Ducati MotoGP nearly back to full strength as injured rider gets back on a bike

Fermin Aldeguer finally got back on a motorcycle this week having been sidelined through injury since the end of June.

After winning a MotoGP race in his rookie season last year at Mandalika, Aldeguer came into the 2026 season as one of the most exciting riders on the grid.

Early signs were that this season would be complicated by his machinery, as he would be riding the 2025-spec Ducati that proved problematic for the likes of Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Di Giannantonio in particular last season.

However, some 2026 parts were introduced for him after a few rounds and he was on the podium at Catalunya. There was a setback in Hungary when he was involved in the first turn crash there, but he was back in the top-six a week later at Brno.

After that, though, Aldeguer’s season hit a wall at Assen when he crashed in Practice and fractured a vertebra.

It was an injury that kept the Gresini Racing rider out of the Dutch, German, and British grands prix, being replaced by compatriot Iker Lecuona at the latter event.

Aldeguer finally looks set to make his return to racing, though, having been able to get back on track this week with a pair of motorcycles on the karting track at Cartagena.

Aldeguer rode a Ducati Panigale V2 and a Honda CBR600RR at the Spanish track, riding just over a week ahead of the start of the Aragon Grand Prix on 28 August.

An Aldeguer return at MotorLand would mean Ducati would be racing in a grand prix with all six of its full-time riders for the first time since the Spanish Grand Prix at the end of April, since Marc Marquez’s absence from the Le Mans grid after his Sprint crash came a week before Alex Marquez’s vertebra fracture in Catalunya.