Marco Bezzecchi has led every single Sunday lap of the 2026 MotoGP season, a 121-lap streak at the front of races that stretches back to last November's Portuguese Grand Prix. But as the championship leader arrived at the Circuito de Jerez this week chasing a slice of history, the most glaring gap in his dominance was impossible to ignore: through the opening three rounds, he is still without a Saturday sprint podium.
That is the challenge the 27-year-old Aprilia rider faces this weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix. Victory on Sunday would make Bezzecchi only the 17th rider in the championship's 77-year history to win the opening four Grands Prix of a season, a list headlined by Giacomo Agostini, Mick Doohan, Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi. Of the previous 17 riders to open a year with three straight wins, just one, Doohan in 1992, failed to go on and claim the title — and that only after a broken leg at Assen wiped out much of his campaign.
History, then, is firmly on Bezzecchi's side. So too is the confidence of a rider who has never had a bad word to say about his Noale-built RS-GP. But asked in the Jerez paddock on Thursday whether Aprilia is now the best bike on the grid, the championship leader refused to bite.
"I have no idea. It is difficult for me to compare with the other bikes, so I ride only the Aprilia, so I don't know," Bezzecchi said. "For me, for myself, for sure my team, my part of the garage is very good and I feel wonderful with them. But it's a question that I have no idea how to answer."
Bezzecchi has never previously won at Jerez in the premier class — a single podium here is the extent of his top-line MotoGP form at the venue — and he is wary that the three-week break since Austin will have allowed Ducati and Marc Marquez to close the gap.
"I feel good. I feel happy to be back in Europe, especially here in Jerez. That is a wonderful place, a wonderful track. So very, very happy overall," Bezzecchi said. "Can't wait to ride the bike that is even better."
"We had a decent break," he explained. "All, everyone had the time to work on every aspect. So the riders and also the manufacturers. So it will be a tough weekend. We will try our best to start in the best way possible."
Part of the argument for a Jerez resistance rests on Ducati's home-circuit proficiency and on the two-wheeled ability of the Marquez brothers, with defending winner Alex Marquez and a sharpening Marc both expected to be in the Sunday fight. Bezzecchi is under no illusions.
"Mark and Alex for sure, but all the others are super strong because also Diggia and everyone is, Pedro is super competitive," he said. "So here is a track that the gaps between the riders are always super small, and the races are always super tough because you have to manage a lot the tyres."
The record books suggest a Bezzecchi sweep through Jerez would all but book the title. The form book suggests it is coming. But until he converts that dominant Sunday pace into a Saturday sprint victory, too, the perfect Aprilia weekend remains the one missing line on Marco Bezzecchi's growing highlight reel.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/bezzecchi-eyes-fourth-straight-motogp-win-at-jerez-but-saturday-is-the-real-test). Visit for full coverage.*
