Bezzecchi wins MotoGP opener for Aprilia

Compared to the barnstorming Sprint to open the 2026 MotoGP World Championship, in which Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) crashed out of the lead and reigning world champ Marc Marquez (Lenovo Ducati) was forced by race direction to concede the victory to Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM), the first half of the opening 26-lap Thai Grand Prix was comparatively uneventful.

From pole position, Bezzecchi grabbed the holeshot ahead of front-row starters Marquez and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia), the satellite Aprilia rider looking to go one better than his third-place finish in the Sprint. He relegated the world champ to third place at Turn 7 as Bezzecchi put his head down to build an early one-second lead to start lap two.

Whether he was still coming to grips with the latest GP26 or the shoulder injury that sidelined him for the final races last year was still recovering, Marquez never seemed to be in victory contention in the full-length GP. Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing) relegated him to fourth place on lap four, with Acosta also putting him back to fifth the next time around.

By now, Bezzecchi and Fernandez were two seconds up the road as an intriguing battle for third place began to heat up between Martin, Acosta and Marquez. Further back, Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) made it just two Ducatis in the top six, with Joan Mir (HRC), Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati), Pecco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) and Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) completing the top 10. The fourth of the Aprilia riders, Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Racing), suffered from a messy opening lap and was down in 11th after qualifying eighth.

On lap eight, Acosta was all over the rear wheel of Martin, desperate to find a way past the 2024 world champ, and tried a handful of moves on his fellow Spaniard, all the while with an interested Marquez in hot pursuit. On lap 10, and with a two-bike slipstream helping him by, Marquez passed both of them for third place, before an aggressive Acosta pounced immediately to put the experienced Ducati rider between himself and Martin.

By mid-race distance, Bezzecchi had a 2sec lead over Fernandez, Fernandez with his own 3sec lead over Acosta, who had the measure of Marquez and Martin a further 0.6sec back. With 10 laps to go, Ogura – who showed much promise in preseason testing – began to find his groove. He passed Binder for 10th on lap 16, took Bagnaia for ninth on lap 19 and then relegated Alex Marquez to 10th the next time around.

And just as it looked as if the podium was set, Fernandez’s rear tyre began to drop as the Aprilia rider began to fall into the clutches of Acosta. And this piqued the interest of Marc, who all of a sudden eyed a podium finish. But just as Marc began gaining on Acosta, his rear tyre popped off the rim and ruled him out of contention – lucky not to crash – with brother Alex crashing out just a handful of corners later.
Acosta did get through on Fernandez for second place with four laps to go, proving the gains KTM says it made with rear-tyre life so far look true – for one of its riders, at least – as Mir also suffered rear-tyre issues and was forced to retire from sixth place.

With three laps to go, Ogura pushed through on Di Giannantonio to take fifth, to make it four Aprilias in the top five. Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) took 10th from Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) with two laps to go. Binder relegated Bagnaia to eighth, with Morbidelli picking off two of his VR46 Academy colleagues in Luca Marini (HRC) and Bagnaia on the last lap to finish eighth.

But all credit must go to another VR46 Academy star, race victor Marco Bezzecchi, who became just one of 20 riders in history who can say they’ve won three consecutive Grands Prix, the first Aprilia rider to do so, and with Pedro Acosta and Raul Fernandez rounding out the podium, it’s the first time in 88 long races there hasn’t been a Ducati on the podium.

Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) was 12th, ahead of MotoGP rookie Diego Moreira (LCR Honda), who picked up three championship points for his 13th-place finish. The V4-powered Yamaha YZR-M1 project is still very much in its infancy, illustrated by the fact that factory riders Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins finished 14th and 15th, with the Pramac satellite duo of rookie Toprak Razgatlioglu and Aussie Jack Miller in 17th and 18th respectively, with Toprak almost 10 seconds clear of Miller.

The result means Pedro Acosta heads to Round 2 as the championship leader, the first-ever KTM rider to lay claim to that, seven points clear of Bezzecchi’s 25 points. Fernandez is in third on 23 points, with Martin (18) and Ogura (17) completing the top five. Marc Marquez begins his title defence in eighth place on nine points.
The series now heads to Brazil for the first time for Round 2 of the 22-round season, with Friday practice kicking off on Friday 20 March.