Click here to listen<\/a> <\/p>\nThere were tears of joy for Marquez, who celebrated in style. The post-race theatrics included briefly donning a special helmet and adding his name to the riders\u2019 championship trophy.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the race, Marquez made mention of his \u201cmistake\u201d to return to racing early \u2013 a move that ultimately curtailed his recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s impossible even to speak,\u201d said Marquez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to enjoy the moment, but it\u2019s true that it was difficult, it was super difficult. Now I\u2019m at peace for myself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made a big mistake in my career to come back early and then I fight, fight, and fight and I won again. I\u2019m at peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marquez is a nine-time MotoGP champion, with seven premier class titles in the 1000cc era.<\/p>\n
The race was a relatively sedate one, save for some late drama. Bagnaia cleared out at the head of the field from pole position, leaving Pedro Acosta to fight over second with Marquez.<\/p>\n
Marquez got by Acosta on Lap 11 of 24 to secure second while the factory KTM rider faded and eventually finished 17th after going off at Turn 1 later in the race.<\/p>\n
Bagnaia looked like he might not even finish when his Ducati Desmosedici GP25 started blowing smoke.<\/p>\n
Despite the issues, the #63 took the chequered flag 4.196s clear of Marquez in second. Third went to Joan Mir, who claimed his seventh MotoGP podium.<\/p>\n
There will be very little time for Marquez to celebrate with a short turnaround to the Grand Prix of Thailand at Mandalika on October 3-5.<\/p>\n
There were tears of joy for the Spaniard, who completed arguably the greatest comeback in MotoGP history, 1897 days after his devastating injury at Jerez.<\/p>\n
Marquez underwent several surgeries and spent the rest of 2020 on the sidelines before returning in 2021.<\/p>\n
What followed was a turbulent spell with Honda. He won again with the Japanese marque, but Honda\u2019s gradual decline forced Marquez to move to Ducati by 2024.<\/p>\n
In 2024, he ended the season in third. Less than a year later, and Marquez is the champion-elect with five events to spare.<\/p>\n
The factory Ducati rider finished behind his teammate Francesco Bagnaia at Motegi. That was enough to put the championship beyond doubt, beating his brother Alex Marquez to the crown.<\/p>\n
In doing so, Marquez joined Giacomo Agostini and Valentino Rossi as the only rider to win seven or more premier class titles.<\/p>\n
The post-race theatrics included briefly donning a special helmet and adding his name to the riders\u2019 championship trophy.<\/p>\n
Results: MotoGP Grand Prix of Japan, Mobility Land Motegi<\/p>\n
Pos
\nNum
\nRider
\nTeam
\nBike
\nLaps\/Diff
\nGap<\/p>\n
1
\n63
\nFrancesco Bagnaia
\nDucati Lenovo Team
\nDucati<\/p>\n
2
\n93
\nMarc Marquez
\nDucati Lenovo Team
\nDucati
\n4.196
\n4.196<\/p>\n
3
\n36
\nJoan Mir
\nHonda HRC Castrol
\nHonda
\n6.858
\n2.662<\/p>\n
4
\n72
\nMarco Bezzecchi
\nAprilia Racing
\nAprilia
\n10.128
\n3.27<\/p>\n
5
\n21
\nFranco Morbidelli
\nPertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team
\nDucati
\n10.421
\n0.293<\/p>\n
6
\n73
\nAlex Marquez
\nBK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP
\nDucati
\n14.544
\n4.123<\/p>\n
7
\n25
\nRaul Fernandez
\nTrackhouse Racing
\nAprilia
\n17.588
\n3.044<\/p>\n
8
\n20
\nFabio Quartararo
\nMonster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team
\nYamaha
\n21.160
\n3.572<\/p>\n
9
\n5
\nJohann Zarco
\nHonda HRC Castrol
\nHonda
\n21.733
\n0.573<\/p>\n
10
\n54
\nFermin Aldeguer
\nBK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP
\nDucati
\n23.107
\n1.374<\/p>\n
11
\n23
\nEnea Bastianini
\nRed Bull Tech3 KTM
\nKTM
\n23.616
\n0.509<\/p>\n
12
\n33
\nBrad Binder
\nRed Bull KTM Factory Team
\nKTM
\n23.882
\n0.266<\/p>\n
13
\n49
\nFabio Di Giannantonio
\nPertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team
\nDucati
\n29.359
\n5.477<\/p>\n
14
\n88
\nMiguel Oliveira
\nPramac Yamaha Racing MotoGP
\nYamaha
\n30.788
\n1.429<\/p>\n
15
\n35
\nSomkia Chantra
\nIdemitsu Honda LCR
\nHonda
\n30.990
\n0.202<\/p>\n
16
\n12
\nMaverick Vinales
\nRed Bull Tech3 KTM
\nKTM
\n31.712
\n0.722<\/p>\n
17
\n37
\nPedro Acosta
\nRed Bull KTM Factory Team
\nKTM
\n34.157
\n2.445<\/p>\n
18
\n42
\nAlex Rins
\nMonster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team
\nYamaha
\n34.792
\n0.635<\/p>\n
DNF
\n43
\nJack Miller
\nPramac Yamaha Racing MotoGP
\nYamaha
\nLap 21<\/p>\n
DNF
\n30
\nTakaaki Nakagami
\nHonda HRC Test Team
\nHonda
\nLap 19<\/p>\n
DNF
\n10
\nLuca Marini
\nHonda HRC Castrol
\nHonda
\nLap 21<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc Marquez at Motegi. There were tears of joy for the Spaniard, who completed arguably the greatest comeback…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[14946,111,139,69,1058,213],"class_list":["post-48227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-marc-marquez","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Marquez](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/MM-_4__UC851145_High.jpg\")