Gabriel Tesini: showtime in the Aprilia Trophy and Moto4 challenges—the story of his comeback

Saturday, 01 August 2026 at 20:30

Determination and speed: Gabriel Tesini starring in the Aprilia RS660 Trophy, alongside the Moto4 and MotoJunior challenges. Our interview.

Without a seat at the end of 2025, then new challenges, and now he’s the leader of the Aprilia RS660 Trophy. Gabriel Tesini is living a 2026 season with even greater determination to shine, to definitively erase a complicated year—and he’s succeeding. He quickly found himself with the chance to contest the entire Trophy season, raced the first of three planned wild cards in Moto4 of the MotoJunior with Bucci Moto (“top dog” of the class in the CIV), and also logged an entry in the CNV, Moto 190 GP class, before deciding together with Claudio Bucci to focus exclusively on the other championships. We caught up with the San Marino rider—here’s what he told us.

Let’s start with the Aprilia Trophy: you began as a wild card, then the full season. Tell us about your 2026 so far?

2026 started a bit unexpectedly, because I had actually stopped after everything that happened last year. The season began with a test, then I was offered the first race and, from there, the chance came to do the entire season in the Aprilia RS 660 Trophy. I immediately felt good with the bike and with the Racing 52 team, which has known me since I was 11. I have a great feeling with all of them and consider them special people. We managed to be competitive from the first moment, and that gave me a lot of confidence. It’s quite an intense year because, in addition to the Aprilia RS660 Trophy, I also have another commitment: wild cards with Bucci Moto in Moto4 of the MotoJunior World Championship (Jerez, Valencia, Misano).

You’re the provisional championship leader—did you ever expect that?

Honestly, without sounding cocky, I’m aware of the work I’ve put in over the years and, above all, of the results I’ve achieved. So no, it doesn’t surprise me that much. What really surprised me was winning four races in a row and, especially, Race 1 at Mugello, where I managed to build a lead of more than four seconds after ten laps in the dry.

What I never expected, instead, was to find myself without a bike from one day to the next, after six seasons at the highest level and one spent between hospitals and rehab, but still with results, considering that when I came back I was still half-broken and only finished fully recovering in February 2026. But that’s water under the bridge now—I prefer to look ahead and let the work and results speak for me.

Gabriel Tesini during the Aprilia RS660 Trophy

How are you getting on with the RS 660?

It’s a bigger, more powerful bike than any I’ve ridden before, but in the end it still has an engine, a frame, and two wheels like all the others—some you understand right away, others you need to get the hang of. In this case, even though the Aprilia RS660 is a street bike, riding it feels like the prototypes I’ve always and only ridden. It’s stiff, you have to be very precise in your riding, which is why I clicked with it immediately and consider it a great bike.

As I said, leading the championship is satisfying, but the season is still long and we need to stay calm. Past experiences, when I was fighting for championships—both the ones I won and the ones I lost—taught me not to be flat-out all the time, but also to manage when needed. I try to stay focused, tackling one race at a time, thinking things through and avoiding unnecessary risks, like I did at Misano in the wet. There, after taking Pole Position with the trophy’s lap record, it would’ve taken just a moment to score a zero and go from championship leader to sitting duck!

There was also a tough moment. How do you start again after a weekend like Brno? Those aren’t easy situations for a rider…

Brno was an incredible weekend in one sense. I had never ridden on that track, not even tested it, and managing to win was something special. Today I consider it one of the most beautiful tracks I’ve ever raced on. On the other hand, it was a really sad weekend, because when tragedies like those happen, euphoria, joy, and everything else fade into the background. I’m truly sorry for the two riders and their families.

Racing action and reflections from the Brno weekend

We’ve also seen you at Jerez in Moto4 of the MotoJunior. Tell us about that event?

It was really great, important, and tough because I was returning to Moto4 after quite some time, with a team making its debut in the MotoJunior World Championship, and everyone else was at their third championship round—not to mention the pre-season testing they’d done. Over the winter Claudio Bucci, Chiara Bucci, and all their collaborators did an outstanding job preparing the bike. We stayed in constant contact to organize everything down to the smallest detail, up to the first test at Cremona, which was truly exciting. At Jerez, we were competitive from the very first sessions.

I qualified second in my group. In Race 2, I was in second place and fully in the fight for the win, but unfortunately a mistake of mine cost me a crash. Honestly, though, I went home smiling: the pressure I had on my shoulders to lead the team in its international debut gave me incredible energy, and we showed we could be very competitive from the start. Claudio and his team are out-and-out aces! I’m really proud of the job we did. Now we’ll try again at Valencia and then at Misano. In this category, since I’m only a wild card, I’ve got nothing to lose… so fire—controlled, but fire!