{"id":3387,"date":"2026-10-04T06:15:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T09:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/?p=3387"},"modified":"2026-10-04T06:20:50","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T09:20:50","slug":"marc-marquez-reveals-turning-point-behind-motegi-win-as-martins-lead-shrinks-to-two-points","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/motogp\/marc-marquez-reveals-turning-point-behind-motegi-win-as-martins-lead-shrinks-to-two-points\/","title":{"rendered":"Marc M\u00e1rquez reveals turning point behind Motegi win as Mart\u00edn\u2019s lead shrinks to two points"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">News Summary<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Marc M\u00e1rquez identifies Arag\u00f3n as the turning point in his recent improvement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Ducati rider beat Jorge Mart\u00edn at Motegi to complete a Sprint and Grand Prix double.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mart\u00edn leads the championship by just two points ahead of next weekend\u2019s Indonesian GP.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marc M\u00e1rquez identified <strong>the improved feeling he has developed since Arag\u00f3n<\/strong> as the foundation of his Japanese Grand Prix victory, which brought him within two points of Jorge Mart\u00edn at the top of the <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/motogp\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">MotoGP<\/a> standings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Ducati rider left Motegi with <strong>all 37 available points<\/strong>, following Saturday\u2019s Sprint success with victory in Sunday\u2019s main race. His <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/motogp\/marc-marquez-beats-martin-in-japan-to-leave-motogp-title-fight-just-2-points-apart\/\">Japanese GP double tightened the championship fight<\/a> ahead of the trip to Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Speaking after the race at Motegi, M\u00e1rquez pointed to the progress made over recent rounds rather than treating his Japanese performance as an isolated result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSince Aragon the feeling was great. We just had a small problem in Austria, but we were there again,\u201d M\u00e1rquez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That assessment puts his victory in the context of a growing understanding of the Ducati. He felt competitive from Friday in Japan, with a small adjustment for the Sprint helping him become more comfortable as the weekend progressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">M\u00e1rquez had to change his plan against Mart\u00edn<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sunday required a different approach from the Sprint. M\u00e1rquez had wanted to establish himself at the front immediately, but Mart\u00edn retained the lead at the start and forced his rival to follow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The opening laps also involved learning how the hard rear tyre behaved over a race distance. Michelin had withdrawn the soft rear following Saturday\u2019s problems, leaving riders to evaluate the hard option in the extended Sunday warm-up before committing to it for the Grand Prix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>M\u00e1rquez overtook Mart\u00edn at Turn 9 on lap 11<\/strong>, then managed the gap through the second half of the race. Mart\u00edn remained close enough to apply pressure, but the Ducati rider reached the finish 1.363 seconds ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marco Bezzecchi completed the podium, giving Aprilia second and third behind M\u00e1rquez. Enea Bastianini finished fourth for Tech3 KTM, ahead of Ra\u00fal Fern\u00e1ndez and Ai Ogura.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Indonesia is the next test<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The result leaves <strong>Mart\u00edn on 333 points and M\u00e1rquez on 331<\/strong>, with Bezzecchi third on 284. The <a href=\"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/motogp\/motogp-standings-after-japan-martin-leads-marquez-by-2-points-ducati-and-aprilia-tied\/\">updated championship standings after Japan<\/a> also show Ducati and Aprilia level on 469 points in the constructors\u2019 competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">M\u00e1rquez now heads to a circuit where he has yet to finish a premier-class Grand Prix. Mandalika will therefore test whether his recent improvement can translate into another strong result at a venue with a very different character from Motegi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MotoGP returns next weekend, from <strong>9\u201311 October<\/strong>, for the Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika. <strong>GRANDE PR\u00caMIO<\/strong> will cover all the action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">MotoGP today: FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Who leads the 2026 MotoGP championship?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jorge Mart\u00edn leads the 2026 MotoGP World Championship with <strong>333 points, just two ahead of Marc M\u00e1rquez on 331<\/strong>. The gap was reduced at Motegi, where M\u00e1rquez won both the sprint and Japanese GP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What time is the Indonesian MotoGP at Mandalika?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Indonesian GP starts at <strong>15:00 local time on Sunday, October 11<\/strong>. That is 08:00 in the UK, 03:00 ET in the US and Canada and 12:30 in India. Saturday&#8217;s sprint also starts at 15:00 local time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Has Marc M\u00e1rquez ever won at Mandalika?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">No. M\u00e1rquez has <strong>never won or even finished the Sunday MotoGP race at Mandalika<\/strong>. His previous Indonesian GPs have been affected by crashes, injury and mechanical trouble. He arrives in 2026 only two points behind Mart\u00edn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ducati rider says his confidence has grown since Arag\u00f3n after taking all 37 available points in Japan and moving within striking distance of championship leader Jorge Mart\u00edn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1020317076,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"42wp_featured_image_caption":"Marc M\u00e1rquez","42wp_featured_image_credits":"AFP","42wp_featured_video":"","42wp_featured_image_hidden":false,"42wp_authors_list":[{"id":140,"location":""}],"footnotes":"","42wp_breaking_news":false},"categories":[38],"tags":[586,52,104,315],"42wp_author":[140],"class_list":["post-3387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motogp","tag-japanese-gp","tag-jorge-martin","tag-marc-marquez","tag-motogp-2026","42wp_author-kaio-esteves"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3388,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3387\/revisions\/3388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1020317076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3387"},{"taxonomy":"42wp_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grandepremio.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/42wp_author?post=3387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}