Marco Bezzecchi set the early benchmark in Friday’s opening Free Practice (FP1) at the Thai Grand Prix at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, topping the MotoGP timesheets with a 1:29.346 on a medium rear tire and holding the fastest lap for the entire 45-minute session. His FP1 time was slower than the 1:28.668 he set on a soft tire during last weekend’s test.

Fabio Di Giannantonio was the quickest Ducati in second with a 1:29.456, while Jorge Martin recovered from a crash at the final corner to record third with a 1:29.551; Martin reportedly kept his engine running by grabbing the clutch to avoid a service-road restart penalty. The timesheet was tight, with less than a second covering the top 13 and all five manufacturers represented inside that group. Pedro Acosta was the top KTM in fifth, reigning champion Marc Marquez was sixth as he continued to recover from last weekend’s illness, and Francesco Bagnaia was seventh, just 0.019 seconds adrift of Marquez; Franco Morbidelli, Alex Marquez and Luca Marini completed the top 10.

FP1 action in the support classes set early benchmarks as well: in Moto2, David Alonso topped the session with a 1:35.148 on his Pirelli-shod CFMOTO Inde Aspar Kalex, edging Izan Guevara by 0.012 seconds, with Filip Salac third and Collin Veijer, Manuel Gonzalez and Dani Holgado fourth to sixth and Tony Arbolino tenth. In Moto3, Adrian Fernandez led FP1 with a 1:41.302 for Leopard Racing, ahead of Joel Kelso and David Almansa, establishing the early order ahead of later practice that will help decide direct Q2 access.

Yamaha has been among the manufacturers most actively linked with Luca Marini for 2027, and AS reported Yamaha made a ‘great offer,’ though no move has been confirmed. Marini — contracted to Honda for this season after signing an extension in 2025 — told reporters he was unaware of any concrete offer, dismissed the transfer talk as ‘background noise’ and said, “I don’t know, but it’s true that I’m the best at developing.”

The Marini speculation sits inside a wider reshuffle of the 2027 MotoGP market that has gained momentum ahead of the Thailand round. Reports name a string of potential moves: Marc Márquez and Pedro Acosta to Ducati; Francesco Bagnaia to Aprilia alongside Marco Bezzecchi; Jorge Martín linked with Yamaha; and Fabio Quartararo widely expected to move to Honda. Yamaha itself suffered a difficult pre-season with its new V4 package. Reports that Honda is interested in signing Quartararo for 2027 have increased pressure on the seats currently occupied by Marini and Joan Mir, and some inside Honda are reported to expect Marini to leave. Honda’s options are constrained by LCR riders Johann Zarco and Diogo Moreira being contracted through 2027 (Moreira on a three-year Honda deal).

Marini’s profile helps explain the interest. He moved from VR46 Ducati to Honda in 2024 and has been credited with playing a role in Honda’s competitive rebound. He praised meaningful progress after a new group of engineers arrived in 2025, citing engine improvements, fewer vibration issues and a more organized working approach, and said Buriram testing produced better results than Sepang. Marini warned Honda still needs work on one-lap speed and rear grip. He found the new soft rear tire difficult in practice, with a medium rear proving more competitive in simulations. He set realistic targets for the season: regular Top-7 starts, pushing into the Top-5 and contesting for podiums. His 2025 campaign included a P7 at Valencia that helped push Honda into C-rank concessions, a 13th-place finish in the 2025 standings overall, and a Suzuka training crash that sidelined him for three races.

The 2026 MotoGP season is set to begin this weekend with the Thailand Grand Prix at Buriram International Circuit, running Friday–Sunday, Feb. 27–March 1. Organizers have published a local “your time” session timetable to help fans tune in from their time zones, and preview and guide pieces consolidate the season-opening schedule along with broadcast/how-to-watch details, viewing channels, and logistical information as a single reference for attendees and remote viewers.

The published three-day timetable lays out practice, qualifying, the Tissot Sprint, and the full Grand Prix. Friday includes Free Practice No. 1 at 03:45 local time and an additional practice at 08:00. Saturday lists Free Practice No. 2 at 03:10, Qualifying 1 at 03:50, Qualifying 2 at 04:15, and the Tissot Sprint at 08:00. Sunday shows a Warm Up at 03:40 and the main Grand Prix. The organizers’ timetable lists the main race at 08:00 local time, while another report specifies the 26-lap MotoGP main race at 3:00 p.m. local time on March 1.

Buriram will host the season opener for the second consecutive year, and previews revisit memorable moments from past Thai Grands Prix while framing the round as both the season kickoff and an early focal point. The weekend also serves as an early fitness test for riders returning from recent injuries. The list includes Marc Márquez, who won 11 races from 18 grands prix in 2025 but missed the final four rounds after shoulder surgery following an injury in Indonesia. Marquez said after a testing crash in Buriram that he “hasn’t recovered” as expected.

The championship grid is largely unchanged for 2026, though Toprak Razgatlıoğlu joins Prima Pramac and Diogo Moreira replaces Somkiat Chantra at LCR Honda, as organizers and fans count down to lights out.

Marc Márquez crashed three times during the final pre‑season test at Buriram, visiting the medical center after each fall and failing to complete a race simulation. He said a stomach bug left him tired and briefly lacking concentration, and he acknowledged that a prior shoulder injury had not recovered as well as expected — some outlets describe that damage as a coracoid fracture with right‑shoulder ligament injury that required surgery and sidelined him for the final four rounds of 2025, while others refer to a broken collarbone.

Despite the setbacks, Márquez posted the third‑fastest time at Buriram overall; his Sepang outing before Buriram was described as broadly successful, but he was unable to reproduce a full race run in Thailand. Teammates Alex Márquez and Pecco Bagnaia completed stronger race‑simulation laps in testing; Bagnaia posted the fourth‑fastest time at Buriram and abandoned a final‑day simulation after a technical issue.

Reactions were mixed: Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi said the crashes should not influence Márquez’s performance at the Thai GP and that Ducati expects him to be a championship contender from the first race. Stefan Bradl framed the incidents as part of Márquez’s process of relearning his limits and suggested the rider could be “very dangerous” once he rediscovers them. By contrast, Ducati adviser Peter Bom called the first crash “really, really silly,” said Márquez no longer bounces back as he used to and is more vulnerable with a shoulder that has not fully recovered, warning there is a serious chance he might not dominate or win the 2026 title despite remaining among the pre‑race favourites. The converging facts — three crashes with medical checks after each, illness and lingering injury concerns — leave uncertainty over how quickly Márquez can rebuild fitness and confidence ahead of the opening rounds.

Pedro Acosta left Buriram having narrowed a clear development gap but still chasing the outright pace of Aprilia and Ducati. The 2026 RC16 was “doing no strange things,” he said, feeling more natural with reduced vibration and improved front-end feel. Acosta completed trouble-free 24–25-lap race simulations showing strong tire preservation and finished the two-day test as the fastest KTM in sixth, roughly 0.3s off Marco Bezzecchi’s benchmark. KTM’s factory and Tech3 teams said they had finalized their 2026 package and felt prepared for the Thai season opener.

Aprilia and Ducati underlined their status as the yardsticks at Buriram. Bezzecchi topped the test with a record 1’28.668 lap and strong long-run form (a 20-lap average around 1’30.4). Four Aprilias featured high on the timesheets, and Trackhouse-backed Ai Ogura was second, just 0.097s adrift. Ducati also showed competitive pace, with Marc Márquez, Francesco Bagnaia, and Álex Márquez filling the next positions. The older Márquez brother continued to post leading Sunday qualifying-simulation times despite crashes and illness.

Acosta and KTM framed the progress as tangible but incomplete, and praised Aprilia and Ducati’s race simulations as “awesome.” They warned that rivals’ exceptional simulations make preparation and starting position decisive, and suggested KTM could realistically start the season as the third-best manufacturer. With pre-season testing wrapped at Buriram, teams now turn to the Thai GP next weekend, where the first pole, Tissot Sprint, and race win of the season will be decided.

Dorna Sports confirmed a revised MotoGP Race Direction leadership lineup for the 2026 season, appointing Graham Webber as MotoGP Race Director and naming Jack Gorst as deputy Race Director while long-time MotoGP Race Director Mike Webb moves into a newly created Race Direction Coordinator role. Webb will remain based on site at Grands Prix and in the control room, and will serve as IRTA representative and secretary. The three will jointly lead a centralized Race Direction team that will operate across the 22-round 2026 calendar.

The reshuffle preserves continuity while introducing new primary decision-makers: Webber, who had served as deputy race director and previously directed Moto2, Moto3 and MotoE race direction, will helm MotoGP race direction in 2026; Webb has led MotoGP race direction since 2012 and maintained the post through the FIM stewards restructuring after the 2015 Sepang fallout. Jack Gorst, who joins the Event Management Committee alongside Webber, will serve as deputy. The Race Direction remit covers all Grand Prix classes and other on-track competitions staged at MotoGP events, including the newly listed Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup.

Dorna and the FIM also confirmed the wider Race Direction and governance team: Bartolome Alfonso will continue as FIM representative and Safety Officer, Loris Capirossi as MotoGP SEG representative, and Danny Aldridge remains GP Technical Director. The FIM MotoGP stewards panel will be chaired by Simon Crafar, with Andrés Somolinos as FIM MotoGP Chief Steward and Tamara Matko serving as a steward. The FIM Appeals Panel is composed of Ralph Bohnhorst, Raffaele De Fabritiis, Stuart Higgs and Franco Uncini, with Paul Duparc and Paul King named as reserves. Event Management Committee members include Giancarlo di Filippo (FIM Medical Director) and Dominique Hebrard (FIM GP Technical Representative). The Grand Prix Commission is led by MotoGP SEG CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta and the FIM Permanent Bureau by FIM President Jorge Viegas. Dorna noted the 22-round calendar opens Feb. 27–Mar. 1 at Chang International Circuit in Buriram, with a final pre-season test the weekend before and round two scheduled Mar. 20–22 at the Goiânia International Racetrack Ayrton Senna following circuit upgrades.

Victoria’s Allan Labor Government formally rejected a request from MotoGP Sports Entertainment (formerly Dorna Sports, also referred to as MotoGP Sports Entertainment SL) to move the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix from Phillip Island to Melbourne’s Albert Park, and tied extra state funding to keeping the race at Phillip Island beyond 2026. The government said the event was “synonymous with Phillip Island,” and framed the Grand Prix as vital for tourism, local businesses and jobs. It conditioned any additional cash to upgrade facilities on MotoGP committing to keep the event at Phillip Island, a move that has effectively closed off an immediate relocation to Albert Park.

The decision came as the existing contract between Dorna and the state is due to expire at the end of 2026. Dorna had argued Phillip Island did not meet current World Championship infrastructure standards, and reports in late 2025 showed the promoter was keen to relocate. Attendance weakened in 2025, with the Australian round among five grands prix that had weekend crowds under 100,000, and supporters launched a petition in late 2025 to keep the race at Phillip Island. The government’s backing included references to a proposed cash injection — the pledged amount and whether it was accepted were not confirmed in reports — and Phillip Island has hosted the Australian MotoGP 29 times.

Local politicians and officials welcomed the decision. Tourism, Sport and Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos called Phillip Island the “home of the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix,” Bass Coast Mayor Rochelle Halstead said she hoped any investment would be directed toward facility upgrades to meet standards, and Bass MP Jordan Crugnale said Labor would defend the Bass Coast’s interests. The announcement kept the current contract timeline intact while signaling Victoria’s willingness to upgrade and financially back the race so long as it remains at Phillip Island, even as other jurisdictions such as South Australia and the Bend motorsport complex have been reported as interested in hosting the event in the future.

At the Ride 6 presentation and in an exclusive Crash.net interview, Casey Stoner said Marc Márquez’s recent dominance stems from superior tire management, racecraft and a “total symbiosis” with his Ducati Desmosedici. He praised Márquez’s patience and intelligence, saying he conserves tires early in races to exploit greater grip and late-race pace. Stoner highlighted Márquez’s ability to limit electronic intervention and balance traction control with tire preservation, saying “nobody seems to grasp how Márquez balances traction control with preserving Michelin tires,” and compared that approach to F1 drivers such as Max Verstappen, arguing both can wait several laps to regain pace and “effectively extend competitive life by ‘an extra ten or fifteen laps’.” Stoner said Márquez was the favorite to start the 2026 season.

Reports framed Márquez’s 2025 campaign as dominant, noting 25 race wins and 14 of 18 Sprint victories, with the title clinched in Japan. Some outlets described the 2025 crown as his ninth world title, equaling Valentino Rossi, while others characterized it as his seventh MotoGP world championship. He suffered a right-shoulder fracture in Indonesia that forced him to miss the final four rounds, then recovered ahead of his title defense. Stoner pointed to races such as Thailand—where Márquez briefly yielded the lead over a tire-pressure issue before reclaiming it and winning—as examples of his racecraft.

Stoner, who retired in 2012 and never raced Márquez, said the six-year gap between titles (2019–25) and Márquez’s moves from Honda to Gresini and then to the factory Ducati sharpened his ability to build races tactically. He suggested many rivals had treated Márquez as an unbeatable “final boss” and tried to match raw speed rather than learn to out-race him; he added he was surprised no rival had publicly exploited a weakness Márquez once had, but declined to identify it. Stoner concluded competitors face a technical challenge: to close the performance gap they must match Márquez’s feel for the bike and his tire-management strategy.

Dorna Sports announced it has renamed itself MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group (MotoGP SEG), repositioning MotoGP as an entertainment-first global platform built on what the company calls “world innovation.” Chief Executive Carmelo Ezpeleta described the change as “a statement of intent” and “more than a simple rebrand,” framing it as a future-facing effort to expand MotoGP’s global reach and market standing in sports entertainment.

The new identity formalizes Dorna’s evolution since it became the exclusive commercial and broadcast rights holder for MotoGP in 1992 and consolidates management of several series under a single entertainment-focused group. MotoGP SEG will continue to manage MotoGP, Moto2, Moto3 and the Road to MotoGP development pathway, and will also oversee the World Superbike Championship (WorldSBK) and the newly created Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup; the Harley-Davidson relationship was cited as part of event expansion. Leadership says the repositioning aims to accelerate digital innovation, immersive fan engagement and global storytelling to broaden reach and attract younger, more diverse audiences while preserving the core racing spectacle.

The announcement emphasized brand and platform ambitions rather than operational details, personnel changes or specific commercial deals. Liberty Media completed a €4.2 billion acquisition of Dorna in 2024 and has largely left management in place, though Chief Commercial Officer Dan Rossomondo departed in late 2025. Some stakeholders have raised concerns that consolidating motorcycle racing properties under MotoGP SEG could dilute WorldSBK’s distinct identity.