Marquez meticulous in Motegi GP

At the scene where he claimed his emotional 2025 MotoGP World Championship, Marc Marquez (Lenovo Ducati) claimed his fifth double victory of the season to move within two points of championship leader Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing).

And while Martin crossed the line in second place behind Marquez in each of the races at the Twin Ring Motegi Circuit in Japan, the Spaniard strayed onto the green on the exit of the final turn, which demoted him to third overall, adding a further two points to his deficit. The third rider on the road, Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM), also drifted onto the green, which promoted rookie Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) to his maiden premier-class podium behind his training buddy Marquez.

And while Jorge Martin did everything in his power to cancel the mistakes of the day previous by trying to win the full-length grand prix, the pairing of Ducati Technical Director Gigi Dall’Igna and nine-time world champion Marc Marquez was just too good in Japan. As a result, Dall’Igna celebrated his 100th GP win with Ducati.

With all riders opting for the largely unknown hard rear tyre after the soft and medium options proved problematic in the Sprint on Motegi’s super-grippy new surface, the 24-lap grand prix proved largely uneventful in terms of on-track battles, but an important moment in the season for Marquez’s title defence.

Martin grabbed the holeshot from Marquez, Marco Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing), while front-row starter Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM) went the wrong way off the line and found himself in fifth, ahead of Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) and the Trackhouse Aprilia duo of Raul Fernandez and home hero Ai Ogura. It got even worse for the Austrian GP winner on lap two when Bastianini, Fernandez and Ogura all found a way past as the Spanish star was getting to grips with his RC16.

For the first half a dozen laps, the top three had the edge on the rest of the field and traded fastest laps of the race before Alex Marquez served the first of his two double long-lap penalties for causing the first-lap crash which took out both Acosta and Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) in Saturday’s Sprint. His second long-lap penalty came on lap seven, which dropped him back to ninth, but the top three were already clear at the front, with Bastianini well over two seconds behind Bezzecchi.

Martin was leading, but it was clear Marquez had superior pace and chose his moment at Turn 9 on lap 11, just a handful of corners shy of half-race distance. Marc started lap 12 0.285sec ahead of Martin, which increased little by little as the laps rolled on. Half a second to start lap 13, seven-tenths of a second to start lap 14 and eight and a half tenths the next time around.

And while the championship leader did all he could to keep the pressure on the Ducati superstar, Marquez spent the remainder of the race managing the gap, being faster where it mattered and using all of his unrivalled experience to become the Motegi Circuit’s most successful-ever grand prix rider.

Further back, the battle for fifth place between Fernandez, Ogura and Acosta was getting intense. Acosta barged past Ogura for sixth on lap 16 before relegating Fernandez to sixth on lap 20 of 24. The Trackhouse duo weren’t giving up, though, with Fernandez fighting straight back and Ogura also capitalising on the Spaniard’s break in concentration.

But all eyes were on another KTM in the form of Bastianini, whose trademark late-race pace was on display in Japan. Four consecutive fastest laps of the race on the final four laps meant the comfortable gap third-placed Bezzecchi had to start lap 20 was reduced to nothing on the final lap.

Marc crossed the line 1.3 seconds clear of his title rival as Bezzecchi remarkably held off Bastianini’s charge to take the third spot on the podium ahead of Bastianini, Fernandez, Ogura and Acosta. Pecco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) was the second-best Ducati in eighth, 20 seconds behind Marquez, with Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) and Luca Marini (HRC) rounding out the top 10.

Moreira was the first of the crashers on lap 9, followed by Alex Marquez (lap 20), Jack Miller (lap 20, Prima Pramac Racing) and Johann Zarco (lap 21, LCR Honda).

The result puts Marc Marquez just two points shy of Jorge Martin, with 331 to 333, and the emotion shown on the podium when the Spanish National Anthem played out at the scene of last year’s triumph shows that the 33-year-old Spaniard is letting himself believe he can do it once more. Bezzecchi is 49 points adrift on 284 points ahead of Acosta (243), Ogura (237) and Di Giannantonio (230).

The series now heads to Indonesia, where Marquez is yet to see a chequered flag, so Martin will need to capitalise where he can. FP1 kicks off this Friday, 9 October.