Fifteen days after falling off his Aprilia in the sprint race at the Australian Grand Prix, all Jorge Martin had to do on Sunday in Qatar was stay on it.
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The Spaniard’s title chances would have remained slim if he achieved the task, but slim was better than none. And that was all that mattered after a Lusail weekend that was controversial in that it went ahead at all, saw tensions build to boiling point after an irritable sprint race, and peter out to a meek conclusion on Sunday before the real race of the weekend, one where the entire MotoGP paddock bolted for Hamad International Airport to return to Europe after a run of five races in six weekends that frayed tempers and decimated the grid for myriad reasons.
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Against the looming backdrop of an escalation in the on-again, off-again war between the US and Israel against Iran that caused the Qatar round to be delayed from its original April date, one that prompted Yamaha to not send both of its teams to Lusail for round 20 of the season, the on-track part of the weekend went off without a hitch.
Given Yamaha’s place in the MotoGP pecking order – a distant last – their absence didn’t particularly impact the racing, but did have a knock-on effect that played into Martin’s favour the longer the weekend went.
A reduced grid of 18 riders became 16 before Sunday’s race, Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia out with two fractures in his right foot after being clattered by fellow Ducati rider Fermin Aldeguer in Saturday’s sprint, and Honda’s Luca Marini pulling out of his second Grand Prix in the past three with illness, the Italian also missing the Australian Grand Prix last month.
With points paid down to the top 15 finishers, Martin’s task – he only had to score points even if Marc Marquez won on Sunday – got that little bit easier, if riding with a right wrist broken two weeks earlier at Phillip Island can ever be described as such.
After 22 laps, Marquez didn’t tick his box – the Spaniard was never really in victory contention as Marco Bezzecchi converted on his searing qualifying pace to stroll to his sixth win of the year – while Martin made early progress from 11th on the grid to advance to seventh by half-distance and stay there.
Not great, but good enough.
With two rounds to go and 74 points up for grabs, Marquez can guarantee himself the title in Portugal next time out if he wins the sprint race to become the first champion to be crowned on a Saturday since MotoGP introduced its sprint race format in 2023.
An eighth premier-class title and 10th world championship in all – one more than Valentino Rossi in each category, which online discourse about two of MotoGP’s greatest champions will repeatedly remind you – looks an inevitability. But that Martin – who pulled out of the Malaysian Grand Prix one week before Qatar in searing pain – has delayed Marquez’s denouement to Portimao is hugely commendable.
Saturday’s charge to third in the sprint was, even by MotoGP pain tolerance standards, borderline remarkable. Sunday’s seventh was less of a headline, but given Martin was contemplating sitting out the Qatar round days before it began, he could be content.
“The last few laps I was destroyed, and I was just trying to finish,” he said.
“(Last) Tuesday I wasn’t even thinking about coming (to Qatar), and I was on the podium yesterday and today I did a great job, so I’m happy.
“The race was quite good. Starting 11th wasn’t the best, but the pace to be in that top five was there.
“It was worth it, but now I feel a lot of pain. Luckily I have two weeks to recover and in Portimao I will be at almost my 100 per cent, I will continue with all the therapies.”
Martin, who will leave Aprilia for Yamaha next season after a tumultuous two seasons with the Italian brand – his 2025 was ruined by a crash in Qatar that saw him break multiple ribs and puncture a lung – feels he could win again before the year is over, but accepts the title is too much to ask.
“I don’t think about the championship … I will just try to do my best and take some wins before the end of the season,” he said.
“I hope my physical condition can let me fight, because I think the potential is there. I’m confident I can be much more competitive. A weekend off will help me a lot.
“I will do my best, but I want to finish this stage of my career with Aprilia in the best way possible.”
MARQUEZ IN ‘NO RUSH’ AS TITLE CELEBRATIONS SHELVED
After their clash for the lead of Saturday’s sprint, all eyes were on pole-sitter Bezzecchi and second-placed Marquez as the watered-down field thundered into Lusail’s first corner on Sunday, but Bezzecchi quickly made his first win a Qatar a formality by being prepared to push early on where Marquez wasn’t.
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With Marquez bottled up behind a fast-starting Raul Fernandez (Aprilia), Bezzecchi was over three seconds clear of Marquez after four laps, and even after Marquez finally made his way back past an ailing Fernandez – the Spaniard riding with two healing fingers after breaking them in Indonesia in October – with three laps left, second was the best it was going to get.
Second was highly unusual for the Spaniard – his seven previous Grand Prix podium visits this season had been victories – but it was enough. Of the three riders in mathematical contention for the crown, Marquez (32 points) scored more points than Bezzecchi (25) and Martin (16) across the Qatar weekend.
Job done. Sort of.
“Step by step, the most important is that this weekend we were the rider who scored more points,” a clearly exhausted Marquez said afterwards.
“It’s these kinds of weekends that you can give an extra boost to your opponents if they start to catch you in the championship, but we did an amazing job in qualifying practice, yesterday’s sprint and today in the main race. I was completely exhausted in the end, empty, but if you want to fight for the championship you need to give everything, and I did it. I passed Fernandez in the last two laps, because you never know if you will need those extra four points.”
Marquez admitted his focus was more on Martin behind him than Bezzecchi in front; even with Bezzecchi’s win, the Italian would need to win all four races in Portugal and Valencia without Marquez scoring a single point to take the title.
“I was super calm in the first laps because it was my strategy, I was very clever,” Marquez said.
“I knew that if I pushed the first three laps, maybe I damage the front tyre on the right side, and then I would struggle the whole race. I prefer to lose one-and-half seconds, two seconds those first three laps, then I knew the next 15 laps would be on a good level. The compromise was better.
“I was just looking that Martin didn’t overtake me, so I was calm. Looking for the podium was the target. It was not the time to take that extra risk today.”
Marquez – who didn’t hide his discomfort of being in Qatar before the race weekend started and was booked on the first flight back to Madrid three hours after the chequered flag – was asked if was happy, in a way, not to win the title in Qatar given younger brother Alex Marquez (right shoulder surgery) was one of six regular riders to miss the event.
It was a question delivered with multiple meanings, one Marquez picked up on while grinning as he refused to take the bait.
“It doesn’t matter when … or with who,” he said.
“Now, I feel like I need to step back … go home, train, eat, sleep and just focus on my main priority. There’s no rush.”
Qatar was just the third time in Marquez’s career that he’s failed to clinch the title at the first possible chance; unbeaten in seven previous title fights, he only failed to convert on his first match point in 2013 and 2017 before Sunday.
‘NEED A MIRACLE’: BEZZECCHI’S VERDICT AFTER DOMINANT WIN
Bezzecchi earned a slice of MotoGP history on Sunday in Qatar – his 12th victory saw him become the first rider to win their first 12 races at 12 different tracks – and was his sixth Grand Prix win of his best season, but one that will leave him with lament when he’s almost certainly ruled out of mathematical contention in Portugal.
The Aprilia rider began 2026 on a mission, winning the first three Grands Prix in dominant style, and was 102 points ahead of Marquez after he won at Mugello in round seven. Things have unravelled since, and his nine non-finishes this season are more than Martin (five) and Marquez (just three) combined. Sunday’s victory was just his second in the past 13 rounds, and he’s not won a sprint race since Australia 2025; Marquez has won 10 sprints this season alone.
Bezzecchi was less than impressed by the contact with Marquez in the Qatar sprint that ended his race, an incident that was investigated by race stewards but dismissed.
The hard feelings from that clash lingered on Sunday – their post-race interaction in parc ferme was perfunctory at best – but the Italian said Saturday’s disappointment fuelled Sunday’s crushing pace, the fourth time he’s led every lap to win this season as he extended his season-topping laps-led total to 141, 17 more than Marquez and 99 more than the best of the rest, KTM’s Pedro Acosta.
“Yesterday when I was still sliding on the gravel I was already thinking ‘tomorrow is my day, I have to do it … it’s impossible to do it when you are so good’,” he said.
“Yesterday was a nice race until that moment, so taking the positive at the end was nice because it’s always a lesson, when you fight with Marc. Today I wanted to stay in front, wanted to win.
“The start was fantastic, and when I put myself in front I didn’t panic too much, I just tried to push to make the group a little bit smaller, one-tenth (of a second) more, one-tenth more. The wear of the tyres in this track is really high, and the front, I am really forcing a lot so I couldn’t make any mistakes. Lap by lap I was gaining a bit, and this gave me confidence to make an extra push, not every lap but in some key moments.”
When it was put to Bezzecchi that the title wasn’t completely out of the question, he smiled ruefully.
“I need a miracle and this season … looks like no miracles for me,” he said.
“I don’t really care too much … I’m happy to be able to fight again, and it’s super tough but an extra motivation to fight with them, Marc who is a legend and Jorge who is a legend as well.”