Jorge Martin takes Motegi pole over Marc Marquez
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 3, 2026
Motegi pole battle
Jorge Martin took pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi, edging Marc Marquez by 0.110 seconds and putting Pedro Acosta on the front row behind him. Marco Bezzecchi qualified fourth, Alex Marquez fifth and Fabio Di Giannantonio sixth, while Francesco Bagnaia had to settle for 13th after missing the cut in Qualifying 1. The front group stayed tight through the session. Acosta backed up his speed with a place on the front row, giving the first three spots to three riders who had already shown sharp pace across the weekend. Bezzecchi kept himself in the fight with fourth, and Alex Marquez took fifth. Di Giannantonio gave himself a strong second-row start in sixth. Bagnaia, by contrast, never got the clean path he needed and faced a tougher route forward after Q1 left him outside the top 12.
Motegi Friday practice
Friday practice set the tone for a crowded top of the order, with Alex Marquez leading the way on a lap-record 1:42.811. Pedro Acosta followed 0.076 seconds back in second, Marc Marquez took third 0.100 seconds off the pace, and Bezzecchi and Enea Bastianini completed the top five. Fabio Quartararo led Yamaha in seventh, while Martin finished eighth and earned a direct place in Qualifying 2. Johann Zarco grabbed the final automatic Q2 berth by 0.004 seconds over Fermin Aldeguer, a margin that kept Aldeguer from an automatic Q2 berth. Ai Ogura also had a difficult session after his Trackhouse Aprilia suffered an engine failure at pit-lane exit, spilling oil on the track, bringing out a red flag and sending him into Qualifying 1. The times at the sharp end showed how little separated the leading riders on Motegi’s surface, with a single lap putting one rider first and another several rows deeper. Martin’s eighth still carried value because it locked him straight into Q2, and Zarco’s late effort proved decisive in one of the closest calls of the day.
Motegi opening pace
Marc Marquez opened the weekend by topping Free Practice 1 with a 1:44.073 lap, 0.099 seconds clear of Martin. The session started in damp conditions and improved later after the sun came out on Motegi’s newly laid asphalt, which gave the riders a changing track to read from one run to the next. Takaaki Nakagami had the hardest opening session of anyone. He crashed early in Free Practice 1, fractured his left collarbone and was ruled out for the rest of the weekend. That early incident cast a shadow over the session, but the pace front still shifted quickly as the surface dried and grip improved. Bezzecchi carried that momentum into Saturday’s final practice and topped the session with a 1:43.321 lap, 0.080 seconds ahead of Martin. Acosta took third and Marc Marquez finished fourth, keeping the main contenders clustered near the top again before qualifying. Across the three sessions, the pattern stayed clear. Marquez, Martin, Acosta and Bezzecchi kept trading places near the front, with the order changing but the group staying compact. The weekend’s early laps put the same names under the spotlight before qualifying.
