It’s an unwanted run that MotoGP’s recent dominant force, Ducati, would like to end as soon as possible as another date with the iconic Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto appears over the 2026 horizon following a three-weekend hiatus.
The factory squad – now the Ducati Lenovo Team, comprising Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia – haven’t celebrated a Sunday podium since the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix. Eight races is their longest podium wait since Aragon 2012 to Qatar 2014. More broadly, Ducati are winless in five Grands Prix thanks to the brilliance of Marco Bezzecchi and Aprilia Racing, and the reigning World Champions haven’t gone six Grands Prix without a Sunday win since Aragon 2020 until the Portuguese Grand Prix in 2021 – the sequence of eight races between Danilo Petrucci’s French GP win in 2020, and Jack Miller’s (Prima Pramac Yamaha MotoGP) victory at a sun-drenched Spanish GP in 2021.
How was that five years ago already? As the saying goes, time flies when you’re having fun. And boy have the Bologna bullets indulged in plenty of fun since the Australian’s first win with the Italian marque. 2021 didn’t unearth a title win, those honours went to Fabio Quartararo and Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP. But since then, Ducati have seemed unbeatable.
Francesco Bagnaia (twice), Jorge Martin (now a rival) and Marc Marquez (the current King in red) have all added their plaques to the Tower of Champions between 2022 and 2025 while at the controls of a Ducati Desmosedici, but as things stand, it’s another Italian brand doing to winning. Aprilia.
Now we return to European soil, Ducati’s fleet of stars will be eager to return to the top step of the podium and put a halt to the winless streak – none more so than Spain’s current MotoGP World Champion, Marc Marquez, and last season’s Jerez winner Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP).
Alex Marquez was the capacity crowd pleaser in 2025, and after a lowkey start to 2026, the 2025 runner-up would love nothing more than to repeat his stunning debut victory in MotoGP. If last year is anything to go by, the #73 should be right in the mix again this time around.
Marc Marquez will be looking to make amends for his 2025 Spanish GP crash and ultimate finish outside the top ten, and with three additional weeks of building some more strength into his shoulder, while also allowing the hit of COTA’s FP1 crash to fade, the #93’s performance in Jerez is one of the biggest questions coming into Round 4. Considering how his weekend in Austin began, and then how qualifying and the Tissot Sprint unfolded, there were actually very few problems with the World Champion’s race pace on Sunday. Marc Marquez has also won a Tissot Sprint this year – in Brazil – so there may be no Sunday trophies as yet, but he and the team have a Saturday medal.
However… some might say it’s an Italian who has the best chance of putting Ducati back on the Sunday top step, on current form. Back-to-back polesitter Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) fronts the Ducati pack in the standings, and if Diggia can be at the front in Jerez, like he was in Brazil and in the USA, it’s a sure sign Ducati have a consistent weapon in their race winning and podium finishing arsenal this season.
Meanwhile, can Pecco, the 2022, 2023, and 2024 Spanish GP winner, rediscover his mojo on a circuit he’s tasted so much success at in recent seasons? And what have three more weeks of training done to help Fermin Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) gain much-needed fitness after his femur fracture? That’s another Spaniard in Ducati’s rapid line-up that has recent race winning pedigree.
MotoGP arrives in Jerez with plenty of questions waiting to be answered. And as the crucial, often season-defining European leg of the 2026 tour begins, millions of eyes will be on Ducati to see if the champions have a response to Aprilia’s marvellous launch into the campaign. Just to further complicate that tight fight at the front, Jorge Martin will be racing on home turf – and likewise gunning to depose Bezzecchi.
Tune in for the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Grand Prix of Spain next weekend as MotoGP makes our much-awaited return to action to see which streak will extend to Le Mans – with history to be made whichever way the battle goes.