Calling the first half of the 2026 season unfavourable for Marc Marquez would be an understatement. However, the second half is proving to be a much better for the Spanish rider; he just won the San Marino GP and became the championship leader for the first time. After Marco Bezzecchi crashed out in the first lap, Marc’s path to winning the race was largely hurdle-free; except for three laps where he lost the lead to Jorge Martin, who ended up finishing the race in P5.
- Marc Marquez battled Jorge Martin and his brother Alex Marquez for a thrilling win
- Jorge Martin eventually ended up finishing fifth, hindered by a pre-existing arm condition
- Pedro Acosta continued to be the most successful KTM rider
Easy start, but not for long
At lights out, Marco Bezzecchi, the rider ranking third in the championship, had a stronger start and led most of the first lap. However, he quickly crashed out towards the end of it at turn 13, handing the lead to Marc. Jorge Martin too had an impressive race start from P5, overtaking Fabio Di Giannantonio and Fermin Aldeguer to get into P2 at the end of lap 1. Marc had a comfortable 0.9 second over Jorge Martin when the crash happened so there was no immediate battle for P1.
Jorge Martin and later Alex Marquez vied for P1
However, Jorge Martin, who entered the weekend as the championship leader, decided to mount an attack quickly and overtook Marc Marquez a few laps later and held onto the lead for three laps. While initially appearing to settle for P2, or even P3 after Alex started closing the gap too, Marc reacted quickly, taking back the lead from Jorge and then started building up a gap; until Marc’s younger brother Alex Marquez decided to overtake Jorge Martin for the second position and started closing the gap to Marc Marquez as well. However, Marc maintained his half-second lead over his younger brother until the very end, and eventually won the race with a 0.657 second lead. This victory made him a seven-time winner at the Misano World Circuit, where the San Marino GP has been hosted since 2007.
Pedro Acosta continues to shine in the orange limelight
Pedro Acosta, who was behind Alex Marquez, also overtook Jorge Martin a few laps later; and Martin was yet again overtaken by Alex’s Gresini teammate Fermin Aledeguer, leaving him with fifth place in the end. Jorge Martin explained in the post-race interviews that he had an arm-pump issue that restricted his performance; he added that he will decide his next steps after next weekend’s Austrian GP.
Pedro Acosta continued his impressive performance on KTM’s RC16 and delivered a consecutive podium after coming in second at the Aragon GP. The nearest KTM rider to Acosta, to put his performance into context, was Tech3’s Enea Bastianini in eighth. Brad Binder, Acosta’s Factory KTM teammate, finished eleventh.
Other notable events from the premier race
Both the Factory Aprilia Racing and Gresini Racing teams sported special liveries for the weekend. Aprilia called its livery on the RS-GP “Perla Bianca” (white pearl), as a tribute to 80 years of Piaggio-owned Vespa. Gresini’s livery was a tribute to the late Marco Simoncelli and also to mark the team’s thirty years in the premier class of MotoGP.
Besides Marco Bezzecchi, Jack Miller and Diogo Moreira, Marquez’s factory Ducati teammate, Francesco (Pecco) Bagnaia, also crashed out of the race on the first, second, and fifth laps, respectively. Joan Mir and Alex Rins retired from the race for undisclosed reasons on laps five and 16, respectively. On lap 24, Johann Zarco also crashed, leaving LCR Honda with a double DNF for the weekend. In the end, 14 of the 22 riders completed all 27 laps, with Tech3’s Pol Espargaro, who continued as Maverick Vinales’ replacement, finishing last.
Marc leads the 2026 championship for the first time
With his performance over the weekend, taking all 37 available points, Marc Marquez leads the 2026 rider’s championship for the very first time. As the championship moves onto Austria for the next race, Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin both have exactly 274 points. In May, when he rejoined the grid at the Italian GP, Marc was trailing 102 points to the then championship leader Marco Bezzecchi. He has equalled the point difference in seven races, though, it remains to be seen how Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi take the fight to Marc Marquez in the remaining eight races for the season.
In the constructors' championship, Ducati has overtaken Aprilia, now leading by two points at 412. However, in the teams' championship, Aprilia Racing continues to lead with 515 points; 98 points over Ducati Lenovo team. All in all, the 2026 season has turned out to be a lot more interesting than initially expected.
Moto3 and Moto2 were also eventful!
Things were just as interesting, if not more so, in the other two classes as well. In Moto3, Maximo Quiles, the 18-year-old Spanish racer from the CFMoto Aspar Team, continued his domination, winning today’s race with a nail-biting last-corner overtake on David Almansa, who had led the race until then. Quiles won by just 0.021 seconds, just over the width of the front tyre.
The Moto2 race had a chaotic start after a mistake by rookie Angel Piqueras took him and two of the front-runners, Senna Agius and Daniel Holgado, down and out of the race at the very first corner. Manuel Gonzalez, who currently leads the championship, took the lead thereafter and successfully held onto it until the end. This marked Manu’s first race win since the Hungarian GP.