Ahead of the World Championship finale: winners and losers of the crazy 2026 MotoGP season

The current MotoGP season has left Europe for the time being. Following two recent races in Asia, the action will resume on the other side of the world after a week’s break. For the last time, the Grand Prix paddock is heading to Phillip Island. Whilst the Australian Grand Prix remains on the calendar, from 2027 onwards the action will no longer take place on the MotoGP island but in Adelaide’s City Park.

Following a stop in Kuala Lumpur for the Malaysian Grand Prix, the series is scheduled to head into the Qatari desert. It is not certain whether the race will go ahead in Losail due to the volatile political situation, but for now, round 20 of the calendar remains on the schedule. The year will conclude back in Europe with the events in Portimão and Valencia. The starting grid will be set ten more times before the 2026 champion is crowned. Given how the season has unfolded so far, it seems highly unlikely that the World Championship will be decided before the final round.

The championship lead has already changed hands seven times, twice during the Indonesian Grand Prix on Lombok alone. The very first round of 2026 was a special one, particularly from the Austrians’ perspective. This was because Pedro Acosta and KTM topped the World Championship standings for the first time ever. With two podium finishes at the start of the season, albeit without a Grand Prix victory, the young Spaniard had made the most successful start to his MotoGP career.

Acosta feierte beim Österreich-GP seinen ersten MotoGP-Sieg

Foto: Gold and Goose

Despite major technical difficulties, Acosta lost neither speed nor motivation; he continued to rack up top results and podium finishes, eventually being celebrated as a MotoGP winner at the Red Bull Ring. Even though Pedro Acosta has been fluctuating within the top five of the World Championship in 2026 and slipped back to fifth place behind Ai Ogura in Indonesia, there is no doubt that number 37 has been a winner so far.

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22.10.2026 - 23:55

Jorge Martin is once again causing a sensation on the track

There’s no disputing the current championship leader, Jorge Martin, either. With a razor-thin two-point lead, Martin has staged an astonishing comeback. Anyone who had bet a year ago that number 89 would be leading the 2026 World Championship would have been laughed out of the room. Yet the 2024 champion has found his way back to the top, defying all the predictions. The key to his success: consistency. Whilst his rivals Marc Márquez and Marco Bezzecchi had to contend with several major gaps in their 2026 records, Martin only failed to score points in both races at Barcelona. Martin made it onto the podium 17 times, including once as world champion Marc Marquez. The fact that Jorge Martin has risen to become a co-favourite again after a year full of disasters and having already announced the end of his career is perhaps the biggest headline, whatever the outcome of the World Championship.

However, there have also been – and continue to be – sensational stories to report about Marc Márquez. For whilst Martin was written off last year, much in 2026 pointed to the world champion being sidelined. Having stormed through last season in unprecedented fashion and built up a massive lead in the title race, things simply wouldn’t fall into place for him this year. A typical example from the first quarter of the year comes from the comments of Ducati-Lenovo team manager Davide Tardozzi. When Márquez crashed spectacularly at Le Mans, the boss in the pits threw his hands up in despair. But rather than ‘game over’, a counter-offensive followed, which won Marc Márquez even more fans.

Marc Marquez: Für viele ist der Weltmeister auch 2026 WM-Favorit

Foto: Gold and Goose

At the Hungarian Grand Prix – on an extremely physically demanding circuit – ‘MM93’ stunned everyone with a one-two finish – and, without making a single mistake in the subsequent races, made up a deficit of over 100 points. Then, at Misano, came the emotional highlight in the Spain versus Italy showdown: Bezzecchi crashed whilst leading – Marquez won the race and took the championship lead. Even though he slipped back to second place behind Martin in Indonesia, the drama he has mastered so far in 2026 establishes the champion as the favourite for the world title. It would be his eighth – a MotoGP record.

Bezzecchi: From title favourite to second-placed challenger

Marco Bezzecchi, third in the World Championship standings, experienced unbridled joy but also massive setbacks. ‘Bez’, having secured a victory in Indonesia, is once again in hot pursuit of Márquez and Martin, yet still trails the leader by 46 points – a position the Aprilia works rider held for so long. After his first three consecutive GP wins, a second place at Le Mans and fourth at Catalunya, Bezzecchi rode to victory again at Mugello in front of ecstatic fans – the first half of the season belonged to number 72. But after nasty crashes at Assen and the Sachsenring, his run came to an end. Whilst trying to catch up with Marquez, the Italian then lost his cool. Bezzecchi’s crash in the gravel at Brno made headlines around the world and laid bare the tense situation in the battle for the World Championship.

Plusminus: Marco Bezzecchi kämpft

Foto: Gold and Goose

Francesco Bagnaia has also suffered a sporting setback so far. The downward spiral that saw the 2022 and 2023 champion slip back to fifth place by the end of 2026 – despite a strong start to the first half of the year – shows no sign of abating in 2026 either. Bagnaia’s record is as unsatisfactory as it is inexplicable. After a disastrous start – in the first five Grand Prix races, the factory GP26 Ducati rider managed to score just 13 points – four third-place finishes in consecutive Grand Prix races came out of nowhere. But instead of a turnaround, number 63 slipped back into the midfield. Following another crash in Indonesia, the team-mate of the World Championship favourite was relegated to ninth place in the overall standings.

Bremsfallschirm: Pecco Bagnaia hat sich vorerst aus der Elite verabschiedet

Foto: Gold and Goose

During the Indonesian GP alone, six riders in the top nine swapped positions. And it won’t stop there. There are still 185 World Championship points up for grabs, and the top five in the standings are less than 100 points behind comeback star Jorge Martin, the biggest winner of 2026 so far.