- Race distance cut from 31 to 23 laps at short notice
- Bezzecchi now leads the championship with 56 points
- Bagnaia crashes again and leaves without points
MotoGP has returned to Brazil, and it did so in spectacular fashion. At the second round of the 2026 season at the Autódromo Internacional Ayrton Senna in Goiânia, Marco Bezzecchi has emphatically taken charge of both the field and the world championship. The 27-year-old Italian rode his Aprilia RS-GP from the front throughout, winning by over three seconds from teammate Jorge Martin. It was his fourth consecutive grand prix victory, having already won the final two races of 2025 and the season opener in Thailand.
A Weekend Full of Surprises and Problems
The first MotoGP weekend in Goiânia since 1989 was anything but smooth. Heavy rainfall on Friday caused delays and scrambled the results. On Saturday, a sinkhole appeared on the main straight after qualifying, apparently caused by a burst drainage pipe beneath the asphalt. Repairs delayed the sprint race by around 80 minutes. Moto2 qualifying even had to be postponed to Sunday.
The track problems did not end there. Minutes before the start of Sunday’s grand prix came the announcement that stunned the paddock: the race distance was being cut from 31 to 23 laps. Race direction cited degradation of the track surface, which had worsened throughout the weekend. With track temperatures exceeding 60 degrees and ambient temperatures above 30 degrees, the strain on both the circuit and the tyres was immense. Riders had already committed to their tyre choices by that point and could no longer switch, causing a scramble in several garages.
Bezzecchi Controls the Race From the Start
When the lights went out, it was Bezzecchi who got the best start. The factory Aprilia rider swept past polesitter Fabio di Giannantonio and took the lead into turn one. Di Giannantonio then ran wide at turn 1 on the second lap, which Marc Marquez on the factory Ducati immediately exploited to move up to second.
Behind the leading duo, a dynamic quickly emerged that would shape the entire race. Jorge Martin, who had finished third in Saturday’s sprint, recovered quickly after briefly dropping behind Pedro Acosta. On lap six, di Giannantonio attacked Marquez aggressively at turn 4 and both ran wide. Martin capitalised on the chaos to slot neatly into second place.
By that point, Bezzecchi was already more than two seconds clear at the front. Unlike in the sprint, where a mistake at turn 10 had left him fourth, he delivered a flawless performance in the grand prix. He led every single lap from start to finish and at times posted by far the fastest times in the field. In Sunday morning’s warm-up, he had been the only rider to lap below 1:18 minutes, making his intentions clear.
The Battle for Third: Di Giannantonio vs Marquez
While the two Aprilia riders were in a league of their own at the front, a gripping fight for the final podium spot unfolded behind them. Marc Marquez and Fabio di Giannantonio engaged in a duel that was hard to beat for intensity. The reigning world champion spent much of the race trying to find a way past the VR46 Ducati rider, who defended with everything he had.
With five laps to go, Marquez finally made his move. But di Giannantonio refused to give in and struck back just two laps later when Marquez made a mistake at turn 12 and nearly crashed. The Italian, who had come off worse against Marquez in the previous day’s sprint, reclaimed the position and held it to the flag.
After the race, di Giannantonio revealed that a warm-up crash that morning had left him hampered. He had hit his left shoulder, which had already caused him problems at the end of 2024. “As soon as I started the race and went into the left-handers, I was really struggling,” he said. He still described the battle with Marquez as great, even though it had been hard and aggressive.
Martin Celebrates His Best Aprilia Result
For Jorge Martin, second place in Goiânia was a milestone. It was his first grand prix podium since the 2024 Solidarity GP in Valencia, where he had clinched the world title. It was also his best result on the Aprilia RS-GP, having taken his first ever podium on the Italian machine in Saturday’s sprint.
The 2024 world champion had been through a difficult period. After a total of 27 broken bones and five surgeries, the road back to the front had been long and arduous. In Brazil, he showed for the first time why Aprilia had signed him. “Today Marco was really, really strong. At one point I thought I could catch him, but towards the end it became a bit more difficult,” Martin said after the race. He finished 3.321 seconds behind Bezzecchi.
Bagnaia and KTM Endure a Difficult Weekend
At the other end of the spectrum, Francesco Bagnaia had a weekend to forget. The two-time world champion had already struggled in qualifying, crashing in Q2 and having to settle for 11th on the grid. He finished eighth in the sprint, but the grand prix went even worse: he crashed out at turn 1 on lap 11. At that point he was only the second-to-last Ducati, trying to catch LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco.
KTM also had a mixed weekend. Pedro Acosta, who had arrived in Goiânia as championship leader, could only salvage seventh place. The other three RC16s started from the last three positions on the grid. Brad Binder crashed out early, while Enea Bastianini and Maverick Viñales finished 15th and 18th respectively. The consequence: Acosta lost the championship lead to Bezzecchi and dropped to third overall.
Jack Miller’s 200th Grand Prix Ends Early
A special milestone passed rather quietly in Brazil. Jack Miller contested his 200th MotoGP grand prix in Goiânia, only the tenth rider in history to reach that mark. But the celebration was short-lived: the Australian crashed out on the second lap aboard his Pramac Yamaha. Before the race, he had been ceremonially presented with a cape, as is tradition in MotoGP for such milestones.
Aprilia as MotoGP’s New Force?
The results in Brazil reinforce the trend that had already become apparent at the season opener in Thailand: Aprilia has not only caught up with the front-runners but is currently leading the way. Bezzecchi and Martin finished first and second in Goiânia, with Ai Ogura on the Trackhouse Aprilia taking fifth. In the constructors’ championship, Aprilia now leads Ducati by 17 points.
The numbers speak for themselves: across his last four grand prix races, Bezzecchi has led all 101 laps without another rider spending a single lap at the front. Previously, only Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo had achieved four consecutive victories in the modern MotoGP era.
Bezzecchi himself remained measured after the race. “It was a tough weekend, especially Friday was really difficult. We started in a bad way and it was not easy to keep the motivation super high,” he said. On Friday, he had finished only 20th in the rain-affected practice sessions. “But the guys did a wonderful job. I also pushed myself over the limit to try to compensate everything I could.” He dedicated the victory to his late friend Robbie Lunada from Rimini, who had died in a road traffic accident the previous week.
In the championship standings, Bezzecchi now leads with 56 points ahead of Martin (45) and Acosta (42). Reigning world champion Marquez sits on 34 points, already 22 behind the leader. The next stop is the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, a track Marquez has dominated for years. If Aprilia can deliver the goods there too, alarm bells will surely be ringing at Ducati’s headquarters in Borgo Panigale.
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