Spanishman Marc Márquez (Ducati) today won MotoGP's Japan Grand Prix, 16th race of the season, and approached fellow countryman Jorge Martín (Aprilia), who holds the World Cup's lead for two points.
© Lusa
04/10/2026
by
Lusa
Márquez completed the 24 laps in 41,31,467 minutes, finishing with 1,363 seconds of advantage over Martín, second ranked, while Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) completed the podium, at 2,252 seconds of the winner.
After also winning the Saturday sprint race, the championship champion left Motegi with 331 points, against the 333 of Martín, while Bezzecchi remains third, with 284, when six major prizes are missing for the end of the season.
Martín, who had won the pole position, took command in the match, followed by Márquez, in a race in which all the drivers chose the rear tire of hard compost after Michelin's recommendation due to the new asphalt of the Japanese circuit, more abrasive than the previous one.
The Ducati pilot remained close to the leader until the 11th lap, when he consumed overrun at turn nine. Martín still sought to reduce the difference, but Márquez responded and retained the first position until the chess flag.
In the discussion for the third place, Bezzecchi resisted the approach of compatriot Enea Bastianini (KTM), who finished fourth, only 78 thousandths ago. Bastianini signed the fastest lap of the race in the penultimate passage in 1.43.041 minutes.
With this triumph, Márquez became the first driver to win four major races in Motegi, after the successes in 2016, 2018 and 2019, surpassing the three triumphs of the Spanish Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo and Italian Loris Capirossi.
The Spanish also reached its 10th MotoGP podium on the Japanese circuit, on a journey that added the 79th victory in the main category.
The Ducati won the fifth consecutive victory in Motegi and the 10th in this plot, equalizing the number of Honda triumphs.
Behind the first four, the Spanish Raúl Fernández and the Japanese Ai Ogura, both in Aprilia, finished in fifth and sixth positions, respectively, ahead of the Spanish Pedro Acosta (KTM), seventh, and Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), eighth.
The championship continues on October 11, with the Indonesia Grand Prix, on the Mandalika circuit.