MotoGP’s return to Europe noticed a couple of of the season’s early patterns get turned on their heads. Aprilia’s run of wins was lastly damaged, whereas a person who had been largely nameless earlier than this weekend popped as much as win the race on Sunday.
Whereas inclement climate on Saturday offered the chance for brand spanking new faces to surge nearer the entrance, sure stars discovered themselves out of place as they didn’t grasp the problem of Jerez. In the meantime, MotoGP’s greatest identify ended up with a lot to ponder….
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This is a have a look at these celebrating highs and lamenting lows after the weekend in Andalucia.
Winner: Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
Getting his breakthrough grand prix win on dwelling floor finally 12 months’s Spanish GP was a dream come true, but it surely wasn’t completely sudden. Repeating the feat wouldn’t even have crossed Alex’s thoughts this time round. His kind had been mediocre within the three flyaways that opened the season; his odds had been lengthy. His laughing dismissal of his probabilities in Thursday’s press convention was in all probability real.
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As quickly as he hit the monitor on Friday, although, it appeared just like the 2025 version of Alex Marquez – the one who completed second on the planet championship – was again. Out of the blue, he was chief of the Ducati pack in dry circumstances. Not even his illustrious brother had a solution.
Alex did not deal with the damp climate on Saturday fairly so properly, crashing in each qualifying and the dash. However this quirky day of guesswork wasn’t one to over-analyse… and the circumstances robbed others of the prospect to chop his edge in dry-track efficiency. He duly took benefit of that on Sunday, waltzing to victory regardless of ranging from the second row.
Whether or not this proves a blip stays to be seen. However both approach, Alex might be pleading with Liberty Media to not axe any Spanish races. He is received three of the final 5 in his homeland, so be careful for him in Barcelona subsequent month!
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Loser: The manufacturing unit Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Workforce
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Workforce
Final 12 months’s Japanese GP should appear a lifetime in the past for the Ducati crew in crimson. That day, they had been celebrating a race win for and a world title for . They may by no means have imagined that they would not crack a podium for the subsequent 9 races – and counting.
The manufacturing unit staff merely is not getting it collectively in the intervening time, and Jerez offered in all probability probably the most embarrassing instance of that since that day at Motegi. A satellite tv for pc Ducati received the race, in any case, whereas one other accomplished the rostrum. All issues thought of, Gresini and VR46 appeared to be ticking alongside fairly properly whereas Davide Tardozzi’s crew contemplated a common lack of tempo and a double DNF.
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The manufacturing unit squad has had loads of apply coping with an unfit or absent Marc Marquez since Japan. Ditto a Bagnaia battling his personal perplexing kind. However right here, at a Ducati stronghold, Marquez had declared himself absolutely match and Bagnaia was coming off an American weekend that had offered some positives. So for the wheels to come back off so dramatically at Jerez, whereas the independents flew the flag, would have stung.
Sure, Marc did take a damp-weather pole and led a 1-2 the dash, though there was a good bit of luck concerned in that victory. However the manufacturing unit Ducati crew would not go racing to pocket sprints.
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Sunday was actually worrying, with Marc’s high-speed crash – his second in as many race weekends – confirming that the lead rider is in a funk to match that of the staff. Making the fitting tyre name within the dash apart, Bagnaia was again to nameless kind – and the technical failure that ended his Sunday was the cherry on high of a dire weekend for the manufacturing unit.
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Winner: Johann Zarco, Workforce LCR Honda
Johann Zarco, Workforce LCR Honda
Issues had gone very quiet for Zarco because the highs of Le Mans and Silverstone final season. So this was a tremendous time for the Frenchman to remind the MotoGP world that he is nonetheless obtained one thing to supply. And due to the rain on Saturday, that is precisely what he did at Jerez.
The LCR Honda rider was, as traditional, condemned to Q1 after dry Friday apply. However damp circumstances for qualifying had any MotoGP gambler placing down large cash on the veteran wet-weather specialist to progress to Q2. He did not disappoint them. A couple of minutes after topping Q1, he was the one man to take the combat to Marc Marquez within the pole battle, ultimately qualifying a stellar second.
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Regardless of rain arriving within the dash, that race was a lottery that did not fall his approach. Many would have anticipated him to tumble down the sector in Sunday’s sunshine, however Zarco confirmed that the Honda may race respectably given an honest grid slot. He ran fifth for a lot of the race, making the Trackhouse Aprilias work onerous to cross him within the closing levels.
Seventh was a very good consequence, particularly on a day when the subsequent Honda straggled dwelling in thirteenth spot. If Zarco can simply work out the best way to qualify like that within the dry, he can begin to flip heads on a extra common foundation.
Loser: Pedro Acosta, Pink Bull KTM Manufacturing facility Racing
Pedro Acosta, Pink Bull KTM Manufacturing facility Racing
Acosta had a stinker of a Spanish Grand Prix weekend in 2025. One 12 months on, it was extra of the identical for the KTM rider. As soon as once more, he discovered himself within the uncommon place of not being the main man on an orange Austrian bike.
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Out of kinds on Friday, Acosta missed out on direct passage to Q2 for the primary time this season. That he ended up roughly the place he normally strains up on the grid, sixth, had every part to do with the rain coming down on Saturday morning. It is uncertain whether or not both he or Zarco would have made it by means of Q1 had the circuit been dry.
Within the dash, Acosta joined many others in falling while on the unsuitable tyres on the unsuitable time. Then, with the solar out on Sunday, Acosta delivered the dry-track mediocrity Friday had promised. He sank shortly down the sector, not helped by a couple of aero bits parting firm with the bike when he whacked Raul Fernandez early within the race. Ending tenth was in all probability an honest consequence below the circumstances.
Winner: Enea Bastianini, Pink Bull KTM Tech 3
Enea Bastianini, Pink Bull KTM Tech 3
In 2025, it was Maverick Vinales who stole Acosta’s KTM management position at Jerez. This time, with Vinales injured and absent, the best way was clear for his Tech3 team-mate Enea Bastianini to face up for the Mattighofen producer in Spain. Now 28, it is excessive time for him to embrace that form of casting too.
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The Italian was the final to sneak straight into Q2 in a tightly contested Follow on Friday, then backed that up with eighth-fastest time in qualifying regardless of very totally different circumstances. He landed up eleventh within the half-wet dash, however at the very least saved the bike upright whereas slithering round on the unsuitable rubber. Ending eighth on Sunday could not have been spectacular however he was eight seconds away from the subsequent KTM.
The encouraging factor for Bastianini, who has had a tough time at Tech3 since transferring there for 2025, is that this consequence did not are available in isolation. It got here on the again of a constructive outing within the USA, the place he additionally made Q2 immediately after which completed sixth. As riders like him start to jockey onerous to safe satellite tv for pc spots in 2027, he’ll know that he must sustain the nice work.
Winner: Raul FernandezRaul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
Raul Fernandez, Trackhouse Racing
Such is Fernandez’s degree of consistency, it appears like that includes him as a ‘winner’ right here ensures he’ll go down as a ‘loser’ subsequent outing at Le Mans. However who is aware of, possibly this constructive weekend will lastly get a streak going for the 25-year-old?
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After making the rostrum on the season-opener in Thailand, the Trackhouse man had gone comparatively AWOL in Brazil and America. So it was excessive time for Fernandez to rejoin the opposite Aprilias on the sharp finish of the pack. Racing on dwelling floor, he achieved that pressing mission at Jerez.
Seventh in Follow, he made it into Q2 with no bother in any respect, then was ninth-fastest in qualifying. He was one other to come back out on the unsuitable facet of the dash bathe, however raced properly on Sunday. He may have discovered quite a bit from getting caught behind Zarco for thus many laps, nonetheless. This arguably value him on the finish, when team-mate , on a late cost as traditional, snatched his fifth place on the final lap.
Fernandez is the one common rider but to fall in any MotoGP race or session this season. Whether or not that is only a enjoyable truth or tells us one thing about his ups and downs is open to debate.
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