Aprilia-Ducati sparks fly as Rivola responds to Marquez: “I don’t care what he says”

The MotoGP champion had joked about alleged Aprilia team orders, and Rivola hit back with a pointed remark of his own about what goes on at Ducati.

When there is a title fight, there are often moments when people start talking about possible “team orders” to help the riders at the top of the standings. The topic came to the fore after the MotoGP sprint race at Sepang, where Ai Ogura finished fourth behind Marco Bezzecchi after battling hard with Marc Marquez in the early stages of the race.

Some suggested that the Japanese rider had been particularly aggressive with the Ducati rider in an effort to help the Aprilia factory team. Bezzecchi was looking to close the gap to Marquez in the standings, while the absent Jorge Martin would have lost fewer points if someone had managed to get ahead of the reigning champion. In the end, Marc finished second, beaten only by Pedro Acosta’s KTM. And today he won the full-length race, extending his lead over Martinator to 44 points.

Asked by DAZN España whether Ogura might have been following orders from Aprilia, Marquez said: “The paddock is small. Ogura was trying to stay ahead of me because he knew that otherwise he would lose the podium. He couldn’t sit between me and Bezzecchi, or Bezzecchi would have lost more points. The paddock is small; people know these things. It was clear to me that he would be aggressive, and we managed to pass him because otherwise I knew Bezzecchi would attack me.”

The Japanese rider for the SuperFile Trackhouse team denied receiving any specific instructions to hinder Marquez in order to help Bezzecchi. He simply rode his own race, just as he did today.

Before the full-length race, DAZN España also spoke to Massimo Rivola, CEO of Aprilia Racing, giving him a chance to respond to comments by Ducati’s number 93. He said: “I’m not particularly interested in what Marc says, to be honest. Especially since I think they’re more likely to have team orders on their side... within the family.”

Rivola was probably referring to the relationship between the Marquez brothers, as Alex has sometimes been “accused” of not wanting to attack Marc. The Ducati garage also had its say, with team manager Davide Tardozzi responding to Rivola’s comments: “I don’t know what Aprilia does. We focus on ourselves, and they’re free to do whatever they want. Maybe Ogura was too aggressive with Marc on two occasions yesterday. They can do what they want; we’re focused on our race.”

Once the minor Ducati-Aprilia “spats” were over, the MotoGP race got underway. Marquez dominated, while Aprilia failed to make the podium. The best-placed RS-GP26 was Ogura’s, finishing fourth. He had no qualms about passing Bezzecchi, who came home sixth after a mistake on the final lap also allowed Enea Bastianini’s KTM to get past him.

It is true that Bezzecchi’s title challenge is now all but over, and finishing fourth would have changed virtually nothing. Still, Ogura’s approach seemed to make it clear that there were no “team orders.” The Japanese rider took a risk to pass the Italian, making contact that could have resulted in one or both of them crashing. Fortunately, neither rider fell.

-> Follow Corsedimoto on Instagram