News Summary
- Luca Marini will miss Sunday’s Qatar GP because of persistent fatigue. Honda says the decision was taken with the final two rounds in mind.
- Jake Dixon, already standing in for Joan Mir, is Honda HRC Castrol’s only remaining rider at Lusail.
- With Francesco Bagnaia also out and both Yamaha teams absent, at most 16 riders are set to start the Grand Prix. The first 15 score points.
Luca Marini completed Sunday’s warm-up at Lusail but will sit out the Qatar GP. The Italian and Honda HRC Castrol decided to withdraw him because of persistent fatigue, ending a weekend in which he had already struggled to sustain his pace over the much shorter sprint distance.
“Due to his ongoing state of fatigue, Luca Marini and the Honda HRC Castrol team have elected to withdraw him from the #QatarGP to focus on the final two rounds of the 2026 MotoGP World Championship,” Honda said.
Marini had already struggled to finish Saturday’s sprint
Marini was less than 0.15s away from a direct place in Q2 on Friday. He said he felt comfortable during routine laps and set-up work, but his physical condition limited him when he tried to put together a qualifying run. He was fourth in Q1 on Saturday, two tenths short of advancing.
Marini gained places at the restart of the red-flagged Qatar sprint, but Honda said his energy faded as the race went on. He held off Franco Morbidelli to finish 13th and told the team afterwards how difficult it had been to get through the 10 laps.
“The problem today was me. I still have no power and even to finish the race was really not easy,” Marini said in Honda’s Saturday report. He also said he had felt a similar lack of energy at Phillip Island and Sepang. On Sunday, he was 16th in warm-up before withdrawing from the 22-lap Grand Prix.
Dixon is Honda’s only factory rider as Qatar’s field shrinks again
Honda had already brought in Jake Dixon to replace Joan Mir. The British rider is now the only rider left in the factory garage for Sunday. Johann Zarco and Diogo Moreira are entered separately for LCR Honda.
Marini joins Francesco Bagnaia on the list of riders who took part on Saturday but will miss the Grand Prix. Bagnaia fractured two bones in his right foot in the sprint and will undergo surgery in Italy. Yamaha had already withdrawn its factory and Pramac teams, leaving 18 riders for the sprint. The two withdrawals since then bring the maximum for Sunday down to 16.
What the smaller field means for the MotoGP title
Marc Márquez still needs to win and Jorge Martín must score no points for the championship to be decided in Qatar. The smaller field matters because 15th place pays one point, enough for Martín to keep the title fight alive even if Márquez wins.
If 16 riders start and all are classified, only one will finish outside the points. The Qatar GP is scheduled to start at 19:00 local time, which is 16:00 GMT, 11:00 ET and 21:30 IST.
GRANDE PRÊMIO is following every session of the Qatar GP in MotoGP.
