MotoGP: CatalanGP (EN)

Another weekend, another round of the world championship. We have arrived at the sixth stop of this 2026 World Championship, and the MotoGP paddock lands at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for the MotoGP: CatalanGP. We are talking about a track that needs no introduction: an iconic arena that has gifted motorcycling with legendary moments etched into everyone's memory—such as Valentino Rossi’s historic and crazy last-corner overtaking maneuver on Jorge Lorenzo in 2009—but which unfortunately also evokes dark and painful pages, such as the tragic passing of Luis Salom in 2016.

As is now tradition for our post-MotoGP appointments, we are ready to dissect everything that happened on the track to understand who rises to the altar of the best and who ends up behind the blackboard. We will do this by following the chronological order, starting from Saturday's action and then focusing on the main course.

I will give you a preview, though: for Sunday's race, you can forget the usual structure. The dynamics on the track were so particular that to analyze the race we will have to adopt a completely different strategy than usual.

Get comfortable; we start on Saturday!

MotoGP: CatalanGP.

Saturday

Top

Alex Marquez. An extremely solid Friday and an excellent third place in qualifying, which, on paper, paves the way both for the sprint and, above all, for Sunday's race. He gets away well at the start, glues himself to Acosta's exhaust for the first few laps, and then, at about mid-race, launches the attack. From that moment on, he tries to impose his own rhythm to wear down the close competition of Acosta, Fernandez, and Di Giannantonio. When the plan seems to have succeeded, with a lead that touches seven-tenths over Acosta, he sees his entire margin eaten back up in a single passing. This, however, is not enough to make him lose the leadership. An absolutely superb sprint, which promises very well in view of Sunday.

Pedro Acosta. He takes a beautiful pole position—which breaks a drought lasting 588 days—with authority and confidence, confirming that great race pace that had already been glimpsed since Friday. In the sprint, he starts strong and maintains the lead in the first few laps before undergoing the overtakes of Alex Marquez and Raul Fernandez at mid-race, slipping into third position. In the second part of the race, however, he finds his rhythm again: he overtakes Fernandez once more, closes the small gap on an Alex Marquez who was by then fleeing, and attempts a last-gasp overtake that unfortunately is not successful. Too bad for the missed victory, but an excellent second place remains that builds morale, especially in the first part of the season in which KTM is certainly not shining.

Fabio Di Giannantonio. He puts on record yet another solid Saturday. He launches from the sixth slot, keeps himself out of trouble, maintains his own rhythm, and, exploiting the bagarre ahead, remains hooked to the lead train, waiting for the right moment. When Fernandez suffers a drop in the finale, "Diggia" takes advantage of it, passes him, and claws a great podium. It is true that in the morning qualifying he had been beaten by his teammate, but Franco Morbidelli in the second half of the race literally planted himself, closing only to seventh.

Raul Fernandez. A very solid fourth place in qualifying, which, exactly as for Alex Marquez, puts excellent strategic premises on the table. He starts well and inserts himself stably into the lead group, even finding himself in second place behind the Ducati number 73, though without showing the same pace as the leader. In the finale, the rider suffers a bit of wear, forcing him to yield the way first to Acosta and then to Di Giannantonio. He closes at the foot of the podium but still confirms himself as the best of the Aprilias on track.

Johann Zarco. Yet another proof of substance for the Honda rider. Despite being the oldest of the fleet of Japanese bikes and always being in the front row to be replaced by someone younger, the facts say otherwise: last year he demolished Somkiat Chantra—to the point of pushing him to quit MotoGP—and this year he is doing better than all the other riders of the winged house, factory ones included. Zarco confirms himself, once again, as an absolute certainty.

Ai Ogura. A nightmare Friday for the Japanese Aprilia rider, in line with the difficulties encountered by all the other riders of the Noale house. Starting from the eighteenth slot in Barcelona, on a circuit where overtaking is never trivial, risked turning into a disaster. And instead, Ai starts with his head down and, lap after lap, recovers up to eighth place, giving the impression in the final stages of riding at twice the speed compared to his direct opponents. All of this in just 12 laps. If on Sunday he were to find even a shred of extra pace and nail the launch at the start, Ogura could truly put together a masterpiece recovery directly from Tokyo.

Flop.

Yamaha. At this turn, absolutely no one is saved. On a track with little grip and where the rideability of the bike makes all the difference in the world, Yamaha sinks and finds itself being the last wagon of the lot. The riders crossed the finish line respectively in thirteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth positions (there are five riders due to the presence in this Grand Prix of the test rider Augusto Fernández). A true collective disaster. Fabio Quartararo, in just 12 laps, picked up a whopping 10 seconds of gap from the top, which means traveling at nearly one second per lap of delay. Not to mention the other heralds of the Iwata house. There is truly nothing else to add.

Aprilia. In this case, the discussion limits itself exclusively to the factory team. If, on one hand, Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura demonstrated having an excellent pace, on the other hand, Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin were the shadow of themselves. The two factory riders collected the beauty of five crashes overall between Friday and Saturday (four for Martin and one for Bezzecchi); Jorge was even forced to pass through Q1 to then qualify ninth, with Bezzecchi right behind in the twelfth slot. In the Sprint, things did not go any better: Jorge slid off again—signing his fourth crash of the weekend—while Bezzecchi remained trapped in the traffic of the midfield, even undergoing the overtake by Ogura who, let's remember, was launching eighteenth. A black Saturday, totally to be forgotten.

Sunday.

The Sunday race was heavily conditioned by two red flags and three restarts, which fragmented the original 25-lap race into three segments: one of 12 laps, another lasting barely six corners, and a final one of 12 laps. In a context of this kind, establishing who was the best or the worst becomes a titanic enterprise. The third restart, in particular, was distorted both by a starting grid that did not at all reflect the real values on the field expressed in Saturday's qualifying and by the tire management: no one had new tires available anymore, forcing the riders to opt for the lesser evil rather than for the ideal technical choice.

For this reason, at this turn, the classic structure of "Top and Flop" skips: with three starts and such an amount of incidents, the minimum presuppositions to give an objective judgment go, in my opinion, straight into the trash bin.

However, there are a couple of things that I care to say.

First and foremost, it is a huge relief to know that Alex Marquez is alive and in "good conditions," especially considering the terrifying dynamic of his accident. For those who do not know, on the 12th lap of the first race, Pedro Acosta planted himself in the middle of the track between turns 9 and 10 due to a technical problem; the blameless Alex Marquez, who was right behind, did not manage to avoid him and was bucked off his Ducati, hitting violently both against the ground and against the wall at the side of the track.

The same discourse goes for Johann Zarco, who, during the course of the second restart, lost control at the first corner, centering Luca Marini and Pecco Bagnaia; for a moment the worst was feared for the French rider, but fortunately the alarm retracted. Very probably we will not see both riders at Mugello, having anyway to deal with rather serious injury recoveries (Alex has a marginally fractured vertebra, and Zarco has lesions of the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments). In this regard, praise must be given to the race direction, which was impeccable in waving the red flags immediately to allow the cleaning of the track, and, what is even more important, to the track doctors who guaranteed rapid assistance to both Alex Marquez and Zarco.

As far as the competition is concerned, a note of merit goes to Fabio Di Giannantonio, who was very good at winning a beautiful Sunday "sprint," recovering from sixth place, and taking advantage of the fact that the riders ahead of him had tires too worn out to be able to defend themselves. "Diggia" was also kissed by fortune, escaping unscathed from the moment in which the front wheel of Marquez's Ducati, during the accident, hit him fully, making him lose control of his bike at turn 10. In a weekend in which the Roman rider was going strong bt not enough to aim for the victory, these 25 points are a splendid blessing.

Fortune smiled decisively also on Fermín Aldeguer and Pecco Bagnaia, who grabbed the podium despite not having shown a potential up to that result. For Bagnaia, the luck was even double: first he gets centered in the second restart, runs to the pits to take the second bike, participates in the third restart, and crosses the finish line fourth; then, he finds himself on the podium in place of Joan Mir, penalized by 16 seconds due to irregular tire pressure.

Extremely fortunate also is Marco Bezzecchi, who, thanks to an unexpected fourth place, extends his lead in the general standings over teammate Jorge Martin. The latter was wiped out by Raul Fernandez during the third race, remedying a crash that made him lose an excellent opportunity to recover points, further equaling the negative record of crashes in a single weekend that belonged to Marc Marquez since 2023, when Marc was still in Honda. Even if a great weekend were not shaping up for Bezzecchi, he had the merit of staying away from trouble, remaining upright, and bringing home very heavy points for the championship.

Remaining on the Aprilia theme, if for the factory team it was a decidedly negative Sunday, for the satellite Trackhouse squad it was a weekend to be forgotten quickly: it was honestly difficult to do worse than this. Raul Fernandez wiped out Martin at turn 5 during the third restart with a maneuver decidedly too aggressive. It was an analogous mistake for Ai Ogura, who, smelling the scent of fourth place (which would have been his best seasonal placement), attempted a hazardous overtake on Acosta at the last corner: he missed the entry, lost the front, and mowed down the same Acosta, translating into a painful double zero for both.

Excellent, instead of the fifth place of Fabio Quartararo. In an otherwise horrible weekend for Yamaha—which saw the other three riders of the brand penalized by the stewards for irregular tire pressure—the Frenchman managed to conquer a final placement of substance and entirely unhoped-for on the eve.

Finally, a bad Sunday also for KTM. The problems started already before the launch with technical troubles on Brad Binder's bike (then fortunately resolved), continued with the retirement of Enea Bastianini also due to a mechanical problem, and concluded with Pedro Acosta planting himself in the middle of the track, involuntarily triggering the accident that sent Alex Marquez to the hospital and caused the first red flag. If for Yamaha it was only a matter of sporting damage, in the KTM house the balance is heavy also from an economic point of view.

Brief Reflections.

This was the weekend in Barcelona, where a Sunday that was too eventful for my tastes occurred. Thank goodness no one lost their life.

The next appointment is in two weeks in Italy, for the Mugello Grand Prix.

M.