“Second power” - Fabio Di Giannantonio makes worrying Ducati MotoGP claim

Aprilia’s domination of the Silverstone MotoGP proved that it is the best manufacturer in the championship, Fabio Di Giannantonio says.

Aprilia started 2026 strongly, but in the last races before the summer break they were beaten by Marc Marquez three times out of four, indicating that it had lost some of the grip on the season that it had in the first races.

But the Silverstone race was a return to Aprilia domination. A Raul Fernandez crash was all that separated the Noale factory from a clean sweep of the top-four in the Sprint, while in the grand prix it was Ai Ogura who made the mistake.

Alex Marquez already felt after the Sprint that it would be “impossible” for him to fight with the Aprilias on Sunday.

After the race it was Fabio Di Giannantonio who warned that Ducati is now MotoGP’s “second power”, the Italian feeling that Aprilia’s domination in Britain was not only thanks to their own strength but also the Desmosedici’s weaknesses that he thought were exaggerated by the Northamptonshire layout. 

“I did the maximum that I thought that I could do, honestly,” said Fabio Di Giannantonio after the race at Silverstone.

“I tried to save as much as I could the rear [tyre] for the end and I did a good job for the rear, but doing it I destroyed the front tyre. 

“But it's exactly what's happening in every race since the beginning of the year. 

“I've been saying this since a long time that we need to improve our package that's a really good package, but we need to improve, because at the moment we have a short blanket [small working window], honestly. 

“If we push too much with the front, then we finish the front and our race is finished. If we, to make the front do the things that it should do, we use too much the rear then. 

“So it's really difficult to manage it. 

“At the moment we are just the second power, let's say. The first ones are the rear, that are incredible. 

“We knew that here they are amazing, we knew, but we took a big gap, so I think we must improve.”

There are 10 races remaining in 2026, which Di Giannantonio hopes will see improvement from Ducati.

“I really wish that we can improve,” he said.

“Aprilias are doing a great job since this time of last year, and now you can see easily that the four riders are there constantly, and we do some appearances inside [those positions]. 

“But at the moment we are a step back, that is the clear truth.”

He added: “Well, here [Silverstone] the difference is incredible, really big. But we never had in [...] 12 races a circuit where we were this [much] better than them.

“It means that they are better.”