Finally on Saturday too!": Sprint podium at Le Mans, Bezzecchi banishes his demons

Marco Bezzecchi smiles, here’s the first Sprint podium of the 2026 MotoGP season.

A significant result even in a Sprint. Marco Bezzecchi can smile, and history backs him up: in the four GPs on record he’s only managed a 4th place, otherwise he’s always finished with zero points. The third place achieved today might not completely satisfy him—he’s not fully there yet—but the Aprilia standard-bearer prefers to see the glass half full: the first podium of the season in Saturday’s mini-race at Le Mans, finished as a protagonist. Tomorrow will require another step forward, also to be able to “bother” more the one who is always the first rival—in his case his garage-mate Jorge Martin—who today was literally unstoppable from the start to the checkered flag and is just a handful of points behind in the overall standings. But today’s bronze is a solid point to build from.

As if a weight has been lifted: as mentioned, Sprint races haven’t really been his strong suit so far—in fact, the zeros that have come could weigh heavily in the long run... “At the beginning I didn’t feel great, especially at the front,” Marco Bezzecchi told motogp.com at the end of the day. “It was a problem for me and I made various mistakes. It was impossible for me to stay with Pecco [Bagnaia], but luckily I had enough to pull away from Pedro [Acosta].” So it’s not all perfect yet with the RS-GP, but the MotoGP leader wants to see the positives—one in particular. “Finally a good result on a Saturday too! I was already having nightmares at home,” he joked. “Today went well.” Tomorrow is the more important race, with a bigger haul of points at stake: like Martin, he’ll be one to watch, given the impression that Aprilia is still the favored brand.

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