Marquez swept Motegi, cut Martin’s lead to two
NXTbets Pro | Published On: October 4, 2026
Marquez swept Motegi
Marc Marquez left Motegi with the kind of weekend that changes a championship chase. He won both the Sprint and Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix, collected the maximum 37 points available and trimmed his deficit to Jorge Martin to two points. It was a clean, decisive sweep at a venue where Marquez controlled the important moments from start to finish. The result tightened a title race that still has little margin for error, with every point at this stage carrying real weight. Marquez did the most damage across the two days, and the numbers from Motegi tell the story clearly. He took the Sprint, he won again in the Grand Prix and he left Japan closer to Martin than he arrived. That combination gives him a stronger position in the championship fight and keeps the pressure on the riders ahead of him. The weekend also showed that Marquez did not need a long, drawn-out battle to make the gain. He turned strong pace into results, and he left Motegi with the full reward for it.
Martin and Bezzecchi
Sunday’s race gave Jorge Martin a chance to set the tone early, but Marquez took that away after Martin briefly led in the Grand Prix. Marquez moved past the pole-sitter and stayed in command long enough to secure the victory, turning a short-lived advantage for Martin into second place at the flag. That result kept Martin firmly in the championship conversation, even as the Motegi sweep cut his lead over Marquez to two points. Marco Bezzecchi finished third, and Enea Bastianini took fourth, giving the front of the field a clear shape by the end of the race. Marquez also showed the same sharp edge in the Sprint, where he took the lead from Martin at Turn 1 and set the pace from there. Those two moments mattered. They showed how quickly Marquez could shift a race in his favor when the opening appeared. They also left Martin and Bezzecchi chasing positions rather than dictating them. Bezzecchi’s third-place finish kept him in the frame, and Marquez said after the weekend that the title fight still looked like a three-way battle. He said Bezzecchi remained in contention, which fit the way the results stacked up at Motegi.
Ducati reached 100
Marquez’s victory also carried a milestone for Ducati and Gigi Dall’Igna. The Motegi win was their 100th MotoGP victory together, a round-number marker that came through Marquez’s latest success on Sunday. The timing gave the result extra weight inside the garage, because the race was about more than a single win for the team. It also linked Marquez’s charge in the championship to a larger body of work for Ducati under Dall’Igna. Marquez had to manage the weekend carefully as well, saying he was trying to conserve energy and control adrenaline swings after multiple right-arm operations and recent right-shoulder surgery. That detail adds another layer to the Motegi sweep. He did the job while handling the physical demands of a race weekend that asked for precision, patience and control. Marquez left Japan with the points haul, the race wins and a smaller gap in the standings. Ducati left with a century mark for victories with Dall’Igna. The combination made Motegi one of the most productive stops of the season for Marquez and his team, and it tightened a title race that remains active at the top.
