For much of 2026 – and as he was all too keen to make publicly clear – Marc Marquez has been racing with, give or take, one-and-a-half working arms.
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For much of 2026, one of them has been tied behind his back, Ducati’s reigning world champion largely leading a one-man fight against a quartet of riders on Aprilia’s RS-GP machine that is plain faster, and all of whom have won at least one Grands Prix.
Help, though, is at hand.
And from the most familiar source imaginable.
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Alex Marquez’s 2026 hasn’t hit the same heights as last year, where he finished as championship runner-up to his older sibling and won three Grands Prix in by far the best season of his seven-year premier-class tenure. But the fall from second to eighth in the standings over the first 18 rounds has been, at least in part, circumstantial.
The 30-year-old missed three rounds and was compromised for several more after his horrific crash in Catalunya in May, where he piled into the back of Pedro Acosta when the Spaniard’s KTM had a malfunction and slowed, Marquez breaking his right collarbone and fracturing vertebrae in his neck after an impact that looked like it could have led to far worse. From three Grand Prix and three sprint wins last year, he has just one in each category in 2026.
Sepang, home to this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix, could easily add to Marquez’s tally in either category. There’s not been the consistent success this year that last year brought, but he’s still been strong at tracks that have been career-long specialties.
In 2025, Marquez won at Jerez in Spain – his maiden MotoGP race win – and backed it up in April this year. In Catalunya, where he won the Grand Prix in 2025 after crashing out of the lead in the sprint, he won the sprint and looked set to make it a double this year before Acosta, through no fault of his own, caused the season’s most terrifying crash.
And then there’s Malaysia, where little brother could feasibly give big brother the Ducati back-up that nobody else seems willing, able or available to provide.
Alex won the Grand Prix at Sepang last year and finished second in the sprint, and has never finished lower than fourth there since he first climbed aboard a Ducati in 2023. Going back further, Marquez secured his 2019 Moto2 title in Malaysia before graduating to the main game the following year.
Malaysia, then, comes at a good time for Marc Marquez as he defends the 10-point lead he earned after his ferocious battle with Aprilia’s Jorge Martin in last Saturday’s Australian Grand Prix sprint, an advantage he wasn’t able to build on when Sunday’s Grand Prix was rained out.
Aprilia – much as its bike should suit Sepang’s high-speed changes of direction – arrive to round 19 with more questions than answers. Martin’s participation, let alone effectiveness, remains uncertain after he fractured his right wrist in his Australia sprint crash and relinquished the championship lead, while the Spaniard’s teammate Marco Bezzecchi has never stood on the Malaysia podium in seven previous visits across all three championship categories.
Martin crashes in chaotic sprint | 01:03
Stablemate Raul Fernandez, who’ll go down in history as Phillip Island’s final Grand Prix winner after his breakthrough success in 2025, pulled out of last weekend’s sprint with pain from the broken right index finger he suffered in Indonesia a fortnight previously.
Sepang isn’t a Marc Marquez strong suit – the 33-year-old has won there just twice, and not since 2018 – but this weekend feels like one where Alex Marquez could take plenty of points off his older brother’s title rivals.
Last weekend’s Australia sprint gave us an insight into what might be in store in Malaysia, too; after Martin crashed out on lap eight, Alex Marquez cruised up onto the rear wheel of his race-leading older sibling but never as much as attempted an overtake, his caution so obvious that third-placed Fabio Di Giannantonio caught them both and finished just 0.590secs from victory.
“After Jorge’s crash, I arrived with the speed to try to attack Marc, but it was too risky,” Alex Marquez said.
“He is playing for a championship, and I will never make that risk for a sprint win. He’s my brother, but we also share a manufacturer.
“I just decided in that moment to keep the pace and try to be there because it was too on the limit. If the risk is high, I will take zero risk to make an overtake on him.”
Marc Marquez, given departing and disillusioned Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia has been uncompetitive for most of the season, and with fellow Ducati Grand Prix winner Fermin Aldeguer absent injured, was thankful for once to have strength in numbers.
“I asked (Alex) if he had much more or not, because it’s true that I was defending, as you see with Jorge, I was just trying to manage,” Marc Marquez said.
“When I saw Alex behind, I was defending, but in a more relaxed way.
“I knew that maybe he was very fast, but if you want to overtake me, you need to take a lot of risk, as Jorge did. Alex had the speed to maybe win, but also I was ready to fight. But he was very fast, and just I say thanks to him (for not taking risks to pass).”
With Aprilia likely needing to deploy team orders to help Martin this weekend and perhaps enable Bezzecchi – 50 points behind with a maximum of 148 remaining – to stay in anything other than mathematical contention, a friendly face towards the sharp end at Sepang can only be helpful for Marc Marquez as he attempts to consolidate his lead at perhaps his weakest circuit of the four remaining.
This season has already proved that while Alex Marquez isn’t the week-to-week force he was 12 months ago, he’s plenty good enough at tracks where he has a track record, and he promises to be a fascinating sub-plot for one weekend as the season hurtles towards its conclusion.
Here’s your form guide and predictions for the 19th round of the 2026 MotoGP season, with the 20-lap Malaysian Grand Prix set for 6pm (AEDT) on Sunday after the 10-lap sprint race at 6pm on Saturday (AEDT).
‘DOESN’T LOOK GREAT’: MARTIN READY FOR PAIN TO KEEP TITLE FLAME FLICKERING
Jorge Martin has been medically cleared to participate in Friday’s opening practice in Malaysia despite breaking his right wrist six days earlier in the Australian Grand Prix sprint race, the 2024 world champion admitting he “still cannot brush my teeth” with his right hand as he desperately bids to keep his title hopes alive.
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Aprilia’s Martin, who has led the standings after seven of the 18 rounds this season, arrived at Sepang with his arm in a brace on Thursday, and will be reassessed after the first 45-minute practice session to be passed fit to continue for the remainder of the weekend.
Were it not for being 10 points off the championship lead with four rounds left, Martin said he would be “in a house with a cast for one month”.
“The only thing I know is that my wrist is broken,” he added.
“I will try to ride with a broken wrist, so for sure it will be really difficult, it will be really painful. It’s the right hand, which is the brake and the throttle (and) it’s a right-corner (clockwise) circuit. So overall it doesn’t look great, but let’s see.
“The only thing I can do is to at least try. To understand, I need to go on track. Let’s see how much it’s a limitation for the riding style.
“I did all the therapies I could during this week to try to be in the best possible condition here, and now let’s see how far I can go. At the moment I don’t really feel really confident to race, but everything can happen, and for sure I felt a lot of improvement during the (past) days.”
QATAR GP REMAINS UNCERTAIN AS TALKS RUMBLE ON
This weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix could end up being the third-last round of 2026, with the fate of next weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix remaining up in the air as riders continue to express their unease at racing in Doha given the long-standing conflict in the Middle East.
In Australia last week, MotoGP riders met to discuss the upcoming Qatar round, with reports from the-race.com suggesting “two-thirds of those in attendance voted against racing at Lusail”.
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A subsequent meeting on Wednesday in Sepang, as reported by Autosport, featured multiple riders and team managers, who are seeking assurances from commercial rights holder MSEG (MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group) regarding the safety of the entire paddock, an evacuation plan should one be necessary, and insurance to cover the costs arising from the potential closure of airspace in the region.
Qatar was originally scheduled as round four of the season in April but postponed to November 6-8 because of the ongoing conflict, with the final two rounds in Portugal (November 20-22) and Valencia (November 27-29) both pushed back a week to accommodate a reschedule.
MotoGP cancelled due to bad weather | 00:50
Qatar is a significant commercial partner for the series, with three rounds sponsored by Qatar Airways, which also handles MotoGP’s freight. Should Qatar be cancelled, an additional race would not be added given a 21-round season is enough to satisfy MotoGP’s contracts with its broadcast partners, but removing 37 points from the 148 total still available would dilute the pool of title contenders.
MotoGP deputy CEO Carlos Ezpeleta travelled from Australia to Doha this week to meet with organisers of the Qatar Grand Prix; MotoGP CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta met with the riders at Sepang on Thursday.
While Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta were among the riders to stay tight-lipped on Qatar on Thursday, Yamaha’s Alex Rins – with the Japanese brand’s government warning against all but essential visits to Qatar in its official travel advice – said: “right now Yamaha, I think, is one of the unique ones that they don’t know if they will go to Qatar.”
Speaking to GPone.com, KTM’s Enea Bastianini felt a “concrete” decision had to be made by the conclusion of the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.
“It’s very complicated to talk about Qatar, we don’t have control of the whole situation,” he said.
“We are still discussing with the teams and also with Dorna and Carmelo Ezpeleta, because we need to have a clear picture. We have to have something concrete by the end of the weekend, next week we will already be there.”
‘A GUT BLOW’: LOSS OF ISLAND FINALE STILL STINGS FOR MILLER
Jack Miller continued to express his frustrations on Thursday over the cancellation of his final Phillip Island Grand Prix before his time in the world championship wraps up at the end of the season, the Australian feeling that last Sunday’s race could have gone ahead and signed off the track’s time on the calendar in style.
Persistent rain and low cloud saw the Sunday race-day schedule repeatedly pushed back until it was eventually called off just before 4pm local time, with Miller – on a special green and gold-liveried Yamaha prepared by his Pramac Racing team for his home finale – and his rivals completing two parade laps of the track to wave goodbye to the circuit and the fans, who had stuck it out through the conditions to no avail.
Miller talks on highs & lows of career | 11:39
MotoGP cited “limited visibility affecting the operation of the medical helicopter at the Red Bull Grand Prix of Australia” as the reason for the cancellation, with poor weather at the Island and in Melbourne not allowing for the air ambulance to take off and be able to land at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, 137km away.
With that hospital unable to reached by road within 45 minutes as per MotoGP’s regulations, the helicopter was the only option in the event of an accident; on Thursday at Sepang, Miller felt an alternative could have been found for Phillip Island’s 30th and final Grand Prix to go ahead.
“I can’t even put it into words … it’s a gut blow,” he said of losing his final chance to race in front of the Aussie fans.
“I wasn’t happy with a lot of things, the way it went on Sunday. That’s another conversation. There’s more than one hospital around Melbourne for one thing, among many other things. It wasn’t that the rain was bad all day, there were windows there where we could have gone racing, but it is what it is.”
The 31-year-old, who only arrived in Kuala Lumpur late on Wednesday night and missed the first rider meeting about the viability of the Qatar Grand Prix, noted the weekend’s forecast; the highest percentage chance of rain – over 80 per cent – is scheduled for between 3-5pm on both Saturday and Sunday, when the 10-lap sprint and 20-lap Grand Prix will be held respectively.
In semi-wet conditions, Miller qualified a season-best fifth in Australia, and finished seventh in a dry sprint race for his first sprint points of 2026.
“Weather looks like typical Malaysia, so hopefully it p**ses down on Sunday … and the helicopter can fly,” he said.
“Malaysia … is almost like a bit of a home away from home for us. You spend six days here at the beginning of the year (during testing), so looking forward to getting back out there to see how the bike’s progressed from then to now. It’s always a pleasure racing back here in the heat.”
Last year at Sepang, Miller made Q2 in qualifying and finished 14th in both the sprint and Grand Prix, while his best race result came in 2022 for Ducati, when he finished sixth.
CRYSTAL BALL: FOUR FEARLESS PREDICTIONS FOR MALAYSIA
Winner: Pedro Acosta (KTM). Looking for your final non-Aprilia or non-Ducati winner this year? Acosta could be your man; with Aprilia’s quartet of riders having fitness questions or Sepang form lines that don’t inspire confidence, and with Marc Marquez in championship calculation mode, Acosta has nothing to lose and fewer obstacles to the top step than most.
Closest challenger: Alex Marquez (Ducati). The younger Marquez beat Acosta to the Grand Prix win here 12 months ago, and while his 2026 hasn’t hit the same dizzying heights as 2025, he’s been rapid at his strongest tracks, of which Sepang is historically one. A sprint or Grand Prix win beckons … we’re betting on the shorter-form.
Podium smoky: Ai Ogura (Aprilia). Picking any of the top three in the standings – Marc Marquez, Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi – doesn’t fit the spirit of this category, and Ogura will be hoping for some hotter and dryer weather after being nowhere for most of last weekend at Phillip Island. He’s nibbled at the edges of the podium here in both Moto3 and Moto2, so his appearance on the rostrum for the first time since Germany in July would be less surprising than other candidates you’re squinting to find.
Miller prospects: On a Yamaha if it’s dry? The optimism for the Australian and his stablemates looks limited if the weather plays nice in Kuala Lumpur, but ‘if’ is the key word. If the heavens open – and they really open at Sepang when they do – don’t be surprised in the slightest if Miller earns the points he likely would have last weekend at home in Sunday’s cancelled Australian Grand Prix.
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