The 2024 world champion charged from seventh on the grid to beat teammate Marco Bezzecchi, while Ai Ogura completed a landmark all-Aprilia top three at the Bugatti Circuit.
LE MANS, France — Jorge Martin turned a difficult start into a statement victory on Sunday, winning the French MotoGP Grand Prix at Le Mans after hunting down Aprilia teammate Marco Bezzecchi in the closing laps and passing him with three laps remaining.
The Spaniard’s win, his first MotoGP grand prix victory since the 2024 Indonesian Grand Prix, completed a near-perfect weekend after his Sprint success on Saturday and revived his challenge in a championship battle now separated by a single point. Bezzecchi finished second after leading much of the race, while Ai Ogura took third for Trackhouse MotoGP, giving Aprilia a historic podium sweep at the Bugatti Circuit.
It was a race shaped by pressure, patience and a late surge from Martin, who started seventh and initially appeared to have lost the opportunity to repeat the explosive getaway that had carried him to Sprint victory a day earlier. Instead of forcing the race open in the first corners, he had to work through traffic, manage his tyres and wait for the contest to come back toward him.
Bezzecchi launched cleanly from the front row and took command before Turn 3, setting the early tone as Fabio Quartararo briefly lifted the home crowd by moving into second. Francesco Bagnaia, who had started from pole, slipped back in the opening exchanges but soon began to recover, while Pedro Acosta also forced his way into the leading fight.
For several laps, the race looked as if it might belong to Bezzecchi or Bagnaia. Bezzecchi controlled the front with composure, while Bagnaia showed enough pace to move past Acosta and close on the leader. Martin, meanwhile, was still working through the second group, attempting to keep his title rival in sight without using too much of his Aprilia’s late-race speed too early.
The turning point came on lap 16 of 27 when Bagnaia, running second and applying pressure, lost the front at Turn 3 and crashed out. The Ducati rider walked away physically unharmed, but the fall changed the competitive shape of the race. Martin moved into podium contention, then passed Acosta to take second and began the pursuit that would define the afternoon.
At first, Bezzecchi had enough of a margin to appear safe. But Martin’s rhythm improved as the fuel load dropped and the race entered its final phase. The gap narrowed steadily: more than a second, then under a second, then just a few bike lengths. The contest had become a direct duel between Aprilia’s factory riders, the top two men in the championship and now the two riders fighting for control of the French Grand Prix.
With three laps remaining, Martin made his move at Turn 3, braking late and cleanly to take the lead. Bezzecchi had led for most of the day, but he had no immediate answer. Martin quickly built a small cushion and then delivered the mistake-free final laps he needed to return to the top step of a MotoGP podium.
The victory carried personal weight. Martin’s 2025 season had been marked by crashes, injuries and uncertainty, and his move to Aprilia had required both adaptation and patience. At Le Mans, he looked again like the rider who won the 2024 world championship: sharp under braking, measured under pressure and ruthless when a passing chance appeared.
For Aprilia, the result was even larger than one rider’s comeback. Bezzecchi’s second place preserved his championship lead, though only narrowly, and Ogura’s third place gave the Italian manufacturer a sweep of the podium. The Japanese rookie’s performance was one of the race’s most significant stories. He found pace late, passed Acosta for third and then closed on Bezzecchi in the final laps, confirming that Trackhouse’s Aprilia package had race-winning potential across more than one rider.
Ogura’s podium also carried historical meaning. It was his first MotoGP podium and made him the first Japanese rider to finish on the premier-class podium since 2012. His calm rise through the field contrasted with the errors and missed opportunities around him, and his late pressure on Bezzecchi added another layer of tension to Aprilia’s extraordinary day.
The French crowd had arrived hoping for another home celebration after Johann Zarco’s memorable victory at Le Mans in 2025. Quartararo gave them reason to believe early on, moving into second in the opening phase and running strongly on home soil. But as the race settled, the Aprilias, Ducati and KTM had more pace at the front. Quartararo still finished sixth, a solid result that drew applause from the stands even if it did not produce the podium the home fans wanted.
Zarco endured a more complicated afternoon, losing ground early and finishing outside the leading group. For the French riders, the day became less about a repeat of last year’s fairytale and more about surviving a race increasingly controlled by Aprilia’s speed and tyre management.
Ducati’s weekend ended with frustration. Bagnaia had pole position and enough pace to fight for victory, but his crash turned a promising Sunday into another costly retirement. Marc Marquez, the reigning champion, did not start the race after injuring his foot in Saturday’s Sprint crash and undergoing surgery. With both factory Ducati riders absent from the points battle on Sunday, Aprilia seized a rare chance to dominate not only the podium but also the championship narrative.
The result leaves Bezzecchi still leading the standings, but Martin’s double at Le Mans has changed the tone of the title fight. A deficit that looked more comfortable before the weekend has been reduced to a single point, and the momentum now feels shared inside the Aprilia garage. That creates opportunity, but also a delicate internal balance. The team has two riders capable of winning, two riders separated by almost nothing, and a satellite rider in Ogura who has just shown he can join the fight at the front.
The image of Martin and Bezzecchi battling wheel to wheel for the win will be encouraging for Aprilia’s engineers and tense for its managers. Rival manufacturers will see the same picture differently. Ducati, KTM, Honda and Yamaha now face a championship in which Aprilia is not merely competitive on selected circuits but capable of controlling an entire podium at one of MotoGP’s most demanding venues.
Le Mans has often produced drama through weather, crashes and home pressure. This time, the decisive story was a comeback built lap by lap. Martin did not win with one spectacular launch or a single lucky break. He won by recovering from a compromised opening, staying close enough to profit from Bagnaia’s mistake, then using superior late pace to defeat the rider who had controlled most of the race.
As he crossed the line, Martin rose on the bike and celebrated with visible relief. It was the gesture of a rider who had not merely won a grand prix, but reasserted his place at the center of MotoGP’s title race.
The championship now moves on with Aprilia holding the momentum and its two factory riders separated by one point. For Martin, Le Mans was proof that the long road back to victory is complete. For Bezzecchi, second place was valuable but carried the sting of a win lost late. For MotoGP, the French Grand Prix delivered a new shape to the season: an Aprilia-led title fight, a revived champion and a reminder that the decisive moments often arrive only when the race seems already written.
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