naia carved his way into second
and began hunting Bezzecchi.
Behind them, Martin fought
through Di Giannantonio to
move into fourth, although the
leaders had already escaped.
The race turned on lap 16
when Bagnaia crashed out of
second at turn three, promot
-
ing Martin onto the podium and
back into
contention for victory.
Two laps later, Martin overtook
Acosta, setting up a straight
fight with teammate Bezzecchi
at the front.
Meanwhile, Ai Ogura (Track
-
house MotoGP Team) charged
int
o the battle, passing
Acosta
for third with four laps remain-
ing as Aprilia locked out the
t
op three
positions. Martin then
made his decisive move on Bez-
zecchi at turn three with three
laps
to
go and immediately
pulled clear.
Martin sealed his first Grand
Prix victory since Indonesia 2024,
while Bezzecchi resisted Ogura
for second as the Japanese
rookie claimed a maiden MotoGP
podium to give Aprilia their first
MotoGP podium sweep in the
company's history. Di Giannanto
-
nio snatched fourth from Acosta
on the
final lap, with Quartararo
taking sixth on home soil.
"I am truly happy," Martin
said. "At the start, I didn't think
I'd be able to
battle for the win,
but I never let up. Aprilia is
giving me what I need, and my
confidence is growing day by
day. Now it is important to con-
tinue working in this direction to
improve
even more."
Enea Bastianini (Red Bull KTM
Tech3) finished seventh ahead
Martin (89) dives
for the inside
to execute the
coup de grace on
Bezzecchi (72). The
mind games within
Aprilia have well
and truly begun as
they prove to be the
class of the field.
VOLUME 63 ISSUE 19 MAY 12, 2026 P91
of Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse
MotoGP Team), Fermin Aldeguer
(BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) and
Luca Marini (Honda HRC Castrol)
in the top 10. Home rider Johann
Zarco (Castrol Honda LCR) recov-
ered to 11th after being forced
wide on the opening lap.
"where the broken white line is not
crossed or the full pit-lane entry
road is not used by a rider, the FIM
MotoGP Stewards may penalize as
appropriate for practice sessions
or races."
TECH3 TO STAY
WITH KTM?
After weeks of speculation, Tech3
is poised to stay with KTM for
2027 and beyond after heavily
considering a switch to Honda
machinery. Team CEO Guenther
Steiner was noncommittal over the
decision. "At the moment, we're
still talking. We want to make sure
we're in a good place in the next
years. We want to make sure we
make the right decision. We don't
need a quick decision; we need a
right one. Speaking with the teams,
it's very difficult to decide because
no one knows what the bikes will
be like next year. Completely new
regulations. Whatever you do, you
take a gamble. Being new here,
it takes longer to understand. I
want to make sure I don't take a
decision and regret [it] in two or
three weeks. I'm speaking to a
few people. Hopefully in the next
few weeks we can confirm." But
Cycle News understands a switch
to Honda is unlikely after KTM of-
fered some recent financial incen-
tives for the French team to stay.
Briefly...
