Aprilia completed a dominant race weekend in Le Mans as it claimed its first-ever 1-2-3 in MotoGP history, headed by Jorge Martin.
The 2024 World Champion fought from eighth on the grid to first at the flag for the second time this weekend, overtaking team-mate Marco Bezzecchi with three laps remaining to take victory.
Bezzecchi had a free run to the first corner after polesitter Francesco Bagnaia spun up after the initial launch, with the championship leader taking the advantage to lead at Turn 1.
Bagnaia dropped back in the pack to fifth as Pedro Acosta took second on the start and home favourite Fabio Quartararo moved into third.
Quartararo held firm at Turn 4 and tucked his Yamaha underneath Acosta to move into second, which allowed Bezzecchi to make a small gap at front.
Acosta made his move back through on Quartararo on Lap 2 and was immediately able to close the gap to Bezzecchi ahead.
Quartararo once again began to struggle with Yamaha’s sub-par race pace and dropped behind Bagnaia, before surrendering further positions to Fabio Di Giannantonio and Martin at the first chicane on Lap 7.
As the riders behind jostled for position, Bagnaia also managed to catch Acosta. Although the KTM rider tried to hold off the Ducati charge, the double World Champion managed to thread his bike through in the chicane just ahead of the multi-rider battle.
The pair were given a bit of breathing room following their brief encounter as Martin and Di Giannantonio started fighting over fourth position. Martin went wide on his initial attempt to overtake the VR46 rider at Turn 4, but finally made the move stick by the end of Lap 9.
Martin began catching up with the leading trio, and put pressure on Bagnaia and Acosta to close the gap to Bezzecchi ahead, with the gap slowly but surely closing between the Italians.
However, just as he looked to be comfortable in second place, Bagnaia crashed out at Turn 2 to put an end to what would have been his strongest weekend in 2026.
Martin pulled late-braking move at the chicane to move past Acosta into second place, with a one and a half second gap between himself and team-mate Bezzecchi in the lead.
Further behind, the satellite Aprilia of Ai Ogura began his charge through the field, and passed Di Giannantonio for fourth before pulling a strong move on Acosta to complete his podium charge.
The gap between the team-mates was closing at a rapid rate, with the tyre drop-off forcing both riders to take risks to hold their respective positions.
With three laps remaining, Martin decided it was time to strike. A move reminiscent of his pass on Pedro Acosta, the Spaniard came from far back to edge past Bezzecchi into the chicane and claim the lead for the first time.
Martin was able to pull away from Bezzecchi, with both riders chased to the flag by the fast-charging Ogura as Aprilia looked to make history in sealing its first podium lock-out.
Martin crossed the line in first place to seal his first grand prix win since the 2024 Indonesian Grand Prix, taking the flag by 0.477s.
Bezzecchi struggled with the pace in the closing stages but still made it to the flag in second place.
Ogura almost caught the factory riders ahead but ultimately took his first ever MotoGP podium in third.
Di Giannantonio produced a penultimate-corner overtake on Acosta to take fourth, with both riders completing the top five but some distance.
Quartararo held strong despite Yamaha’s limitations and took sixth, while Enea Bastianini showed his usual late race pace in seventh.
Raul Fernandez ensured all Aprilia bikes made the top 10 in eighth ahead of Fermin Aldeguer in ninth and Luca Marini in 10th.
Johann Zarco finished his home race in 11th, while Alex Rins won a race long battle with Toprak Razgatlioglu and Franco Morbidelli in 12th.
Jack Miller made an incorrect choice with the medium rear tyre and struggled over the line to claim the final point in 15th. Jonas Folger completed his stand-in duties for KTM as the final finisher in 16th.
Alex Marquez was the first rider to crash out of the race on Lap 2, and was joined by Diogo Moreira, Brad Binder, Joan Mir and Bagnaia as the non-finishers at Le Mans.
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