Double for the Ducati phenom, Aprilia defeated again: the gap in the World Championship between the top two is reduced. Fantastic performance by Bastianini.
Marc Marquez unbeatable. After the Sprint, the Ducati Lenovo Team rider also takes victory in the full-length race of the 2026 Japanese Grand Prix. Nothing doing for Jorge Martin, who remains leader of the overall MotoGP standings, but his advantage over the reigning champion shrinks to 2 points. The podium is completed by Marco Bezzecchi’s Aprilia, who in the finale had to fend off an extraordinary Enea Bastianini on the Tech3 KTM.
All on the same tires
After what happened in the sprint race, with some soft rear tires going into crisis and that compound being banned for today, the riders tackled the full race with the same tire pairing: medium on the front and hard on the rear. A rear medium was also allowed, but after the Warm Up (extended from 10 to 20 minutes to allow work with the hard) everyone went in the same direction.
Davide Tardozzi, Ducati team manager, reiterated that for Marc Marquez it was possible to consider running today’s race on the soft. The reigning MotoGP champion was among those who had no degradation issues in the Sprint, so the garage was ready to evaluate using that tire for today’s 24 laps as well. But Michelin played it safe to avoid safety-related problems and excluded it from the allocation.
The race report from Motegi
At the start, Martin managed to maintain the lead, avoiding being outfoxed by Marquez, who was closely followed by Bezzecchi. Alex Marquez was fourth, but forced to serve two long lap penalties due to the incident he caused on Saturday. A good start also for Bastianini, who moved up to fifth after getting past a struggling Acosta and was later overtaken by the Trackhouse duo Fernandez–Ogura.
On lap 5 Alex served the first long lap and rejoined in fifth; on lap 7 he did the second and returned to the track ninth, just behind Moreira. Up front, Marquez closed in on Martin, while Bezzecchi lost ground to the Ducati rider. On lap 9 Moreira crashed, and after his podium in the Sprint he ended today’s MotoGP race early.
On lap 11 Marquez passed Martin at turn 9. The Aprilia rider did not give up and tried to stay in touch, but the Ducati rival had more pace and by lap 19 he had stretched his lead to about one second. On the same lap, crashes for Alex Marquez (he was eighth) and Miller. A beautiful battle among Fernandez, Ogura, and Acosta.
In the finale, Bastianini was lightning fast (he set the new race lap record), the gap to Bezzecchi shrank, but he lacked the final punch to steal the podium from his compatriot. Up front, Marquez managed it perfectly and triumphed without ever being attacked by Martin. The Trackhouse Aprilias got the better of a lackluster Acosta today at Motegi. Eighth place at the flag for Pecco Bagnaia, with Aldeguer and Marini completing the top 10.
MOTOGP JAPAN 2026, RACE RESULTS: THE FINAL FINISHING ORDER
MotoGP Japan 2026, Race results: the final finishing order at Motegi
MotoGP World Championship 2026: updated riders’ and constructors’ standings
MOTOGP RIDERS’ STANDINGS
- Jorge Martin 333 points
- Marc Marquez 331
- Marco Bezzecchi 284 points
- Pedro Acosta 243
- Ai Ogura 237
- Fabio Di Giannantonio 230
- Raul Fernandez 216
- Pecco Bagnaia 164 points
- Alex Marquez 158
- Fermin Aldeguer 122
- Enea Bastianini 116
- Luca Marini 104
- Brad Binder 99
- Diogo Moreira 74
- Fabio Quartararo 66
- Franco Morbidelli 57
- Johann Zarco 48
- Joan Mir 33
- Jack Miller 28
- Alex Rins 24
- Toprak Razgatlioglu 18
- Maverick Vinales 12
- Iker Lecuona 9
- Augusto Fernandez 6
- Pol Espargaro 5
- Somkiat Chantra 3
- Takaaki Nakagami 3
- Cal Crutchlow 0
- Jonas Folger 0
- Lorenzo Savadori 0
- Michele Pirro 0
MOTOGP CONSTRUCTORS’ STANDINGS
- Aprilia 449 points
- Ducati 444 points
- KTM 283
- Honda 155
- Yamaha 85
-> Seguici anche su Instagram: @Corsedimoto
Continue reading
You might also like
More news
Popular articles
Loading
