Podium for Aprilia Racing in Motegi sprint

Oct 3, 2026 Michael Le Pard News

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JORGE MARTÍN FINISHES THIRD, MARCO BEZZECCHI SIXTH. OGURA FIFTH AND FERNÁNDEZ EIGHTH FOR SUPERFILE TRACKHOUSE MOTOGP TEAM 
Aprilia Racing closed out Saturday at Mobility Resort Motegi with a podium and four RS-GPs in the top eight.

Jorge Martín began the day by taking pole position with a time of 1:42.371, a new all-time lap record. In the sprint, the Spanish rider maintained a good pace throughout the opening stages of the race. However, with six laps remaining, Martín had to give way because his soft rear tyre degraded excessively, with pieces of the central tread coming away. Jorge ultimately finished third after being demoted one place for running onto the green on the final lap – Aprilia Racing’s first-ever podium at Motegi.

Marco Bezzecchi had a difficult sprint, finishing sixth after starting fourth on the grid.

Ai Ogura in fifth and Raúl Fernández in eighth completed the day’s results for the SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team, which meant Aprilia ended Saturday at Motegi with four RS-GP26s in the top ten.
Overall, it’s been a good day. We took pole position and then the podium, Aprilia’s first ever here at Motegi. Generally, I’m happy because we had good pace behind Márquez. Then, with six laps to go, I started having problems with the tyre. I tried to manage it, but over the last three laps the tyre was finished. It’s a shame, because I could have been much closer to Marc at the end. Then, on the final lap, I touched the green a little while defending from Enea and ended up third instead of second. That’s racing, but I’m still proud because yesterday we were a long way off, whereas today I was up at the front fighting. The pace is good and we are strong.
To start with qualifying, I’m happy with fourth. It’s still a very good spot, even if it isn’t the front row, and I did a good job compared with yesterday, improving a lot. For the sprint, I chose the medium tyre because we decided to work with it this morning and the pace was good. I was fairly confident, but unfortunately I couldn’t go as fast in the race as I did this morning. We’ll try to understand why, and I hope to do better tomorrow.
It’s been a slightly bittersweet day. We were very confident in the morning. We had tried several options to improve the bike’s performance, and qualifying was indeed very positive with both Jorge and Marco. In the sprint, it was a shame about the marked blistering, which hit Jorge badly and Marco to a lesser extent, as he raced on a medium tyre that was not ideal. For safety reasons, the soft tyre has been withdrawn for tomorrow, and the warm-up has been extended from 10 to 20 minutes, although the medium has the same carcass that is under suspicion. That’s why I think we’ll try the hard tyre in the morning.

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