Marquez Wins at Motegi: Martin’s Championship Lead Shrinks to Two Points

• Marquez wins by 1.363 seconds ahead of Martin and Marco Bezzecchi
• Enea Bastianini misses the podium by 0.078 seconds and sets a new race lap record
• Championship standings: Martin 333 points, Marquez 331 points, Bezzecchi 284 points

After winning Saturday’s sprint, Marc Marquez also won Sunday’s 24-lap Grand Prix, taking the maximum possible 37 points. Before the weekend, Jorge Martin had a 12-point lead, which shrank to seven after the sprint. Now it is just two. Martin finished second ahead of his Aprilia teammate Marco Bezzecchi, who only secured his podium in the final metres against Enea Bastianini. It was Marquez’s 79th MotoGP win and his fourth victory at the Japanese Grand Prix in the premier class after 2016, 2018 and 2019. The race at Motegi marks the start of the overseas swing and with it the decisive phase of the 2026 MotoGP season.

How did the start of the MotoGP race in Japan go?

Jorge Martin started from pole position and led the field into the first corner. Marc Marquez slotted in right behind him, while Marco Bezzecchi moved up to third on the opening lap.

The front row was all-Spanish: Martin ahead of Marquez and Pedro Acosta. But the KTM factory rider once again had a poor start. Acosta, who had recently won in Austria, couldn’t get his tyres up to temperature in the opening laps and dropped to eighth by lap three. Enea Bastianini, Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura passed him one after another.

Alex Marquez initially held fourth place. However, the Gresini rider had to serve a double long-lap penalty for causing a crash at Turn 3 in the sprint, in which Acosta and Fabio Di Giannantonio also went down. After the first penalty lap on lap 5 he was behind Bastianini, and after the second he was only ninth. Johann Zarco also had to complete two long laps. He had tried to restart his bike at the side of the track during warm-up, which has been prohibited since this season.

At the front, Martin was around half a second ahead of Marquez after two laps. The pace was high from the start. On lap 5, Bezzecchi set a 1:43.495, with Martin and Marquez only fractionally slower. For comparison: the previous fastest race lap at Motegi was set by Francesco Bagnaia last year at 1:44.412. The new asphalt offered the riders a great deal of grip.

When did Marquez overtake Martin at Motegi?

Marc Marquez overtook Jorge Martin on lap 11 on the inside at the left-hand Turn 9. Until then, he had been closing in on the Aprilia rider lap by lap.

After lap 6 the gap was still three tenths, and after lap 9 just 0.149 seconds. During this phase, an encrypted message appeared on the dashboard of Martin’s Aprilia saying that number 10 was following him. Since Luca Marini, who carries that number, was running far behind, it was clear that this was an internal code between team and rider. On lap 10, Martin set his fastest lap with a 1:43.328, with Marquez only 0.034 seconds slower.

One lap later, Marquez launched his attack. Martin tried to counter shortly afterwards, but ran onto the green area beside the track on the exit of Turn 9 and lost momentum. Marquez then gradually extended his lead. After lap 15 he was almost nine tenths ahead.

Martin didn’t give up and closed the gap to just over seven tenths on laps 16 and 17. Marquez responded on lap 18 with a 1:43.291, the fastest lap of the race up to that point. After that, the gap was over a second again. At the finish, 1.363 seconds separated the two. Martin and Bezzecchi are said to have had very little fuel left in the tank at the end of the race.

How close was the fight for third place?

Marco Bezzecchi held on to third place by just 0.078 seconds from Enea Bastianini. The Tech3 KTM rider had made up more than a second in the final laps.

Bezzecchi rode alone in third for a long time, around two seconds behind the leading duo. In the closing stages, however, Bastianini got faster and faster and set several fastest race laps in a row. On lap 22 he was still 0.578 seconds behind after a 1:43.128. On the penultimate lap he set a 1:43.041. That was the fastest lap of the entire race and a new race lap record at Motegi, more than a second below the old mark.

On the final lap, Bastianini attempted an attack at Turn 10 but almost ran into the back of the Aprilia and had to abort the move. There was no second opportunity. Bastianini had already missed out on a podium in the sprint. He initially crossed the line in third there, but was demoted one place for exceeding track limits on the final lap.

Battle for fifth: Trackhouse duo holds off Acosta

Behind the top four, Raul Fernandez, Ai Ogura and Pedro Acosta fought a close three-way battle for much of the race. Acosta had worked his way back up after his poor start and passed Ogura on lap 16.

He then set his sights on Fernandez. But at Turn 9 the Spaniard outbraked the KTM rider on the inside, and the three briefly ran side by side. Ogura seized the opportunity and also got back past Acosta, cheered on by the Japanese fans. Fernandez finished fifth, with Ogura crossing the line 0.395 seconds behind in sixth. Acosta had to settle for seventh.

With Martin, Bezzecchi, Fernandez and Ogura, there were four Aprilias in the top six. For Ogura it was a home race in front of a big crowd. Almost 55,000 spectators came to the track on race day and almost 122,000 over the whole weekend. That is a new record for the Japanese Grand Prix. The last Japanese winner at a home race in the premier class was Makoto Tamada in 2004.

Who crashed at the Japanese GP?

Diogo Moreira, Alex Marquez, Jack Miller and Johann Zarco all crashed at Motegi. Moreira and Alex Marquez retired, while Miller and Zarco continued after their falls.

For Moreira, a special weekend ended in disappointment. The LCR Honda rookie had finished second in the sprint, becoming the first Brazilian to reach the podium in a MotoGP sprint. In the Grand Prix he crashed at Turn 9 on lap 9 while running in eighth place.

Alex Marquez crashed on lap 19 at Turn 12, at the same spot as in the morning warm-up. His weekend had started strongly: he was fastest in practice on Friday. In the end he left without a single point. Almost at the same time, Jack Miller went down at Turn 10. He continued and finished 19th. Zarco also crashed at Turn 10 on lap 20, rejoined the race and was classified two laps down.

Fabio Di Giannantonio rode with rib pain after his crash in the sprint. According to VR46 team boss Pablo Nieto, nothing was broken, but the Italian is said to have taken painkillers. He only finished 18th.

What role did the hard rear tyre play?

All 22 riders started on the medium front tyre and the hard rear tyre. After heavy blistering in the sprint, Michelin had withdrawn the soft rear tyre and expressly recommended the hard tyre with a reinforced carcass.

For the riders it was a race into the unknown. They could only run the hard rear tyre for the first time in Sunday morning’s warm-up, which was extended from 10 to 20 minutes for that reason. Nobody completed more than twelve consecutive laps on it before the race. KTM team boss Aki Ajo described the situation before the start like this: “no one really test this tire”.

Beforehand there were concerns that the stiffer carcass might suit Aprilia in particular, while Ducati had recently struggled with this construction. In the end, however, Marquez was fast on this tyre too. The view reportedly doing the rounds in the paddock was that the very grippy new asphalt compensated for the grip disadvantage of the harder carcass. Overall, the race was 27 seconds faster than last year.

What did Marquez, Martin and Bezzecchi say after the race?

After the race, Marc Marquez explained that he had struggled behind Martin but was able to control his pace once in front. “The race was tough, especially when I was behind Jorge, but I knew that if I was able to lead the race, the pace was good.” When Martin came closer, he simply pushed harder and then eased off a little again.

Despite the defeat, Jorge Martin was satisfied with his performance. “I wanted to win, but I think today was really difficult to beat Marc. I think it was one of the days that I rode almost perfectly.” He sees himself well placed with his package for the rest of the season.

For Marco Bezzecchi, the podium had a personal meaning. He said that he had lost someone very important to him when he arrived in Japan. “I wanted this podium so bad.”

Ducati Corse boss Gigi Dall’Igna spoke after the race about the disappointment in Austria and the response in Japan: “we are happy and we are proud about the Marc performance.” It is said to have been Dall’Igna’s 100th win since joining Ducati. To mark the occasion, Marquez stuck a sticker on the fairing of his Desmosedici. About Dall’Igna he said: “Now I’m enjoying what Gigi built with all his staff, because in the end one person is impossible.”

What do the MotoGP standings look like after the race in Japan?

Jorge Martin leads the championship with 333 points, followed by Marc Marquez with 331 points. Marco Bezzecchi is 49 points off the lead with 284 points.

Behind them are Pedro Acosta with 243, Ai Ogura with 237 and Fabio Di Giannantonio with 230 points. The constructors’ championship is also tight: Ducati and Aprilia are level on 469 points each. Ducati leads thanks to its higher number of wins, eight compared to seven for Aprilia. In the team standings, Aprilia Racing extended its lead over Ducati Lenovo to 122 points.

After 16 of 22 race weekends, six races remain. After this weekend, Bezzecchi urgently needs strong results to stop the title fight from becoming a two-way duel between Martin and Marquez.

What’s next after Motegi in Indonesia?

As early as next weekend, MotoGP heads to the Mandalika Circuit on the island of Lombok in Indonesia. For Marc Marquez, things have not gone well at this track so far.

In his four previous starts at Mandalika, Marquez has never finished a Sunday Grand Prix. Last year, his season ended there after a collision with Bezzecchi on the first lap. Even before the start at Motegi, Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi had stressed how important a strong result in Japan was: “we know that we will face a very tough race in Indonesia that doesn’t suit properly our bike.” Depending on the result of Saturday’s sprint, Marquez could take the championship lead at Mandalika.

MotoGP Motegi race results at a glance

Marc Marquez won ahead of Jorge Martin (+1.363 seconds), Marco Bezzecchi (+2.252 seconds) and Enea Bastianini (+2.330 seconds). They were followed by Raul Fernandez, Ai Ogura, Pedro Acosta, Francesco Bagnaia, Fermin Aldeguer and Luca Marini as the best Honda rider. Bagnaia finished more than 20 seconds behind his teammate.

The remaining points went to Brad Binder in eleventh, Fabio Quartararo as the best Yamaha rider in twelfth, Somkiat Chantra in 13th, Maverick Viñales in 14th and Franco Morbidelli in 15th. Chantra replaced the still-absent Joan Mir at Honda and worked his way from the back of the field into the points after an early mistake. Viñales returned after missing four races due to his shoulder injury.

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