Aprilia were part of the field at the 2026 season opener in Thailand, and Ducati boss Davide Tardozzi was left praising his Italian rivals after the race.
Noale Clothing was looking to pick up where they left off in 2025, closing the gap. Ducati Marc Marquez was injured. They did it right Grand Prix of Thailand as a Marko Bezecchi won the title From pole position.
The first race of 2026 is over! How would you rate the Thai Grand Prix out of 10?
Bezecchi has fallen from the lead in the sprint competitionBut the Italian came back victorious on Sunday, leading every lap on KTM’s Pedro Acosta by five-and-a-half seconds.
Aprilia P3, P4 and P5 were locked in Thailand as Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez rounded out the podium. Bezechichi’s team-mate George Martin was fourth, while Ai Ogura made a late charge to finish fifth.
Neil Hodgson notes David Tardozzi’s ‘amazing’ Aprilia ‘off-camera’ decision at Thai Grand Prix
The Ducati 88 race at the Thailand GP saw at least one rider finish on the podium. Fabio Di Giantantonio was the top rider in sixth, ahead of Francesco Bagnaia in P8 with his VR46 teammate.
Challenger Michel Pirro, standing for Gresini rider Fermin Aldeguerre, was 19th and last, as the Marquez brothers retired from the race. Marc Marquez had a rear tire failure In the 21st round and Alex Marquez fell minutes later.
It was a weekend to forget for Ducati, but the Thai GP was a clear sign that Aprilia will close at the top of MotoGP. Tardozi According to Neil Hodgson, he thanked his Italian rivals after the match TNT Sports.
Bezecchi beat the best Ducati Digia by over 16 seconds. After the race, Hodgson shared what Tardozzi said off-camera about Nole’s outfit: “What was that, 16 seconds? When was the last time a manufacturer got 16 seconds in a season? I can’t remember. That’s huge.”
“And David Tardozzi spoke to us off camera, I don’t know if he spoke to us on camera, like when Bravo spoke to Aprilia.
Read more: Everything you need to know about Aprilia, from MotoGP team riders to the hierarchy
Davide Tardozzi admits Ducati had a ‘completely different’ bike in Thailand than pre-season
Bagnaia admits that Ducati is no longer the fastest On the grid after the Thailand GP. He struggled to gain any competitive edge all weekend, crashing in Q1 and failing to pass P9 in either race.
Tardozzi admits Ducati have a ‘completely different’ bike to the one they tested in pre-season a week ago. The team could not understand the situation, but thankfully, there are three weeks left until the next race to assess the damage.
Is Ducati’s dominance in MotoGP finally over?
He added: “A very difficult weekend, because it looks like Apria has grown a lot.” “They were incredibly quick with all four riders this weekend, so cheers, because they had a fantastic weekend.
Finally, there is one strange thing, this weekend, we found the bike completely different from the previous one when we were here (for testing), and that is something we still don’t understand.
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