“Everyone’s got a plan until they get slapped in the face. Twice.”
Welcome to one of the most loaded DRR’s I’ve ever done about a two-wheeled weekend. This was Round 9 of the MotoGP World Championship for 2026, and it was time to head back to a fan favourite for the second time, Brno for the Czech Grand Prix. During it, we got an earth-shattering announcement of nothing, a game-changer for the Championship as Marco Bezzecchi loses his mind and Marc Marquez punishes him for it. Let’s talk about it.
Dre’s Commercial Breakdown
The worst kept secret in bike racing was finally announced on Friday. After months of negotiations, half-hearted moral stands from the factories and half of the details leaking out to the biking media, MSEG (Formerly Dorna), and the MSMA (The manufacturers), have the framework agreed for a new commercial deal for the next 5 years of MotoGP, taking us up to 2031. The presser itself was a massive waste of time, you don’t need seven people on a podium when you know one person – Chief Sporting Officer Carlos Ezpeleta, will do the vast majority of the talking, and Massimo Rivola, Aprilia CEO and MSMA President, will pick up the scraps.
There were some interesting things that caught my ears. The one-bike rule, quickly going down in my estimation as one of the dumbest potential changes in recent GP history, hasn’t been finalized yet (Good). The sport isn’t actively looking for a sixth manufacturer, which means if a Chinese supplier like CFMoto wants in, they’re likely going to have to buy an existing team, a similar closed door mentality like Liberty has with F1. Also, we can finally expect rider announcements for 2027 to drop in the next week or so. Yay for us social media admins! (Not.)
And if Uri Puigdemont is to be believed (And 100% of the time, he is), all the manufacturers are getting is an extra million a year in support payments from Dorna, when they were pushing for a revenue sharing model, similar to all the other major US Sports, that typically hover around 50/50. Maybe it’s something the factories can push for a unified front next time, but caving on that was a huge deal and for me, left a lot of potential money on the table.
That potential money boils down to what Carlos was saying about the sport’s need for growth. He even used the exact same line Chase Carey used when Liberty Media, their parent company, bought F1 back in 2016 – We want *22* Superbowls. MotoGP has maybe one race that could qualify – Le Mans, and it’s purely from attendance, it’s not a ratings missile like the NFL’s is.
It irks me because even before the Liberty purchase, MotoGP had been copying straight from F1’s playbook. MotoGP Unlimited was one of many sports attempts (Tour de France Unchained, The Six Nations, Break Point, Full Swing, etc), who tried copying the Drive to Survive model that F1 caught lightning in a bottle with. It didn’t work, even with the still excellent smaller budget versions like “There can be only one” on YouTube.
As I’ve always said, F1 had a lightning in a bottle effect. The timing of COVID and Netflix front paging their show just as the world stopped turning. The middle of their “Engineered Insanity” push into North America that actually made inroads. A new, younger audience that caught the bug, not because the sport itself was great, but because the drivers were interesting off the track and that made people be emotionally invested in them, the Aspirational/Reality TV way.
David Emmett made the point that MotoGP needs to reevaluate the storytelling aspect of the sport and get people invested in the riders, not just the product. For the two decades I’ve been watching the sport, the on-track product has been way better than F1 on an average weekend. That’s never been the issue, the issue is getting people to watch. As Dave said, F1 worked out that millennials and Gen Z’ers aren’t buying cars anymore because they can’t afford them. 20 years ago, biking was WAY more accessible and it had their lightning in a bottle – Valentino Rossi. A playful, charismatic, handsome Italian with creativity, branding, and a ruthless will to win. He was the only star that mattered in bike racing and we’ve never gotten close to that since.
But Rossi was also a star in a time where a top-level Superbike was only £10k, and Gen X actually had the disposable income to buy them. Now, a Ducati Panigale V4, a 220bhp bazooka that you can’t fully appreciate on a normal road, costs 45 grand. The youngsters literally can’t afford to replicate the marketing model of yesteryear. Dorna needs to figure out how to make us care about the riders of today, and not just throw the teams a drop in the bucket and tell them to go invite some more VIP’s. We can do better than having “Hide The Pain” Harald wave a checkered flag. Who’s waving F1’s flag at Dorna’s doorstep in Barcelona last week? Novak Djokovic.
When I was on my good friend Misha’s Hold The Pass Podcast, I gushed about Marc Marquez and explained to both them and Fatima about his injury history and his five year crawl to get back to the top of the sport. He’s the nearest we have to a genuine world-breaking story of an athlete in MotoGP, and no-one else is close. And compressing the smaller classes isn’t going to help. How do you explain how great David Alonso is as he enters MotoGP without mentioning his 14 win Moto3 season, one of the greatest in two-wheeled history? Or Pedro Acosta being one of the youngest smaller class Champions ever, and some of his own wacky moments that stand out in a sport that lacks star power?
These are the questions MotoGP needs to figure out in the next 10 years, or it’s going to have a really hard time replicating F1’s growth it so badly wants to mimic again.
Still, it could be worse, it’s not like we’d get another title-defining flashpoint now would we?
Slap Fight
Welp.
The Sprint was a reasonably straight-forward affair at the front. Ai Ogura took a remarkable pole position, his and Trackhouse’s first in MotoGP history, a blistering 1:51.1 that was 1.2 seconds ahead of the old record, due to an incredibly high grip resurfacing.
It led to the nullification of one of the main weaknesses of Pecco Bagnaia’s Ducati tenure. There had already been another shift in development where Ducati had shifted weight to the front of the bike, sacrificing some of their famed rear grip so Pecco could get some front feel. Combine that with a super-high grip surface and Pecco was back to something near his best. He took the early holeshot at the Sprint and didn’t give it up again. Ai Ogura got mighty close over the course of the race, coming into his own using the medium rear tyre compared to the factory boys on softs, but Bagnaia held on for the win, with Marc Marquez a close running third. Yes, Pecco’s first win of any kind since his double at Japan last year.
Marco Bezzecchi has lost his cool after his #CzechGP Sprint race crash 🥊#MotoGP pic.twitter.com/xjYjneUIBx
— TNT Sports Bikes (@bikesontnt) June 20, 2026
But let’s be real here, that’s not why you’re here. Marco Bezzecchi, crashed out late on. It’s his fourth in Sprints so far this season. But that’s still not why you’re here. When he crashes, the usual team of marshals are recovering his bike. As one marshal hoists the bike up, he accidentally revs it. Bezzecchi seems to panic at this, as the bike comes back down, he shoves and then slaps the marshal who revs the bike. Bez’s day was over, and it was about to get a whole lot worse.
Late on Saturday night, there was a long hearing between the stewards and we soon found out why – Marco Bezzecchi was SUSPENDED from the rest of the weekend. Aprilia immediately appealed and it was thrown out, with Simon Crafar making it abundantly clear that this was not acceptable:
“The Appeal Stewards consider it particularly significant that the individuals involved were marshals actively engaged in the recovery of the rider’s machine following an accident. Such personnel were acting solely in the interests of rider safety, event safety, and the orderly conduct of the competition.
Physical aggression towards marshals is wholly unacceptable in professional motorsport and cannot be tolerated regardless of the circumstances leading to the incident. Failure to respond appropriately to such conduct would risk sending the wrong message to competitors throughout the Championship and would be inconsistent with the governing body’s obligation to protect officials, volunteers, and workers who contribute to the sport.”
I don’t envy Massimo Rivola. Man gave it the big one just last week that he was okay with Jorge Martin getting a harsher punishment for recreating a game of 100-pin skittles from Wii Sports at Balaton, and yet he felt like he had to appeal this one because he felt the penalty was disproportionate. I think he’s adorable.
Having reviewed the footage, the stewards were spot on. To put your hands on a marshal who was acting in good faith to help you, is disgraceful and there is zero justification for it. A message needs to be sent out that that is completely unacceptable and you absolutely should sit out a race.
And what makes it weird was that there was this weird push on social media to try and justify it. From the marshals error in revving the bike, to the constant repackaging of “heat of the moment” by people, or that he’s young, or that he has a nice mother. None of that matters. You are one of 22 of the best bike riders in the world. You’re 27 years old. The very first thing you have to have to ride a bike is discipline. And I’m not sure anyone should be making sweeping statements about someone’s character when they’re riding a 320 horsepower, 230mph exocet missile. It’s a different world when the visor goes down, and deep down, everyone in bike racing knows it.
And of course, it’s catastrophic in terms of Championship consequences. After the Sprint, Marc Marquez had reduced the deficit to 65 points and like stepping over the line in cricket, you’ve just gift-wrapped him a free hit. A win and he’s within a race weekend. Mugello felt like a killshot in terms of the Championship battle. Three weeks later and Aprilia’s tearing itself apart with mistakes.
And it begs the question, if Bez is losing his head over a crash in a Sprint in June, how is he going to be down the stretch in October and November if he’s still in title contention by then? This weekend has exposed another weakness in Bezzecchi as a rider, who we now have to evaluate at a Championship level. And right now, he’s failing to test – You’ve let Marquez back in through the front door.
Now to be fair, given Marquez said Top 5 was the target and that his Sprint podium was optimistic, he wouldn’t really hit Aprilia where it hurt, right?
The Little Marquez Who Cried Wolf
If he was never one of the greatest motorcycle riders to ever live, Marc Marquez would be a used car salesman. Why? Because he lies through his teeth and still comes out on top. Big Bill would have competition.
Okay, in his defence, he looked dead on his arm after it was all said and done. But how he got there was sublime. This time it was Ai Ogura who took the holeshot, but Pecco Bagnaia was on maximum attack to get to the front. He hit the switchback piledriver on Marquez on Turn 7 at the opening lap and then got all up in Ogura’s grill until he could chisel out a move, one where Marquez was quick to follow through on to take second.
From there, we had a stand off for a good half of the race. Bagnaia, again, riding near his best and defending a lead that was never more than maybe eight tenths. After two-thirds distance, Marquez reeled Bagnaia in and caught him with a gorgeous switchback of his own through Turn 4. Ogura quickly passed Bagania to take second, and that just seemed to knock Pecco out of his rhythm a little bit.
From there, Ogura was throwing the house at Marquez to try and get close enough. I’ve joked on Discord before that if this was more of a fantasy video game and riders had abilities – Ogura’s would be “second wind”, where he busts out an extra three tenths a lap in the back half of the race. It’s not like an Enea Bastianini where he’s a tyre whisperer, he just gets stronger and stronger as the race goes on, often to make up for often having poor qualifying or losing places early on. This was the first Japanese polesitter we’ve had in MotoGP since Taka Nakagami back in 2020, and being able to platform that into his strongest showing yet was awesome.
But there was no touching Marc Marquez, who I think was genuinely on adrenaline alone for the final six laps, squeezing out low 53’s right at the end of the race to basically mitigate what Ogura was doing. It was another monster performance from Marc, his first case of back-to-back wins in almost a calendar year. Three weeks ago, Marc was 102 points off the Championship lead. It’s now 40. Assen is one of his weakest tracks up next, but if he can survive that, it’s the Sachsenring to close out the first half of the calendar. Aprilia’s been reluctant to crown themselves the new kings of the sport because they knew their greatest test was still to come. A competitive Marc Marquez.
Game on.
The Lightning Round
The race was 13 seconds faster than last year’s. A good two-thirds of a second a lap quicker. Can we send these resurfacers to Catalunya?
I’m going to try and get more info on this one soon, but I’m absolutely gutted to see World Superbikes have also dropped Philip Island off their calendar, meaning it’s no longer a World Championship level track on two wheels. I get why it had to happen, but it doesn’t make it any less shit.
The first thing Marco Bezzecchi did today was to apologize personally to the marshal 🤝
A very emotional moment 🥹#CzechGP 🇨🇿 pic.twitter.com/QJfqAHTbJw
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 21, 2026
I ask this in good faith – What counts as a “sincere” apology nowadays. If you have a subtle one that isn’t public, people will say the apology needs to be as loud as the disrespect. If you have one that’s filmed for the world to see, you’re accused of “doing it for PR”. This is the problem with today’s social media, and take it from someone who has to work in it professionally. Everything is now content. Everything is now an opportunity to harbour clicks and generate conversation. Barely anything is off the table. If there’s one element of the weekend that I do feel bad for Marco with, it’s that a filmed return to the marshal post where he gifts his gloves and is in tears as he hugs Ladislav, the marshal he struck is deemed to be hamming it up for the cameras. So again, I ask – What is a sincere apology in 2026?
Ai Ogura, the most talented Japanese rider we’ve had since Kato? Just a thought…
63 MotoGP podiums for #63. Four in a row too. Good to see Pecco back at the thick end of the grid. He’s still a fringe title threat at -53 for sure. Also, is no-one talking about Diggia at -23?!
Jorge Martin absolutely dropped the ball with a golden opportunity to take the Championship, even factoring in the two long lap penalties. He was somehow worse than he was last year in his first race back from being run over.
A five-point fight in the manufacturers Championship and both factories being in Tier B for concessions in the back half? Spicy.
Moto2 and Moto3 were absolutely well worth the watch in their own right too. The Moto2 race going all the way in with the tension and Ivan Ortola systemically picking David Alonso off at the final corner was amazing, and delightful to see Filip Salac score a home podium at Brno in what he called the “best day of his life”. And Moto3, seeing Max Quiles having to settle for third at the hands of Hakim Danish! Hell yeah, we got a person of colour winning at GP level again, the first Malaysian winner since “Rain Gawd” himself Khairul Idham Pawi nearly a decade ago, and the first ever in the dry. 10/10 races and a reminder as to why Brno is one of the best tracks on the calendar, period.
The Verdict: 7.5/10 (Very Good) – About as good as a MotoGP “tension” race gets, without a batshit insane finish. It was chilling to see Bagnaia, Ogura and Marquez ride at their limits, and see the tactics of the race take the forefront, with Marquez barely hanging on to take his 101st and on brand victory. Good shit. See you in Assen.