The crumbs falling from the table at the Assen Sprint are just that—they won’t satisfy anyone’s hunger, but they do confirm that Aprilia’s problems right now are coming from within, in the form of the duo from its Trackhouse satellite team.
The one-two finish by Raul Fernandez and Ogura not only underscores Raul and Ai’s current form and the competitiveness of the RS-GP26, but above all shows that Bezzecchi and Martin—no longer running away with the world championship but separated by just 9 points— must, for the moment, fear their friends more than their enemies.
As the first Ducati rider on the podium, Di Giannantonio, said, “The Aprilias are really fast, and I had to take quite a few risks to keep up with them. They’re able to change direction really quickly; I pushed to the limit, trusting that the tyres would hold up, given the few laps.”
That’s exactly how it played out, and now Diggia is just 22 points behind. He holds a 20-point advantage over Marc Marquez, who finished behind even Martin and Bezzecchi in the race, overtaking Bagnaia only because his teammate ran wide onto the grass on the final lap.
These are just the crumbs, though. The main course will be served tomorrow in the Grand Prix, where big points are up for grabs.
As always, the Sprint race has given us more than enough insight into the field, including the fact that on a demanding circuit like Assen, the goal of the Great Pursuer, Martian Marc, is to hang in there while waiting for the next Grand Prix at his 'home' track, the Sachsenring—after which MotoGP will go on a break until the Silverstone GP on August 9.
The German Grand Prix will also mark the exact halfway point of the championship, which promises to be decidedly interesting, because it’s now clear that the Bezzecchi-Martin duo will have to watch out not only for the Ducati riders but even more so for their own brandmates.
And that’s not even counting a few wild cards like Pedro Acosta, who is still chasing his first win.
It’s a tight pack with its own issues to resolve: Raul Fernandez, for example, despite his results, has not yet received a written contract extension from Aprilia, as confirmed by his manager Paco Sanchez—so much so that rumors are circulating in the paddock that the Spaniard is still on KTM’s shortlist alongside Luca Marini for the Tech 3 team.
One final point: of the top four, only Di Giannantonio has scored points in every race, even if he didn’t score many in Hungary.
Bezzecchi has two zeros from Brno due to a crash in the sprint race and a disqualification; Martin has two zeros from Barcelona; and Marquez even has two no-shows from Le Mans and Barcelona.
From now on, they simply cannot afford to make any more mistakes.
