Lorenzo points the finger at Bezzecchi: “Technically, Aprilia was superior.”

Aprilia had the bike to beat Ducati; what it lacked was the rider. That is Jorge Lorenzo’s take on the 2026 MotoGP World Championship, which is now close to handing Marc Marquez another title. The three-time premier-class world champion says he told Fabiano Sterlacchini as early as the season opener: with a mistake-free Marco Bezzecchi, the crown would have gone to Noale.

It all started with a chat over coffee with Aprilia’s technical director during the Thai GP weekend, which kicked off the championship. Lorenzo told Paddock-GP that he made his prediction then, without pulling any punches: "Given how your bike behaves in the corners, if Bezzecchi doesn’t make mistakes and finishes the races, you’ll win the World Championship 100%".

His conviction was based on watching the bikes on track. According to the Spaniard, the RS-GP could lean much further than the Desmosedici, was incredibly light and offered exceptional agility. In short, it had all the technical potential it needed. There was just one condition: it had to reach the finish line.

For a while, the prediction seemed to be coming true: Bezzecchi had established himself among the favorites and gone on to take the championship lead. The turning point came in the Czech Republic, when the Rimini rider slapped a track marshal during qualifying and was excluded from the race. He left Brno with zero points and never regained the championship lead.

Then came the downward spiral. At Assen, where he needed a result to get back on track, he crashed, and a high-speed run-off prevented him from taking part in the Sachsenring round. Four consecutive Grands Prix without scoring, while Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin continued to rack up points.

Today, Lorenzo sums it up bluntly: "Unfortunately, Bezzecchi crashed in the very first race, and more serious incidents followed. Technically, Aprilia was superior". His verdict carries even more weight after the Qatar Sprint, where a controversial clash with Marquez sent Bezzecchi crashing and definitively ended his title hopes.

Now, at Lusail, the Ducati champion has his first match point in Sunday’s feature race. Aprilia is left with the knowledge that it has a competitive bike—and a question to carry into 2027: just how much did each crash really cost?

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