British MotoGP: how Aprilia crushed Ducati at Silverstone

“When the bike is balanced, the front and the rear are balanced, you don’t need to override the front to turn, or turn with the rear,” explained Martin at Silverstone.

Fernández led Sunday’s race from start to finish, after crashing out of the sprint, by making sure he didn’t abuse this tyres in the early laps. He could’ve gone faster but if he had, he would’ve run out of grip. This was the 25-year-old Spaniard’s second Sunday MotoGP victory, after Phillip Island last year.

Undoubtedly his day was made easier by the fact that his biggest rivals – Martin and Ogura – lost time in the first corners because their holeshot devices failed to disengage. Pole-sitter Martin blamed himself, because he braked less than intended, because he wanted to keep the lead from Fernández, who had got a better launch from second on the grid. Ogura said he forgot to hit the brakes hard enough – just about understandable in the first-corner frenzy.

That put Fernández 1.1 seconds ahead of Bezzecchi at the end of the first lap, with Martin another second down and Ogura mired in the pack, battling with the Márquez brothers and KTM’s Pedro Acosta.

Martin overhauled Bezzecchi, who was struggling with his Sachsenring injuries, before half-distance and then set about tackling Fernández’s four-second lead. He did close the gap a little but soon realised it was a hopeless task.

When he arrived at Silverstone, Martin led the tightest championship top five in history, with just 24 points covering the 2024 world champion, Ogura, Marc Márquez, Bezzecchi and Fabio Di Giannantonio. He now stands 31 points ahead of second-placed Bezzecchi.

Martin made a very important change last weekend, which should make him a much tougher rival for the rest of the season. He reverted to the bike spec which he used for the first five races, from Buriram to Le Mans. Martin started the season one spec behind Bezzecchi, because he had missed the opening pre-season tests through injury, so Aprilia decided it would be better if he stuck with what he already knew.

After those first five races, Martin stood just one point behind championship leader Bezzecchi. Then he switched to the latest bike spec (which he tried for the first time during the post-Spanish GP Jerez tests) at Catalunya and everything fell apart – six crashes over the weekend – then his Turn 1 mistake at Balaton, ninth at Brno and fifth at Sachsenring, where he complained that he was making too many changes to the bike, trying to find the feeling he had enjoyed earlier in the year. Last weekend he made no changes, allowing him to squeeze the maximum out of his bike.

Aprilia had another aero update at Silverstone, with vanes at the rear of the swingarm, somewhat similar to those used by KTM a couple of years ago. These have a dual purpose – to tidy up the wake at the back of the bike and provide some ground-effect at maximum lean. Martin first tried them on Saturday morning and liked them so much he used them in the sprint, which he won. No wonder Bezzecchi also used them on Sunday.

Ogura’s first mistake of the year – well, two mistakes, the Turn 1 memory lapse, then losing the front at the chicane while seventh on lap nine of 20 – came after a win and two second places at the previous three races, which put him in title contention. Perhaps the pressure got to him.

Alex Márquez was Ducati’s fastest rider in both races, taking two fourth places, because he’s smoother than the other Desmosedici riders.

“In the fast corners I’m able to save the rear tyre a lot,” he said. “I’m really, really smooth and the faster the corner, the more I can manage the rear tyre.”

On Sunday he passed Bezzecchi for third, then made a mistake which dropped him back to fourth. In the final stages he was all over the Aprilia but couldn’t get past.

“Marco wasn’t overriding the bike like us,” he added, explaining the difference between the two machines.

However, the younger Márquez doesn’t think 2026 is a lost cause for Ducati, indeed he thinks the Desmosedici is closer to the RS-GP than it was at the start of the season, when Bezzecchi led the first three races from start to finish.

“If you compare from the beginning of the year, the gap is much smaller, and especially at tracks like this, where the Aprilia is always super-fast,” he explained. “We are doing a really great job inside Ducati. Honestly speaking, before I was expecting Aprilia would have more advantage here, and we were close to them, so I’m happy.”

So far this year, Aprilia has won seven races to Ducati’s five.

Brother Marc also expected a difficult weekend and he got it, with ninth on Sunday and seventh on Sunday, his worst performance of the year, and after winning three of the previous four races.

The reigning champion knew Silverstone would be tough because the track’s numerous high-speed direction changes would ask too much of his troublesome right shoulder, just like Assen had, where he had his second worst performance of the year.

On Saturday his main problem with the soft rear tyre, which most riders chose for the sprint. He overused the tyre from the start, which dropped him from fourth on lap one to ninth. At one he was battling so much wheelspin that a particular violent headshake deployed his airbag.

“In practice we never had that drop,” he said. “I was not the only one, many riders had it, but I suffered more because the drop started super-early. I felt a massive drop and just tried to survive and finish the race.”

“I felt it was not possible to fight with the others, so I didn’t fight”

On Sunday his shoulder was his biggest concern, a real worry, considering it’s ten months since surgeons repaired the damage done in his Indonesian GP crash and three months since they removed the loose screws that had been interfering with the radial nerve.

Muscle endurance, rather than strength, is his biggest problem.

“Here I was able to ride well in the time attack for the first time, but endurance is where I need to try to improve.”

Despite his health concerns and dropping from 18 points to 40 off the championship lead, Márquez says he isn’t feeling the pressure.

“Because it depends on your goal – my goal is to enjoy riding the bike,” he said on Sunday. “My goal is to be world champion, but if not, it will not change my life. I keep saying that. My ambition is the same, my way of approaching the race weekend is the same, always realistic and no rush. Yesterday I had that big issue with the tyre ride that I didn’t manage well. Today I felt it was not possible to fight with the others, so I didn’t fight. I will fight when I feel good, but if I don’t feel good I want to stay on the bike.”

Márquez should feel good next time out, at anti-clockwise Aragon, where he’s won seven MotoGP races. And there are more racetracks that should bother him like Silverstone and Aragon have done.