Aprilia chases Ducati at Mugello, Bezzecchi: "Here's what we were missing"

Ducati riders are in form in Italy, but the Noale team doesn’t intend to just watch: on race pace, Bez isn’t in bad shape.

Aprilia has never won at Mugello in MotoGP, with only one podium to its name there: Aleix Espargaro’s third place in 2022. Even if the track record isn’t great, this year the Noale manufacturer has lined up with an RS-GP26 stronger than the ’25 version and therefore with clearly higher potential. We saw it at the start of the season, with excellent results from the factory riders Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin, but also with standout performances by Ai Ogura and Raul Fernandez from the Trackhouse team.

The 2026 Italian Grand Prix is an important test for Aprilia, which after pre-qualifying has only Bezzecchi and Martin in the top 10, thus directly through to Q2. Ducati has five, starting with Fabio Di Giannantonio and Pecco Bagnaia occupying the top two spots on today’s timesheets. The Borgo Panigale brand has won in Tuscany four years in a row and seems to have the weapons to repeat, but the Noale team intends to put up a fight and break the “Mugello taboo”.

Bezzecchi spoke to Sky Sport MotoGP, summing up this first day of action at the Mugello Circuit: "The time attack is what made me suffer a bit more, whereas on race pace I felt a bit better. Diggia, Bagnaia, Morbidelli, Bastianini, and Marquez were all super fast. It seems to me that from pace to time attack they managed to make a bigger step than us, they were a bit better. I did a 45.0 in the first run with the soft, then in the time attack I did a 44.9 and they took it away, because I touched a little strip of green. I was missing something on the fast lap."

The Aprilia rider was asked if his 1'45"024 was set during a race simulation: "It wasn’t exactly a race simulation," he replied, "because we had to work on many things and we didn’t have time to do a setting similar to the race one. But more or less... We were trying to understand a bit the difference between the medium and the soft, because they’re both really good tires. In the time attack I struggled a bit, it was hot and it wasn’t easy. I wasn’t able to be effective and put all the sectors together. The only lap that had come out a bit better got canceled, but it was a good day. We’re fast, we just need to improve a little more."

Even if there’s something to fix, the rider from Rimini still seems optimistic for the rest of the weekend. His pace is not bad at all. In the time attack he needs to find a couple of tenths to make sure he can start at the front, which is always important. It also remains to be seen whether in the long race it will be better to use the soft or the medium on the rear: that’s the big question for Sunday, since both seem to work.

Martin ended the day seventh, just behind Bezzecchi, and he isn’t negative in assessing the work done today at Mugello: "The balance is positive," he told Sky Sport MotoGP, "because we kept improving during the runs. It’s true that it was a strange day, because in the moments to push I first hit a red flag and then traffic. We ended up leaving it to the last attempt, which I don’t like much. I gave everything I had, I did a lap without breathing: I was very tired at the end of the lap. Anyway, I think we’re making progress; I’m missing a bit of overall confidence, but the team is working well."

The two-time world champion knows what he needs and hopes the Aprilia team can find a solution to improve the RS-GP26: "Mugello is a track where you need to have excellent balance. A small change that gives you a bit more confidence on the bike changes you everywhere. We hope to find a small tweak that lets us get closer to the other manufacturers, but it’s not like we’re a world away."

FP2 will be an important session to exploit for making progress, even if the temperatures will be a bit lower than those of the sprint race and the long race. Like Bez, “Martinator” is confident.