David Emmett

In a recent interview with Motorsport.com's Oriol Puigdemont, the Chief Sporting Officer of the MotoGP group, Carlos Ezpeleta, proposed introducing a budget cap in MotoGP. "From the organization's side, we absolutely want to pursue a budget cap, and we've been very clear with the manufacturers about that," Ezpeleta told Puigdemont. "It is important to bring a degree of rationality to the way we do things."

Adam, David and Neil take advantage of a slow week in the world of 2026 MotoGP to invite the championship’s best photographer – Rob Gray (or Polarity Photo) – to talk about making a break in the series, making the difference, working with riders and plenty more. Just how many cameras does it take to shoot MotoGP? And can we get Rob to shut up about them?

There can be no doubt that Marc Márquez is thinking of a tenth world title. You can tell by the way he brushes off questions about it. "It's true that we are five riders fighting for the championship, and we will try to do our best, try to find the best way to be in a good shape until the end," Márquez said on Thursday before Silverstone. "And it's true that from that group of riders, three riders are fighting for their first world championship in MotoGP."

I think it's important as a MotoGP journalist to go watch other motorsport disciplines. Earlier this year I went to WorldSBK at Assen, and when MXGP scheduled the Dutch GP at the Circuitpark Gelderland Midden, just north of Arnhem, on a weekend without a MotoGP round, I jumped at the chance. Especially as the MX track is just an hour's bicycle ride from my house, through the woods and over the heath, where the heather is in full pink and purple bloom.

It's raining contract announcements on Wednesday, as MotoGP ramps up for the Aragon round after a short break. After Luca Marini this morning, today we received confirmation that Fermín Aldegeur will be racing for the Pertamina Enduro VR46 squad on a Ducati contract for the 2027 and 2028 seasons.

Steve English takes time off from the golf course to join David, Adam and Neil to offer up their scorching takes for the rest of the 2026 MotoGP season. Will Marco Bezzecchi really be champion? Will Ai Ogura finish as highest Aprilia? Will Marc Marquez need until Valencia to nail down his tenth grand prix title? Will there really be ten winners in the final season of the 1000cc MotoGP era?

Though the Motorland Aragon Circuit is one of the newest on the calendar - only Buriram, COTA, Mandalika, and the now dropped Balaton Park were built after the track near Alcañiz - it belongs to a previous era of thinking about MotoGP. While the layout, the circuit, and the facilities are all still top notch, the location comes from a time when MotoGP was used to bring in the crowds, instead of going where the crowds already are.

Marc Marquez has topped the timesheets in the first session of free practice for the MotoGP class at Aragon, though with a slim margin. The Aprilias are as close as we expected, Raul Fernandez finishing second just three hundredths behind the Ducati Lenovo rider, with Marco Bezzecchi, sporting a new tail wing on the Aprilia RS-GP, third quickest.

Marco Bezzecchi has topped the timesheets in the timed practice session for the MotoGP class at Aragon, breaking the Marquez monopoly on the fastest time. The Factory Aprilia Racing rider put in a scorching last lap to knock Marc Marquez off top spot and take the best time.

The big news from Friday at the Aragon MotoGP round is that Marc Márquez is not fastest at the end of the first day. The Ducati Lenovo rider and seven-time MotoGP winner at Aragon ended Friday as third fastest, just under four hundredths slower than fastest rider Marco Bezzecchi. Alex Márquez - like his brother, always blisteringly fast at Aragon - was second quickest, a hundredth of a second behind the Aprilia of Bezzecchi. It was the closest top three on a Friday since MotoGP switched to the current qualifying system, and all three were under Márquez' outright lap record from last year.