Marc Marquez almost threw away victory at the 2026 Aragon Grand Prix due to an avoidable error. The defending MotoGP champion admitted he forgot to disengage his rear ride-height device before the start, causing his Ducati to scrape along the track and send sparks flying in the opening corners.
Marquez's start looked perfect as he swept from second on the grid to pass polesitter Marco Bezzecchi into Turn 1. But trouble struck when he tried to defend his position through Turn 2. The rear of his bike bottomed out, allowing Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin (Aprilia) to slip past.
“Today I repeated the strategy from yesterday, attacking the first corner, but I made a very big mistake that I forgot to disengage the rear device,” Marquez explained. “On the warm-up lap, normally you activate it on the back straight and then you need to remember to deactivate for the start. I didn't remember. I did a perfect start, a perfect first corner. But when I jumped from first to second corner, the rear device was there and the bike was super low during all of sector one, and it was a scary moment.”
Despite dropping to third, Marquez fought back to repass both Aprilias and then fended off a mid-race attack from Pedro Acosta to secure his fourth win of the season. However, he admitted the error made the victory much harder than it should have been.
Bezzecchi confirmed the incident: “He passed me in Turn 1, so I tried to cross the line. When he went back into corner two, I saw something coming out from his bike like sparks and I almost hit him because he stopped completely. Then, fortunately I was able to pass him.”
The double Aragon victory has reignited Marquez's title hopes after a tough Silverstone weekend. With Ai Ogura withdrawing from Aragon GP and Bezzecchi settling for third, Marquez has jumped from fourth to second in the standings, just 19 points behind Martin.
“It's what I need to do if I want to have a small chance to fight for this championship,” said the nine-time world champion. “It looks like Jorge and Marco are riding in a very good way. They are super fast. Not only them, also Ogura will come back. But I have to take advantage of this moment.”
With his right arm still a limiting factor, Marquez stressed the importance of capitalizing on his strong form at Aragon, where he has now won eight times in MotoGP.
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