Author Archives: PressBox

Fabio Di Giannantonio, 27, confirmed he will join KTM’s factory MotoGP team for the 2027 season and will race alongside Alex Marquez. He finalized the deal Saturday night in the Le Mans paddock. He had set a Friday deadline during the French Grand Prix weekend for Ducati and VR46 to meet his financial demands, and accepted KTM’s offer when they requested more time.

The signing fills KTM’s two factory seats for 2027 as the team concentrates on developing its 850cc prototype and gives KTM a settled pairing ahead of the regulation change. Multiple outlets, including Sky Italia and MotoGP journalist Rosario Triolo, reported the transfer, and reports said Di Giannantonio beat late advances from Honda. KTM’s need for riders was underlined by reports that Pedro Acosta is due to join Marc Marquez at the official Ducati team.

Di Giannantonio’s departure opens a VR46 vacancy that incoming Fermin Aldeguer is expected to occupy, leaving VR46 to name a teammate. Nicolo Bulega and Luca Marini have been identified as the main candidates. Bulega is a Ducati WorldSBK factory rider and a MotoGP test rider with a promised promotion to MotoGP. Marini’s situation at Honda is described as unsettled, and reports differ on who would cover salaries, with one account saying VR46 would need to cover Marini’s salary and pay Ducati for a full bike and another saying Ducati covers VR46 riders’ salaries. Official 2027 rider announcements remain on hold as manufacturers negotiate with MotoGP’s commercial rights holder SEG.

Jorge Martín rocketed from eighth on the grid to win the 13-lap MotoGP Sprint at Le Mans, sweeping around the outside of teammate Marco Bezzecchi into the opening chicane to take the lead. He led from that opening move, controlled the pace and crossed the line 1.107 seconds clear of Francesco Bagnaia.

The victory was Martín’s second Sprint win of the 2026 season and extended his record to 18 career sprint wins. Marco Bezzecchi recovered to third, and the result trimmed Bezzecchi’s championship advantage to six points, with the standings moved to Bezzecchi 108 and Martín 102 after the Sprint.

The Sprint was marred by a violent highside for reigning champion Marc Márquez on the penultimate lap. Márquez fractured the fifth metatarsal in his right foot, was declared unfit for the remainder of the Le Mans weekend and is set to undergo surgery in Madrid, which also brought forward a planned shoulder operation. Several other riders retired or crashed during the Sprint, reshuffling weekend momentum as the paddock prepared for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

Izan Guevara set the weekend’s pace at the Moto2 French Grand Prix at Le Mans, taking pole for BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha on a Boscoscuro chassis with Pirelli tires. He took pole in qualifying with a 1:33.910, putting him at the head of the 28-rider grid. He had also topped FP2 with a session-best 1:33.931 on lap 14 (average 160.3 km/h), lowering Manuel Gonzalez’s 2025 FP2 benchmark of 1:34.315.

Qualifying produced a tightly bunched front row and top six. Daniel Holgado split the front row with a 1:33.996 for second, Filip Salac was third with a 1:34.020, Barry Baltus and Manuel Gonzalez recorded matching 1:34.076s to occupy fourth and fifth, and American Joe Roberts qualified sixth with a 1:34.090. Less than two-tenths of a second separated the top two and only a few tenths covered the front six.

Practice across the weekend reinforced Guevara’s advantage and the depth of the field. Manuel Gonzalez led Free Practice One with a 1:34.740 on his Kalex, with Guevara second. On Friday afternoon Guevara topped a practice run with a 1:34.348, edging Celestino Vietti by 0.002 seconds and Barry Baltus by 0.003. FP2 was dominated by Guevara, the only rider in the 1:33s in that session, with Baltus, Salac and Gonzalez among the next quickest. All sessions ran in dry conditions on the 4.19 km Le Mans circuit. Teams used Boscoscuro and Kalex chassis across the entry list, and competitors ran Pirelli control tires.

Francesco Bagnaia took pole position at Saturday’s MotoGP qualifying at Le Mans, posting a 1:29.634 on his final flying lap to move from seventh into the top spot. The time gave Bagnaia his first pole of the 2026 season and his first since the 2025 Malaysian Grand Prix, and it edged teammate Marc Marquez by 0.012 seconds to deliver a Ducati one-two on the front row.

Marc Marquez reached Q2 by advancing from Q1 after setting a new Q1 lap record, but he could not match that pace in Q2, posting a 1:29.646. He abandoned his final attempts after a cool-down-lap run-in with Fabio Di Giannantonio. Marquez was forced into Q1 after yellow flags from a late Bagnaia crash in practice denied him a final flying lap, and he described his Q1 position as unlucky.

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi completed the front row in third, just 0.023 seconds off pole. Fabio Di Giannantonio qualified fourth after alleging he was held on his final lap, an incident stewards investigated and took no action on. Pedro Acosta and Fabio Quartararo filled the second row. Friday and Saturday practice showed a tightly bunched field with Johann Zarco topping FP2, and a forecast of rain for Sunday made grid position and tire choice potentially decisive for the race.

Ducati split its Le Mans garage by running a new 2026 side fairing on Pecco Bagnaia, Álex Márquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio, while Marc Márquez reverted to GP25-spec 2025 side-fairing elements. Bagnaia said Ducati were experiencing “a pretty difficult time,” but that progress from the Jerez test carried over to Le Mans and he was “much happier” with the new fairing because he could push and control the tires, even as the bike still lacked some turning and stopping performance.

On-track outcomes reflected the split. Bagnaia ran the new fairing and finished third on Friday despite a late crash that produced yellow flags and denied Marc Márquez a final flying lap, leaving Márquez 13th in practice and forced into Q1. Márquez said he feels “considerably slower” on the GP26, lacks front-end feel in fast and left-hand corners and described his Q1 position as “unlucky,” though he reported feeling better through the day. Álex Márquez and Di Giannantonio used the 2026 fairing and progressed directly to Q2, and three Ducati riders filled three of the top four spots on the timesheets. Weather forecasts pointing to a high chance of rain could further shape setup choices before qualifying.

Ducati described the approach as iterative development, testing the new aero on multiple riders while keeping rider-specific setups available. Team manager Davide Tardozzi said “the squad follows each rider’s preferences,” and Ducati noted the split at Le Mans highlighted how rider size, riding style and recent form influence technical direction. Some reports suggested limited units might have led the squad to save the package for Barcelona, and the weekend will provide immediate feedback on whether the 2026 side-fairing delivers the expected turning gains and helps Ducati regain consistent front-running form.