Marc Marquez rediscovers his magic and rattles Aprilia: can Ducati reopen the title race?

Pole and Sprint, a top-tier Saturday for Marquez: he doesn’t want to get carried away, but in the Aprilia garage they know they can’t underestimate him.

In Thursday’s press conference at the Balaton Park Circuit he ruled out the possibility of fighting for the win or even the podium this MotoGP weekend in Hungary. Marc Marquez seemed convinced the Aprilia riders would be the favorites, but between Qualifying and the Sprint it was he who came out on top, with Pedro Acosta as his main rival.

After returning at Mugello, where he inevitably struggled a bit physically, the characteristics of the Balaton Park Circuit seem to suit his needs. The track is less physically demanding and has a majority of left-hand corners, the ones in which he has historically excelled. Clearly, now we have to see whether in the long race his right shoulder will hold up well to the end or if over the distance there will be a drop similar to what happened at the Italian Grand Prix.

His strategy of pushing right away to gain an advantage and then managing both body and tires worked. Interviewed by Sky Sport MotoGP, the nine-time world champion explained what helped him be more competitive compared to Mugello: "Your body can’t change in three days. Simply, the track changed, with many left-handers that allow me to ride more comfortably. There are only two points where I suffer with the right arm, whereas at Mugello there were several. I need to understand how I’ll feel at Brno and Assen on tracks that are tougher physically."

The Balaton Park Circuit works in his favor, but Marquez also stressed that the latest operation on his right arm allowed him to get back to his old level in what had always been one of his specialties: "This track comes easy to me and I’m back to doing left-hand corners the way I know how. Even at the start of 2026 I wasn’t the fastest Ducati rider in left-handers; last year I had no rivals. Now I’ve gone back to playing better with my body, because I feel what to do with the handlebars and the throttle. At the start of the year I felt strange things and wasn’t managing the throttle well."

For the long race his wish would be to at least be on the podium, but we know someone like him can always surprise and win. With a medium rear tire Aprilia is known to be very strong, so on Sunday the pecking order on track could shift a bit compared to the Sprint. It will be a race to follow with great interest.

Marquez’s return to victory, albeit in a sprint race and on a track favorable to him, is a wake-up call for Aprilia. In the overall standings the Ducati rider has 83 points, with a 97-point deficit to Marco Bezzecchi and 77 to Jorge Martin. Even if the gap is big today, there are still fifteen long races and fourteen sprints before the end of the 2026 MotoGP championship. Anything can still happen.

Many will remember Pecco Bagnaia’s sensational comeback on Fabio Quartararo in 2022, when the Ducati rider dropped to -91 after crashing in the Sachsenring race and still managed to be crowned world champion. And back then there were no sprints. True, that was already a declining Yamaha, competitive with only one rider, whereas Aprilia today is a real force and is achieving major results both with the factory team’s Bezzecchi-Martin pairing and with the Trackhouse satellite team’s Fernandez-Ogura duo. The scenario is a bit different and could make Marc’s comeback more complicated.

In any case, no one at Aprilia is getting ahead of themselves; there is awareness that nothing has been won yet and that they must fight and sweat to achieve the dream of winning their first MotoGP title. And even though the standings show Marquez far back, the Noale team has never ruled him out as a contender for the crown. After the Hungarian GP there will be a short break, then comes the Brno (June 19-21)-Assen (June 26-28) doubleheader, which will be an important test to understand whether Marc will indeed be close to 100% and whether Aprilia can contain his desire to mount a comeback.