Round weekend of an irreducible Marc Márquez in Japan

BarcelonaThe most open MotoGP World Championship in years is knocking many contenders out of the running and it seems it could be a duel between two men: Marc Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP26) and Jorge Martín (Aprilia RS-GP). Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP26) has had a perfect weekend: he won the Japanese Grand Prix at the Mobility Resort Motegi circuit after also triumphing on Saturday in the sprint race. Two victories to put pressure on the World Championship leader. Martín finished second and sees how the difference between the two in the general standings is cut to just two points, with six races to go. The Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia RS-GP) is third.

The race arrived marked by the problems of a good handful of riders with the rear tires during Saturday's session. Both Martín and Bezzecchi had seen how these wore out too much, which caused complaints from the teams. In fact, the organizers extended the pre-race warm-up session by 10 minutes, so that everyone would have time to test the new tires. The result has been positive and has benefited the spectacle.

Martín, after setting a new speed record for the Japanese circuit in the official practice sessions, was defending the first position. And he maintained it at the start despite the attack from Márquez on the first straight. Márquez saw how Martín set the pace at the start, while behind him Pedro Acosta (KTM RC 16) struggled, overtaken by the Italian Enea Bastianini (KTM RC 16), the Japanese rider Ai Ogura (Aprilia RS-GP) and the Spaniard Raúl Fernández (Aprilia RS-GP). In just three laps, three riders stood out from the rest: Jorge Martín, Marc Márquez and Marco Bezzecchi. That is to say, the three men who lead the general classification.

Who had no options was the Catalan Àlex Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP26), penalized with two long laps for having caused on Saturday the crash in the sprint of Pedro Acosta (KTM RC 16) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati Desmosedici GP26). Despite everything, the younger brother of the Márquez family had a good race, until he fell to the ground with five laps to go.

Up front, Jorge Martín and Marc Márquez have gradually left behind a Marco Bezzecchi who lately cannot seem to find a good race pace. The Italian, who had started the World Championship strongly, does not seem the same after suffering a fall a few months ago. And up front, Márquez waited until the eleventh lap to overtake Martín with a very risky move, and quickly consolidated the first position with more than a second of advantage over Jorge Martín and more than 2.5 seconds over Marco Bezzecchi at the end of the race. The podium ended up like this. The fourth position went to Bastianini, who for moments dreamed of overtaking Bezzecchi, who may run the risk of being ruled out of the fight to be world champion if he doesn't lift his head. Márquez, however, claims he is still watching him, and does not believe that the World Championship is a two-man race yet. "Bezzecchi is totally in the fight and Jorge is in great form. The three of us are opening up a gap, but there is a long way to go. We have been in good form since Aragon, a pity about that Sunday in Austria," said Marc Márquez, in reference to the previous Grand Prix, where mechanical problems cut his pace.

The next stage of the World Championship will be in Indonesia, one of the latest circuits to join the calendar, where the nine-time world champion, Márquez, has never finished until now. "It will be different this time," he has already warned.