Is Marco Bezzecchi’s MotoGP championship challenge fading?

Marco Bezzecchi admits he is “in the fight, but not like Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez”, as he looks to reignite his MotoGP title challenge in Japan.

The Aprilia rider dominated the opening rounds of the 2026 campaign, claiming four grands prix victories inside the opening eight races.

But his challenge faded dramatically in the time since, with Marco Bezzecchi failing to score in five of the last eight races.

Ahead of this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, Bezzecchi is now 42 points down in the standings, which represents his biggest gulf this season.

Asked if the pressure is off him because he’s chasing Martin and Marquez, he replied: “Well, realistically, at the moment I’m in the fight but not like Martin and Marc.

“For sure, they are a lot more inside the fight compared to myself.

“Obviously, I hope to be able to recover some ground and try to put myself in the mix.

“But, at the moment, they for sure are a little bit more in the fight. So, hopefully I can reach them.”

This weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi represents an oddity for Aprilia, as it is yet to score a podium at the venue.

Typically, Ducati has been strong at Motegi in recent years, though Bezzecchi says he is not focused on bike differences.

“Well, obviously in the past it was more a Ducati track, and to be honest I don't really know what to expect, as I said before,” he added.

“So I'm not really looking at an Aprilia, a Ducati, a KTM or anything -  I’m looking at myself.

“I try my best every time I go on the track, so it's the same mentality that I will use here.

“So hopefully we can try to find a way pretty soon on Friday to be competitive already from the practice session, that is super important as you know, and then move on trying to improve day by day.

“But yeah, we will see only tomorrow.”

Bezzecchi added that, while he doesn’t know where other bikes are strong, the Aprilia’s front-end performance is something that “immediately I notice”.

“Well, I can't make a comparison because I never tried the other bikes,” he said.

“But where I feel quite confident on my bike is the braking point, the front end of the tyre looks good.

“So this is something that I immediately notice when I jump on the Aprilia. So I don't know if compared to the other bike it's stronger or not, but for me this part of the riding is good.”