Four Aprilias in the top five on Friday at Silverstone

Aug 7, 2026 Michael Le Pard News

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BEZZECCHI FIRST, JORGE MARTÍN FOURTH. SUPERFILE TRACKHOUSE MOTOGP TEAM RIDERS, FERNÁNDEZ SECOND AND OGURA FIFTH
Extremely positive first day of practice for Aprilia Racing on the Silverstone circuit.

Marco Bezzecchi, who was declared fit to race by the MotoGP Medical Team on Thursday, surprised everyone by finishing FP1 in second place and leading the practice session, a result which puts him straight through to Q2. The Italian rider also set the new track record with a time of 1’56.280.

It was a positive day for Jorge Martín as well, eighth in FP1 and fourth in the practice session, which also puts him straight through to Q2.

Worth a mention is the performance by the SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team riders, with Raúl Fernández second and Ai Ogura fifth. Thanks to these results, Aprilia Racing takes four RS-GP26 machines straight through to Q2.

It was really great when I saw my time. I smiled a bit from inside my helmet. It’s only Friday, but it is still rather satisfying. Physically, it was hard, because I had to deal with the operations on my shoulder and knee, so I had to go through two rehabilitation programmes. The pain in my collarbone is tolerable, although it is stressed quite a bit on this track because of the many direction changes. My knee, on the other hand, hurts a lot, not so much in the time attack, but after a few laps.
The sensations from this morning were good. We changed the bike a lot compared with the last race, returning to the one that had worked at the beginning of the season. I felt comfortable again and, as soon as I got out on the track, I was able to find a good feeling straight away. There is still a bit of margin for improvement in some areas, and I can certainly tell that I didn’t race here with Aprilia last year, but it was a positive day nonetheless, and we still have time to fine tune the last details ahead of Saturday.
It was an outstanding return from the summer break with Marco Bezzecchi who, after his injuries, gritted his teeth in spite of the pain and achieved a fantastic first place – a sign that the speed is there. We’ll still need to evaluate his condition carefully ahead of the sprint race and the long race. It was a good day for Martín, Fernández, and Ogura as well: this is an extremely important result from a technical point of view, because we took for bikes into the top five, confirming that the Aprilia-Silverstone match-up works.

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