On the face of it, Friday at Jerez has turned the narrative of the 2026 MotoGP season on its head. So far, all the talk has been of who can stop the Aprilias, after Marco Bezzecchi won the first three Sunday grand prix of the year, and Bezzecchi and his factory Aprilia Racing teammate Jorge Martin are first and second in the championship. The professional pundit class (mea culpa, mea maxima culpa) are all asking if the era of Ducati’s dominance in MotoGP is at an end.
But once the paddock rocked up at Jerez and the MotoGP riders took to the track, it is the Ducatis who are once again front and center. In the morning, the top three riders were all on Ducatis, Fabio Di Giannantonio leading Franco Morbidelli and Alex Márquez. The timed practice session in the afternoon whittled that down to just two Ducatis at the top, Alex Márquez leading Fabio Di Giannantonio. But there were three Ducatis in the top four, four Ducatis in the top six, and five Ducatis in the top eight.
