Even though Formula One has crowned Kimi Antonelli as the WDC for the year, things on the MotoGP side are shaping up much slower, and arguably far more interesting. Going into the weekend, Marc Marquez had the first match point at the Sunday race; provided he outscores Marco Bezzecchi (P3 in championship) by 5 points and Jorge Martin (P2 in championship) by 25 points. Neither happened and the second match point will now be in the Sprint Race of the Portugal GP. However, this does not mean the controversial middle eastern GP was uneventful. Far from it, in fact.
- Marco Bezzecchi crashed out of the Saturday Sprint, allowing Marc Marquez to win and increase his championship lead
- Sunday race saw Marquez fight for P2 and P3 before finishing in P2
- Marquez could become the first rider in MotoGP history to be crowned champion after a Sprint race
Eventful Saturday sprint
Two crashes and two retirements
The Saturday sprint started off normal but the first lap ended quite dramatically with Fermin Aldeguer wiping out Pecco Bagnaia. When the Sprint was restarted with 10 laps after a brief red flag, Marquez got the better start and quickly attained P1 after brief attacks from Bezzecchi. However, in lap 3, Bezzecchi saw a narrow opening close to the curb and decided to go for it and ended up meeting Marquez at the apex. The riders clashing into each other with no space to recover led to Bezzecchi losing grip and crashing out in quite the dramatic fashion.
Jorge Martin, in the meantime, had a great recovery ride and climbed up from P11 to P4. Once Bezzecchi crashed out, Martin was quick to move up to P2 and held off Fabio Di Giannantonio quite successfully, but the latter executed a successful overtake in the final lap leaving Martin with P3 on the Sprint. Considering he suffered a severe fracture to his right hand two weeks ago, that's more than what the 2024 champion would've hoped for. However, the win meant that Marquez had the first match point on Sunday.
As for Pecco, the severity of the crash left him with a fractured right foot and resulted in the Italian retiring from the remainder of the Grand Prix. Luca Marini also withdrew from the Sunday race due to fatigue.
A dramatic Sunday race
Aprilias put up a successful fight against Marc Marquez
With Marco Bezzecchi returning to make up for his Saturday losses, it was never under doubt that Sunday's race would be quite the treat to watch; and it was. Bezzecchi was quick to hold onto his lead from the very first lap with Raul Fernandez from P4 also overtaking Marc Marquez. The duo held onto their respective positions for most of the race with the gap between them and Marquez increasing to almost 4 seconds for a few laps in the middle of the GP. In fact, Marquez was briefly overtaken by Pedro Acosta too, but the latter gave the position back in lap 6 after facing tyre pressure warnings on his dash; this is the second time the KTM rider had to give up position after the Indonesian GP.
First non-P1 podium for Marc Marquez
The reigning champion could win his eighth title on day 2 of the Portugal GP
On lap 14, Marquez started turning up the heat (and the throttle) and started closing the gap to Fernandez gradually. Eventually, the Ducati Lenovo team rider overtook Fernandez on lap 21 and was quick to build a gap as well. However, it was too late to make a move on Bezzecchi who had increased the gap to 3.6 seconds, resulting in the Italian winning his second GP since the Indonesian GP. Marquez finished in P2 and Fernandez in P3. This is Marc Marquez’s only podium of the 2026 season so far, where he wasn’t the winner.
In order to seal the championship fight, Marquez had to outscore Martin by 25 points and Bezzecchi by 5 points. Neither condition was met, letting the championship fight be carried to the Portugal GP in two week’s time. The reigning world champion now leads Bezzecchi by 74 points. Jorge Martin, having started from P10, improved his point scoring chances by moving up to P7 but wasn’t able to climb any higher. With Marquez’s late overtake of Fernandez denting his championship fight further, the Spaniard now trails his Ducati counterpart by 60 points.
Although there were no crashes on Sunday, there were two retirements. Diogo Moreira retired after 15 laps due to a pre-existing injury forcing him to, whereas Brad Binder had to end his race prematurely due to a gearbox problem. Which meant the race was finished by 14 riders, all with at least two points. Yamaha’s non-participation had already reduced the grid to 18 with the number going further down after the two Italians’ retirements.
Two weeks from yesterday, we’ll have the Portugal GP in Portimao where Marquez will have the second match point. The Spaniard’s points lead means that if he wins the Saturday sprint, Marc Marquez will be crowned champion for an extremely rare eighth time, regardless of where his immediate rivals are. The only other rider in the premiere class history with eight world titles is Giacomo Agostini. Considering Marc Marquez was trailing by 102 points halfway through the season in the Italian GP, that’s a recovery and a half from the reigning champion.
Unnatee Gidithuri
Saptarshi Mondal
