The key advantage Aprilia is exploiting at the start of MotoGP 2026

After the opening day of the 2026 MotoGP campaign, Aprilia is the brand that has easily shown the biggest growth 12 months on from the paddock’s last visit to the oppressively hot Buriram paddock.

This time last year, Aprilia had faced a winter of misery with big-money star signing Jorge Martin, owing to his off-season injury woes. Marco Bezzecchi was new to the project and trying to adapt to a completely new bike while spearheading development at the same time.

The RS-GP was a solid package, sure, but it was not consistently at a level to fight for podiums at that stage. By the end of the campaign, it was winning races and genuinely giving Ducati a need to dig deep into its drawers to pull out a considerable improvement to the Desmosedici.

When pre-season testing concluded last weekend at Buriram, Aprilia led a 1-2 on the overall timesheets and was doing nothing to play down its Ducati-challenging hype.

Friday at the 2026 Thai Grand Prix has been much of the same, with Marco Bezzecchi stunning in a rain-hit Practice to set a new lap record of 1m28.526s to pull 0.421s clear of the field. Nearest challenger was Marc Marquez on the factory Ducati, who at this stage will need a considerable step if he has designs on repeating his Buriram heroics from last season.

Aprilia’s day seemed effortless. Bezzecchi was instantly quick. In FP1, he did a run of 17 laps on the same tyres and every one was faster than Marc Marquez’s lap record from last year’s grand prix.

Martin, with just two days of testing under his belt, was fifth at the end of Practice and safely through to Q2, while Trackhouse sophomore Ai Ogura secured Aprilia’s third top 10 spot despite a late crash at Turn 7.

“This is the result of the job we did during the winter with Marco, and together with all the people in the company, producing innovation, solutions,” Aprilia’s technical chief Fabiano Sterlacchini said on Friday afternoon. “For sure, it’s premature to be saying, ‘Ok, the weekend is gone’, because we need to understand the fuel consumption, the tyre wear that is typical at this circuit. But we have a base.”

The main innovation that has caught everyone’s attention at Buriram is Aprilia’s ‘f-duct’ aero concept. An idea first seen on Formula 1 cars in 2010, the rider is able to block holes with their arms while tucked into the bike on a straight. The theory is that it effectively reduces drag, giving the RS-GP a bit of top speed. It’s a nifty solution to gain a bit more top-end with engine development frozen ahead of the 2027 regulations overhaul.

While that will certainly be helping Aprilia, it’s seemingly not where its current Buriram advantage is coming from.

“At the moment, it looks like Aprilia and Marco are riding really fast here,” Marc Marquez said, before offering up this observation: “For some reason, they are able to make the different [tyre] casing we have here and also Mandalika work.”

Michelin always brings a stiffer rear casing to Buriram, Red Bull Ring and Mandalika to cope with extreme heat demands placed on the tyres. The casing ultimately leads to a reduction in grip compared to the normal tyre.

Aprilia was strong on the tyre at Buriram last year, with Ogura scoring a couple of top fives on his debut. At Red Bull Ring, Bezzecchi led the grand prix for some time before being shuffled back to third. At Mandalika, Raul Fernandez was able to get onto the podium in the sprint, while Bezzecchi should have won the grand prix had it not been for the collision with Marquez that ended the world champion’s season early.

The Aprilia is an agile bike, but one with a lot of stability into the corners. It can then drive out of the turns strongly, which will help get more out of the stiffer rear casing.

Despite everything pointing in the right direction for Aprilia and Bezzecchi, he refuses to consider himself a favourite: “I’m sure that Marc is favourite, is still super-strong. In the right moment, he is always there, so I think that tomorrow and Sunday he will be super-fast.”

You’ll never guess how Marquez responded: “Bezzecchi is favourite for pole, the sprint and the race.”

Ducati in the game, but not fully comfortable

So far, then, there’s a lot of deflection going on. Diving deeper into the long-running pace, which was somewhat interrupted by the uncertainty of the rain during Practice, Ducati is far from out of the picture.

Based on long-running form, VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio - who has raved about his new Ducati this winter - was fastest on Friday with an average pace of 1m29.652s based on a seven-lap representative run on a soft rear that finished with 11 laps on it.

Bezzecchi is right in there at 1m29.711s based on a nine-lap run on a soft tyre that finished with 13 laps on it. Balance that out, Bezzecchi edges ahead slightly. But Ducati has a clear data path to follow to help its other riders get onto Aprilia’s case.

“I don’t want to say too much, I prefer to be a bit superstitious,” Di Giannantonio told the media. “Last year, I said the feeling was fantastic, and then after one day, everything changed. So, I don’t want to get too carried away right now. However, at the moment, every time I’ve been out on track, the front has felt very honest, and that gives a rider a lot of confidence and a lot of room to work on himself. That’s what’s allowing me to be faster right now.”

Di Giannantonio was third overall after Friday practice, but believes there is margin in his one-lap pace given he did his last time attack on used rubber.

Marc Marquez’s pace is harder to read as he did his long running work on the medium rubber. Across seven laps, he averaged 1m30.229s with a tyre that finished with 11 laps on it. Bezzecchi is right to be wary of the world champion, but Marquez is clearly not at 100% yet.

Having explained on Thursday that he is using the 2024-spec aero on his bike because his preferred 2025-spec from last season makes the Ducati more physically demanding on his right shoulder, he admitted on Friday that he’s still adapting his riding style.

He still in better form compared to Alex Marquez, who says it’s not be as easy to get the most out of the GP26 as it was his GP24 at this stage last year, while Pecco Bagnaia was plain unlucky.

The Italian tried a different set-up that just didn’t work for him, but with the rain threatening a Q2 exit, he was forced to do his time attacks on that bike. He ended up 15th and in Q1, but can at least take solace in the fact his race pace during testing was strong.

Pedro Acosta’s victory wait set to extend through Thailand

Aprilia and Ducati, as the pre-season predicted, head into the first qualifying and sprint of the season a step ahead of the field.

KTM has maintained its standing as the third-best manufacturer, with Pedro Acosta continuing to excel. He was fourth overall, albeit 0.659s adrift Bezzecchi, who he says is “on another level”. One-lap pace seems to be the key deficit KTM faces.

But the suggestions it has found a fix to its rear tyre consumption woes over the winter may well be ringing true. Acosta completed a six-lap run on the soft rear at an average pace of 1m29.954s. At this stage, that is podium pace, and Acosta - while sounding somewhat resigned to being unable to win this weekend - is encouraged.

“We have to take these positions as a reference, and when KTM reaches a better circuit [for it], trying to make another jump,” he said, adding, “I’m happy for the bike they gave me; it seems to work better than last year’s.”