{"id":915741,"date":"2026-10-04T11:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T11:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915741\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T11:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T11:16:15","slug":"motogp-japanese-gp-marc-marquez-beats-jorge-martin-in-early-duel-to-close-in-on-points-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/915741\/","title":{"rendered":"MotoGP Japanese GP: Marc Marquez beats Jorge Martin in early duel to close in on points lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marc Marquez<\/a> defeated Jorge Martin<\/a> in a straight battle to claim victory in the Japanese Grand\u00a0Prix and move within two points of the MotoGP championship leader.<\/p>\n

After a commanding sprint win on Saturday,\u00a0Ducati star Marquez had to work hard to complete a double at Motegi, with polesitter Martin resisting intense pressure to hold station.<\/p>\n

But the reigning world champion pulled off a brilliant move on Martin just before the halfway point and then streaked clear to score his sixth win of the 2026 MotoGP season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Martin had to settle for second position, while team-mate Marco\u00a0Bezzecchi<\/a> fended off a late attack from Enea Bastianini<\/a> to complete the podium.<\/p>\n

At the start of the race, Martin pulled away cleanly from pole position to lead into Turn 1, with Marquez unable to replicate his sprint move and staying in second.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Austrian GP winner Pedro Acosta<\/a> slipped from third to fifth in the first sequences of corners, allowing\u00a0Bezzecchi to slot in directly behind his title rivals.<\/p>\n

The trio remained within a second of each other for the first quarter of the race, trading the fastest laps between themselves as the victory fight remained wide open.<\/p>\n

\"Jorge <\/p>\n

Jorge Martin, Aprilia Racing Team<\/p>\n

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography \/ LAT Images \/ via Getty Images<\/p>\n

But Marquez upped the ante on lap 7 and began mounting serious pressure on Martin, just as\u00a0Bezzecchi started losing touch with the leading duo.<\/p>\n

Martin initially did well to keep the reigning world champion at bay, not putting a foot wrong on the\u00a0Aprilia to maintain the status quo.<\/p>\n

But on lap 11, Marquez pulled the pin and sent his Ducati up the inside at Turn 9, making the move stick to hit the front for the first time.<\/p>\n

Martin initially managed to match Marquez\u2019s pace, with the 2024 champion keen on not letting his rivals get away.<\/p>\n

But over the following seven laps, Marquez was able to extend his advantage to a second, before cruising to the finish line and securing his 79th premier class win.<\/p>\n

While the battle for victory was settled already, Bezzecchi and Bastianini were involved in a thrilling scrap for the final podium till the final lap.<\/p>\n

Tech3 KTM rider\u00a0Bastianini showed blistering pace in the closing stages of the race, overcoming a one-second deficit to close right on Bezzecchi\u2019s\u00a0tail.<\/p>\n

\"Jorge <\/p>\n

Jorge Martin, Aprilia Racing Team<\/p>\n

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography \/ LAT Images \/ via Getty Images<\/p>\n

But getting a great exit coming out of the last turn,\u00a0Bastianini was unable to do much about his countryman, who hung on to third place by just 0.089s in a drag race to the finish.<\/p>\n

Bastianini was still KTM\u2019s highest-placed rider in fourth after passing the factory bike of Acosta early on.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard dropped as low as eighth in the early stages of the race, but gradually clawed his way back, engaging in a brilliant battle with\u00a0Trackhouse Aprilia duo Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although he briefly passed them to gain fifth on lap 16, Fernandez launched a counterattack, leaving behind both Acosta and\u00a0Ogura.<\/p>\n

Fernandez ultimately won the three-way battle to finish fifth ahead of home hero\u00a0Ogura, while Acosta could only manage seventh.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Francesco Bagnaia<\/a> enjoyed a stronger day aboard the factory Ducati to finish eighth, while Fermin Aldeguer<\/a> recovered from 16th on the opening lap to finish ninth.<\/p>\n

\"Francesco <\/p>\n

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team<\/p>\n

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography \/ LAT Images \/ via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Luca Marini<\/a> emerged as Honda\u2019s highest-placed rider on home turf in 10th, two spots ahead of lead Yamaha runner Fabio Quartararo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Following Saturday\u2019s tyre drama, the entire field opted for the hard rear tyre, which they sampled during the extended 20-minute warm-up session in the morning.<\/p>\n

Diogo Moreira<\/a>, Johann Zarco<\/a> and Alex Marquez<\/a> all crashed out of the race, while Jack Miller<\/a> remounted after a fall to finish 19th and last.<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

MotoGP Japanese GP results<\/p>\n

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What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?<\/p>\n

Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc Marquez defeated Jorge Martin in a straight battle to claim victory in the Japanese Grand\u00a0Prix and move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":915742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,107978,5745,483173,806,805,803,804,85,107979],"class_list":["post-915741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-japanese-gp","tag-motogp","tag-motogp-japanese-gp-marc-marquez-beats-jorge-martin-in-early-duel-to-close-in-on-points-lead","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports","tag-twin-ring-motegi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/915742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}