Grand Prix, while Aldeguer was recovering from leg injuries in winter training.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Riding the satellite-spec GP25, Pirro finished at the back of the field in qualifying and the two races, competing the weekend in 19th. He will now step onto Marquez&#8217;s Jerez-winning GP26 at Mugello.<\/p>\n<p>Gresini has announced that Pirro will now rejoin the team for this weekend.<\/p>\n<p>Pirro, 39, knows Mugello well from his test riding duties and used to make a regular wildcard entry at his home event, where he has posted five top-ten finishes, including a best of seventh in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>    <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gng_1294815_hires_1600x900.jpg\"   type=\"image\/jpeg\" alt=\"Michele Pirro, 2026 Thai MotoGP.\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.78\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Michele Pirro, 2026 Thai MotoGP.<\/p>\n<p> \u00a9\u00a0Gold and Goose<\/p>\n<p>However, Ducati\u2019s concession status means he can no longer make wildcard entries and Pirro hasn\u2019t taken part in the Italian Grand Prix since 2023.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/889489\/johann-zarco\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Johann Zarco<\/a> will also miss this weekend\u2019s Mugello round due to injuries in Catalunya.<\/p>\n<p>LCR Honda is still to confirm his replacement.<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gresini has confirmed that Ducati test rider Michele Pirro will replace the injured Alex Marquez in this weekend\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":697661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[8454,64,63,8455,62679,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-697660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-alex-marquez","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-gresini-racing-motogp","tag-michele-pirro","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697660","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=697660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}