How Marc Marquez can deny Aprilia home MotoGP success at Misano

The 2026 MotoGP title battle has been very tit-for-tat in recent rounds, with Aprilia dominant at Assen and Silverstone, while Ducati rose to the fore at Sachsenring and Aragon. It’s led to a tightly packed championship battle coming into the 14th round of the campaign at Misano.

While officially designated as the San Marino Grand Prix, this is very much an Italian race, held at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on the Adriatic coastline. Both Ducati and Aprilia are based not that far away from the track.

With 24 points covering Aprilia’s Jorge Martin, Ducati’s Marc Marquez and Martin’s team-mate Marco Bezzecchi coming into the San Marino Grand Prix, there is a lot of pride at stake for both Italian brands. Not to mention prime opportunities to strike big blows against each other’s title challenges.

While all eyes are on Aprilia to repeat its home success from the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello earlier this year, Misano has brought about a convergence in form between both motorcycles.

Misano’s mix of fast, flowing corners and its stop-and-go sections play into the separate strengths of the RS-GP and the Desmosedici. As such, not a lot split Marquez and Bezzecchi across both practice sessions on Friday.

Marquez led the way in FP1 by just 0.060s, while Bezzecchi snatched the lead away from the reigning champion in the hour-long Practice on Friday afternoon by 0.103s.

Looking at the individual sector splits, Bezzecchi was fastest through the first, which comprises the Turn 1/2 chicane and the tight Rio section at Turn 4/5. Honda led the way in sector two, with Alex Marquez flying the Ducati flag in second, while Bezzecchi was the leading Aprilia in fourth.

The fast third sector, which includes the fearsome Curvone right-hander, was comfortably Bezzecchi’s domain, before Marc Marquez set the pace in the stop-and-go last sector that also sees two left-handers end the lap.

Ducati hasn’t been beaten at Misano since 2020, with Marquez beating Bezzecchi last year in a tense duel that marked another step on Aprilia’s march towards becoming a title contender this season.

That record for Ducati, however, is under intense threat.

Marquez not as strong as at Aragon, but still a threat

The talk of the paddock coming to Misano was the gym photo Marc Marquez posted on his social media channels last week. It showed the extent of the damage done to his arm and the surrounding muscles following seven major operations.

He said on Thursday that he posted it to try to stop repeated questions about his physical condition. Misano is going to test his physical limits, though, with its fast right-handers in the middle of the lap already a weak point last year when his shoulder was in much better shape.

And it’s exactly there where Bezzecchi and the Aprilia is strongest right now. That’s a problem on two fronts. Firstly, it’s a major advantage for Bezzecchi to exploit in qualifying, particularly with the last sector favouring Marquez and the Ducati more, not least with the knee injury to his left leg that the Aprilia rider is carrying.

And, secondly, Bezzecchi will be able to exploit that strength in the races by cutting off a key overtaking zone if he finds himself leading Marquez. Should the opposite happen, it will allow him a nice slingshot into Turn 14 to try for an overtake.

Marquez is all too aware of his struggles in this section of the track; in PR, he was 0.191s down on Bezzecchi through just that one split.

So, for Marquez and Ducati, the game now is not to try to match Aprilia in its strongest area - it’s about fully maximising where the Ducati is at its best. The seven-time champion recognises that beating Aprilia at its own game will be a futile exercise.

“Not more for me there! It's not the place to find more,” Marquez said when asked about Bezzecchi’s speed through the third sector. “Bez and Aprilia are super-fast in these kinds of corners. In fast areas like Assen and Silverstone, and we know that they are very strong. We need to try to understand if we can be stronger in other areas.”

He added: “Misano is one of the tracks where everything is more equal. As we see in the lap times, Aprilia is strong in the fast corners, and Ducati is strong in the stop-and-go corners. So in the end, Aprilia is strong in sector 3, and Ducati is stronger in another sector. Every bike has its potential, and our job is to try to find the best for our riding style.”

That said, Ducati had a strong day at Misano. Four of its bikes were inside the top five at the end of Practice. Aprilia, by contrast, bookended the top 10, with championship leader Jorge Martin just about scraping into Q2.

Both Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio, who slotted in behind Marc Marquez, reported feeling good with their bikes from the off. Their pace on the medium tyre has also caught a few eyes, with KTM’s Pedro Acosta saying he will test that compound on Saturday as a result.

Bezzecchi could be top Aprilia in the standings after Misano

On race pace, a true picture hasn’t emerged just yet. But Bezzecchi was comfortably fastest based on a short stint on a new soft tyre in PR. He tried both tyres in Practice, while the three Ducatis behind him extended their runs.

Marquez also worked with the soft tyre, but his running was scrappy, leading to a much slower average pace. There is almost certainly a deficit to Bezzecchi, but it’s likely not as big as 1m30.884s vs 1m31.391s. If there is one thing to note from Marquez’s running, it’s that he managed a 1m31.516s on a 14-lap-old soft. In last year’s race, he was still in the mid-1m31s on a medium rear.

Alex Marquez managed a 1m31.428s on the 16th lap on his medium tyre, while his average pace was 1m31.370s. We’re yet to see what Bezzecchi’s long-run pace looks like, but his 1m31.5s in FP1 on a well-used medium did offer an encouraging glimpse.

“It’s true that the base was good and the start was good, but there are many places where I can improve my riding, and also many places where we can adjust the bike still.”

What was evident from Practice was the gulf Martin has to Bezzecchi, over one lap and in race pace. The championship leader said he was “completely on the limit” on his best laps in Practice, and that was still only good enough to be 10th and 0.546s away from Bezzecchi, as well as just 0.014s inside a Q2 spot.

Martin says he is down on Bezzecchi in “every corner”. All of this comes after he admitted on Thursday that he has “never been the favourite” in the championship battle. Since his early-season form, and his brief resurgence at Silverstone aside, Martin hasn’t looked at any stage like being the best Aprilia rider.

Bezzecchi, meanwhile, has brushed aside injury in the last two rounds to add four third-place finishes to his tally. Now he’s in a position to potentially cash in at Misano and retake the lead in the standings he lost before the summer break. That will only further pile the pressure on Martin.

Acosta’s “plan” is working - but can he spoil the Italian party?

There were several standout performances from Friday behind the Aprilia/Ducati battle. The greater grip from the Misano asphalt helped Honda to get two bikes into the top 10 at the end of Practice.

Luca Marini was the fastest of HRC’s riders, while Johann Zarco continues to inspire with his speed as he advances his comeback from his horror crash at Barcelona in May.

MotoGP’s fastest TV pundit Pol Espargaro used his extensive KTM miles at Misano to grab ninth and a direct Q2 place, as he deputises once more for Maverick Vinales at Tech3. KTM, in general, looked solid.

Pedro Acosta was sixth for the brand, as his push to get KTM to be more aggressive with its set-up ideas is clearly paying off. Pace-wise, he’s currently in the podium mix. But that will depend on improving his time attack form.

After his run to the podium at Aragon two weeks ago, his lack of a victory in MotoGP is becoming more apparent. Quizzed about this on Thursday at Misano, he said he won’t leave KTM with any regrets if he doesn’t break his duck on the RC16 because at least he’d have given his all to try to make it happen.

Making that a reality at Misano is on the cards, but he’ll once again have to go above and beyond what the KTM is capable of to make it happen…