“Red, Yellow and Trackhouse.”
Welcome back to a slighter busier edition of Dre’s Race Reviews as MotoGP finally returns from its Summer Break as the sport returns to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. And with it, a return to dominance for Aprilia, and Raul Fernandez, who had his greatest race weekend yet, as Marc Marquez and Ducati struggled on British soil for the second year in a row. And speaking of which, did you see that turnout? Let’s talk about that later on too. Here we go:
Aprilia Back On Top
For the Noale side of the Italian MotoGP civil war, this was another shot across the lines in Bologna, as the formbook somewhat predicted. Aprilia vs Ducati has been the overarching story of 2026 in MotoGP, and how they make their lap time. Silverstone’s one of the fastest tracks MotoGP visits, with a slate of faster corners. Aprilia’s superior downforce via their ground effect aerodynamics, means they’re being sucked into the road, and is a more finely balanced bike. Compare that to Ducati, which makes all of its money on Michelin’s busted rear tyre. Ducati’s prayed at the altar of exit speed and acceleration for years, and now it’s being exposed by Aprilia’s entirely different approach. On faster, flowing tracks with smoother corners, Aprilia’s not only more stable and can change direction faster, it can use more of its front tyre to turn, and as a result, use less of the life of the rear to turn.
Over a lap, it’s still pretty close, as Fabio di Giannantonio proved when he was the only man to intercept an Aprilia Top 4 lockout, a la Assen. But in race form? Forget it. And the Sprint was the perfect case in point.
Britain was hot. 27 degrees Celsius (For us over here, that’s now mild this Summer), and nearly everyone was on the soft rear tyre for the 10-lap Sprint. It was dead by Lap 4. Even Aprilia were struggling by Sprint’s end, but they were able to handle the inevitable drop-off far better than anything that Ducati could throw at them. There were some exceptions – Alex Marquez was excellent down the back stretch and a clear margin better than the other Ducati’s. Diggia wasn’t too bad either, but in terms of the title battle, Marc Marquez likely overdid it at the start of the Sprint and paid the price at the back end. Mat Oxley reported that by the end of the race, Marquez was FIVE seconds slower than at his peak, barely hanging onto the final Sprint point at the line.
At the other end, Jorge Martin led lights to flag to take his third Sprint win of the year ahead of Ai Ogura and Marco Bezzecchi, who was an emotional third after a tough couple of months, and an energy tank likely still low after the injuries he suffered in Germany. The first time Aprilia locked out the podium in a Sprint race, with Alex Marquez and Diggia in the distance.
It set up an intriguing Grand Prix, where everyone knew it’d be a Medium tyre race instead of the rear. The drop-off wasn’t as steep, but from an Aprilia standpoint, the result was still the same. Only this time, Raul Fernandez went ballistic in the early going and didn’t look back. By Lap 4, he was two and a half seconds in front. It peaked at over four seconds at one point in a complete destruction of the field.
It’s almost frustrating to watch Raul Fernandez when he’s in this kind of form. I’ve said it before, but it reminds you of that Moto2 season, that hype he had on the way in, and the frustrations about how long it had taken him to get to that point. A part of me as a bike fan wishes he could pull out these kind of performances more often because he is so good at his limit. My old mate on Bluesky Kevin Walsh said it reminded him of Andrea Iannone’s time in GP, and it’s hard to argue with that, where you can see the potential but it just hasn’t happened for Raul yet either.
Now he has a two-year extension and essentially now a team leader at Trackhouse with Enea Bastianini almost certainly heading over to partner him. Trackhouse has been as good, if not better than the factory team for the last few races. He’s only 56 points out of the outright lead as we speak. There’s no reason why he can’t make a run for the title in the same way that we think Marc Marquez will. But he can finally find the consistency that’s plagued him for his entire top-flight career?
Behind him, Jorge Martin took a very valuable 20 points to extend his Championship lead to 31. He admitted after Friday’s running that he’d reverted back to his Aprilia spec from the start of the season and he’s seemingly found some confidence to be able to push again and it showed. Injury notwithstanding, this is one of the few weekends he’s been genuinely quicker than Marco Bezzecchi and he’s taken full advantage of the opportunity, which is what you’ve got to do in a title battle.Bez looked utterly exhausted with his third place after the race and had to be helped to parc ferme, with his knee still looking very sore, even with nearly a month to recover.
Alex Marquez rode an excellent race as the Ducati who clearly was best on his tyres, but a big bobble at Turn 1 cost him a good chance of a podium as he couldn’t get past Bezzecchi for a second time. Marc Marquez said Britain would feel like Assen and he was right in the sense he’d finish seventh like he did back then. A rough weekend and he’s lucky Aragon’s coming next because he’s back to being 40 points behind. The factory Ducati’s in general were extra strugglicious with teammate Pecco Bagnaia qualifying a season-low 16th, running towards the back of the field, and then crashing at Brooklands.
Ducati were gassing up themselves with new found confidence after a dominant German Grand Prix. Wonder if they still feel that way…
Here We Go Again
There was genuine hope for a shot in the arm for this year’s British Grand Prix. The race was moved back into its regular August slot, and Liberty Media upped the advertising, topped off with a unique press conference at Outworld over in Central London (Tottenham Court Road, about the busiest spot in the whole city). If the name rings a bell, they had a watch party for the series earlier in the series that I absolutely wanted to go to if it wasn’t for… ex-work commitments shall we say.
It was a nice event and I’m glad there was some cool fan accessibility. The only kick to the teeth here, was that Marc Marquez – The one rider who people might actually recognise on the street, wasn’t there, citing wanting the best possible prep for the weekend and didn’t want the extra day’s travel to London. Reasonable enough, but it felt like a big opportunity missed from the series. But that’s what happens when Marquez uses his pull.
The good news is that Liberty and MSEG have seen enough to give Silverstone another two-year extension up until 2028. The bad news is the move back didn’t have a huge effect on turnout. 106,000 on the weekend, 6,000 up on last year, but still only 43,000 on race day. Not great at all, and another year where I have to wonder what the heck happened?
It wasn’t that long ago that the British GP was regularly drawing 70,000+. Not quite F1 numbers, but sizeable enough where you could open most of the Grandstands. Now, we’re at a point where more people turned up to Silverstone on F1’s Thursday than the ENTIRE MotoGP weekend (Even if counting the same person multiple times is a little sketchy.)
Why is this happening? I think there’s three big reasons that the sport’s been struggling with for a while:
- This isn’t a very accessible weekend. Part of it is the well-known geography of Silverstone. It’s in the middle of nowhere like RAF bases should be. If you’re not driving, you’re either going to Milton Keynes and paying £15 for a shuttle to the track, or getting a very expensive taxi from Northampton (Around £50, don’t ask me how I know.) And this is with tickets being amongst the most expensive in the European rounds. Yamaha offered a 20% discount code the week of the race and people still didn’t bite. And as I mentioned before with Balaton, if you’re going to make people in Europe choose between races on the calendar, Silverstone isn’t tourist friendly at all. World Superbikes has been out of the limelight for a while and even they got 55,000 at Donington not that long ago, in a series where Nicolo Bulega has won 23 out of 24 races this season. It’s telling. Not to mention, we’re in a cost of living crisis and luxuries like GP’s are not going to be a high-priority for most people.
- There’s no British interest to root for. Having a talent cup is nice, but it takes years for that kind of investment to start paying out at best. The most British interest we had at Silverstone this weekend was Bradley Smith winning in the Baggers World Cup, and he hasn’t raced in MotoGP since 2020. Jake Dixon had to finally concede his MotoGP dream and move to World Superbikes. Cal Crutchlow is a nice surprise but his prime was a decade ago. Eddie O’Shea and Scott Ogden are solid Moto3 riders but not good enough to challenge for wins and be exciting. In sport, home interest is your lowest common denominator, and the UK are the current World Leaders in irrational national pride. And in bike racing… next to nothing. Doesn’t help.
- The BBC actually had some interactions with the sports’ riders on their social media this weekend and I thought it was miraculous. This is the same BBC that wants to chime in on WNBA’s Sophie Cunningham and her transphobic ass, and no-one watches Women’s basketball here – This sport used to be free-to-air in the UK and drew over a million viewers a race! Now TNT has done an exceptional job giving us everything we could ever want as MotoGP fans, all the support races, full weekend coverage (Hell, we even had a studio show back in 2013 when they first bought the rights to the sport), but it doesn’t do enough outside promotion to convince people to spend the… £32 a month to watch the races legally (As well as just about everything else on two wheels. Watch The Femmes)
I get it, MotoGP is not football in the UK and never will be. But you’ve got to be doing more to promote the sport or else don’t be surprised when people aren’t showing up to your national race. We got the races free-to-air on Quest this weekend, but it was advertised on Twitter at the last minute. Very reminiscent of when ITV had partial rights and had a couple of rounds a year in the BTCC slot, but never promoted it. WHY?!
I genuinely fear for the future of bike racing in this country if this continues. Something has to give because I don’t think this is sustainable. Liberty Media spent three and a half billion dollars on telling people this has the potential to be a global sports brand, it’s time for them to put their money where their mouth is and get behind one of the biggest concentrations of bike fans in the world.
The Lightning Round
Ai Ogura just had his first race crash of 2026, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. The only question about his title credentials were him entering the unknown and this was not the best of starts.
The only rider in the field to score points in every Grand Prix so far this season? Luca Marini.
Another race of the year contender from Moto2. Delighted for Filip Salac becoming Czechia’ first GP winner in nearly 16 years (Shoutout to Karel Abraham), and surviving a chaotic final lap to do it. I love Manu Gonzalez, really I do. But the man did the Lindsey Jacobellis and1 celebrated a lap early. As a result, Dani Holgado had to take evasive action, clipped Manu’s exhaust, and then dragged around on the ground meaning Manu could only scrape together a P14. Embarrassing for the Championship leader who may have to breathe a little heavier given Izan Guevara’s only 42.5 points behind him again. Still, an incredible race with six potential winners at the end.
Max Quiles breaking a collarbone in a qualifying crash could actually mean something if it wasn’t for his 100+ point lead going in. Good for David Almansa getting a dub there too, he’s been owed one for a while with his incredible pace and has been robbed through injury and a demi-god in turquoise.
The Verdict: 4/10 (Meh) – Yeah, MotoGP kinda killed the vibes here after excellent races before and after. Fernandez took the lead and never looked back, Martin wasn’t really challenged much either and it came down to Marc Marquez the rolling chicane for most of the drama. A shame given this is one of the best bike tracks in the world and these bikes just don’t work here as well. Stop me if you’ve had that one before. See you in Aragon (In three weeks time? WHY?)
- Aleix Espargaro was also an acceptable answer here, I just find Ed Leigh’s call funnier. Like, you can spot the moment he turns into Mel Gibson in Braveheart. ↩︎
