MotoGP: World Championship Standings After Japan—Marquez Trails by 2 Points, Bezzecchi Even Further Behind

The MotoGP World Championship is getting more and more competitive. Not that there were any major doubts, but the 16th round of the season confirmed that Marc Márquez, riding the Ducati Desmosedici GP26, is currently the main rival to Jorge Martín and Marco Bezzecchi on their Aprilias.

At Motegi, Martín, who started from pole position, tried to prevent Márquez from completing his fifth perfect weekend of 2026, following those at Balaton Park, Sachsenring, Aragón, and Misano. While number 93 had attacked right away in the Sprint race, he opted for a more wait-and-see strategy in the main race. For the first eleven of the 24 laps, he stayed behind the leader, studying his pace and weaknesses before launching his attack.

Once he took the lead, Márquez gradually built up the necessary margin to secure another victory and cap off yet another weekend as the undisputed star. This was a significant win for the championship as well: the rider from Cervera is now just two points behind Martín, who retains the lead in the standings.

Further back was Bezzecchi, who made it onto the podium after holding off Enea Bastianini’s late charge. The Aprilia rider now trails his teammate by 49 points. It was a less successful day for Pedro Acosta: fresh off his first MotoGP victory in Austria, he was unable to repeat that performance at Motegi and finished seventh. His gap behind Martín has thus widened to 90 points.