Aprilia Leads The Championships: MotoGP 2026 Brazilian GP Recap
- therookiereporters
- Mar 25
- 5 min read
Just like the return of Brazilian representatives in the MotoGP grid, Brazil also breaks its two-decade-long absence from the MotoGP calendar. This article covers the weekend’s MotoGP races in Goiânia.
After 22 years of absence from the series, Brazil returns to MotoGP at Autódromo Internacional de Goiânia, where its relationship with the series began. The first-ever Brazilian GP was held in this circuit in 1987, but it had a short-lived run in the calendar. Then came Interlagos with a one-time appearance in 1992, and Rio got the longest run of them all between 1995-2004. Now with the debut of their newest young prospect, Diogo Moreira, Goiânia makes its return to the MotoGP calendar as well. The track is 3.84 km long and has 14 corners. It provides us with 15 laps of the Sprint Race on Saturday and 23 laps of the Grand Prix on Sunday.
In Saturday’s qualifying session, with plenty of crashes, Fabio Di Giannantonio of VR46 Racing fought from Q1 and took the pole position with a lap of 1:17.410. Similar to Diggia, his compatriot Marco Bezzecchi followed in 2nd place, and Ducati’s reigning world champion Marc Marquez completed the top 3. Fabio Quartararo surprised everyone by qualifying in 4th place with his Yamaha. The French rider once again exceeded the expectations from his bike, which is something he has been doing plenty of times in recent memory. Another decent Yamaha performance came from Pramac with Toprak Razgatlioglu.
The Turkish rider got himself his first Q2 appearance after setting the 3rd fastest lap in Friday’s practice session under tricky conditions. The returning Gresini rider Fermin Aldeguer clocked the 7th fastest time of the qualifying session, outqualifying his teammate Alex Marquez and the championship leader Pedro Acosta, who will start in 8th and 9th places. Meanwhile, the home hero Diogo Moreira got eliminated in Q1 and will start the races from the 14th grid slot.
Sprint Race
The sprint race on Saturday came with a chaotic delay. The circuit withstood a flood during the week, and its track damage suddenly appeared in the form of a big sinkhole after the qualifying session. After an hour and 20 minutes of delay, the issue was dealt with, and the Sprint Race could begin.
Diggia takes a good start from pole position and keeps his lead in the beginning. Quartararo takes off well and finds himself in 2nd place after the start. However, El Diablo can’t stay there long, as Marquez and Aprilia riders overtake him in the following laps. He also battles against Ai Ogura for a few laps, but on lap 9, Ogura clears him off as well. Toprak Razgatlioglu and Fermin Aldeguer get terrible starts and quickly go down in the pecking order. Joan Mir crashes out on lap 2, then Zarco and Vinales follow him to retirement during the race.
After the opening laps, Diggia and Marquez become the leading pack with seconds in front of the Aprilia riders, who battle for the last place on the Sprint podium. Marquez kept his close distance patiently, and with 3 laps remaining to the chequered flag, he made his decisive move on Diggia at turn 13. Despite remaining at the tail of the Spaniard, Diggia can’t find the opportunity to take the lead back, and Marquez takes his first victory in the 2026 season. Di Giannantonio finishes in 2nd, and Jorge Martin comes back to the podium in 3rd place, as he claims his first Sprint podium since the 2024 Malaysian GP. After his 16th Sprint win, the reigning champion equals the Martinator’s most Sprint Race victories. With the help of crashing riders and the bad starts in front, home favourite Diogo Moreira gains 4 positions and finishes in 10th place, just missing out on the points-paying positions.
Grand Prix
Unlike Saturday’s Sprint Race, Diggia loses the lead to Bezzecchi, who gets away well from his line and immediately opens the gap from the start. Acosta takes off well from 9th place and gains 5 places in the first two laps thanks to his soft tyre choice at the back. However, that choice backfires in the remainder of the race, as he falls back to 7th place. Pramac Yamaha’s Aussie, Jack Miller, crashes out on the second lap and ends his 200th Grand Prix run early. Binder follows him 2 laps later, Bagnaia and Mir also join them towards the halfway point of the race.
On lap 6, Jorge Martin benefits from a Di Giannantonio-Marquez fight and passes both riders in one corner to claim second place, 2 seconds behind his leading Aprilia teammate. A few seconds behind this group, Alex Marquez and Pedro Acosta battle for 5th in the second half of the race, but their scrap helps Ai Ogura catch them. The Japanese rider of Trackhouse overtakes both of them towards the end. Just like in the Sprint Race, Diggia and Marquez fight once again, but their battle is for the last step of the podium this time. Marquez gets his elbows out on turn 6 with five laps remaining and takes the 3rd place.
However, in the next lap, he makes a little mistake, which Diggia quickly capitalises on and takes the position back. In the remaining laps, the reigning champion doesn’t get another chance, and Diggia claims the 3rd place, as Aprilia completes a 1-2 finish with Marco Bezzecchi leading. After his Sprint podium on Saturday, the Martinator makes his return to the Grand Prix podium as well with a 2nd place finish, his first since the Solidarity GP in 2024. Marco Bezzecchi makes it 4 wins in a row and becomes only the 5th rider in MotoGP’s modern era to take 4 consecutive Grand Prix victories, joining Valentino Rossi, Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo and Francesco Bagnaia. The Italian is also chosen as the Rider of the Race by the fans. Brazil’s only representative in the grid, Diogo Moreira, finishes the race in 13th and brings home 3 more points in the standings.
With this result, the Aprilia riders jump Pedro Acosta in the Drivers’ Championship, as Marco Bezzechi takes the lead with 56 points, 11 points in front of his teammate Jorge Martin. This makes the Italian the first Aprilia rider to lead the standings since Aleix Espargaro in the 2022 season. After a decent start in Buriram, Acosta struggles in Brazil and finds himself dropped to the 3rd place in the standings. Their 1-2 finish brings Aprilia to the top of the Teams Championship too, overtaking KTM and opening the gap to Trackhouse. After the first 2 rounds in the championship, Pramac Yamaha remains the only team that is yet to score any points.
In summary, Brazil made an eventful return to MotoGP, which ended with Aprilia’s takeover in Goiânia. The next race will take place next weekend(March 27-29) in the Circuit of the Americas, one of Marc Marquez’s favourite tracks on the calendar. We’ll see if Marc Marquez will remain the King of the COTA or if Aprilia will make another strong statement for the rest of the 2026 season.
Article written by Emre Albas © Emre Albas 2026
