MotoGP returns from a fortnight off at Brno this weekend with Marc Marquez firmly in control of the championship, his rivals increasingly vocal about the squeeze he is putting on them, and the sport's 2027 reshuffle already casting a shadow over the paddock.
Marquez heads to the Monster Energy Grand Prix of Czechia on the back of a perfect weekend in Hungary, where he took a double win from pole in only his second event since shoulder surgery to relieve a compressed nerve. Brno is the first of three races before the summer break, and he says his condition is still climbing.
"I'm feeling better than last weekend," Marquez said of his recovery. "Winning is good for the body, it's positive energy. During the summer break, we'll try to take a step forward."
Pressed on the wave of younger riders chasing him — chiefly Pedro Acosta and Fermin Aldeguer, both more than a decade his junior — Marquez framed it as the natural order of things. "Accept that young guys like Acosta and Aldeguer, who are 10-12 years younger, will arrive, and they have a different determination and energy; it's the natural process of an athlete," he said during a visit to Formula 1's Catalunya round. "It happens to everyone. I try to work harder to remain tough to beat, even for the young guys." On the title fight, he was unwilling to declare an all-out assault: "As a rider, I always give 100%, then we'll see, anything can happen. Obviously, we're not at the point where we can go on the attack right now."
While Marquez plays the long game, Acosta has turned the heat on the man sharing Marquez's garage. Speaking on the Gypsy Tales podcast, the KTM rider questioned how Francesco Bagnaia — a multiple champion and Ducati's undisputed leader before Marquez arrived — has been unable to match his teammate on identical machinery.
"There are no excuses," Acosta said. "When you're in the same garage, with the same bike, it's very hard to justify." He acknowledged the picture is more complicated from the outside — "it's hard to say when you're not in the pit" — and pointed to the mental toll of Marquez's presence. "When someone like Marc arrives, everything is raised to a higher level. The pressure increases too," he said. "It's not easy to always be number one and be surpassed by your own teammate."
That 2027 transition is already producing oddities. Honda has asked Joan Mir to test its 2027 prototype — the 850cc RC214V built for next year's overhauled regulations — at a private session in Brno on Monday June 22, even though Mir has agreed to leave for Ducati's satellite Gresini squad next season. It is, by the reckoning of those in the paddock, unprecedented for a rider switching manufacturers to be handed the keys to a development bike. The new rules bring smaller engines, reduced aerodynamics, the removal of ride-height devices and a switch from Michelin to Pirelli tyres, and the early-test mileage is expected to be a significant advantage. Pirelli's MotoGP director, Giorgio Barbier, has indicated the Italian firm will lean heavily on factory-rider feedback from these sessions to finalise its 2027 range.
First, though, comes Brno — where Marquez will try to keep the gap growing before the young guns get another shot at him.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports](https://motorsports.global/article/marquez-heads-to-brno-on-top-as-acosta-pressures-bagnaia). Visit for full coverage.*
