Marc Marquez becomes MotoGP World Championship leader for the first time in 2026: “It feels unreal”

Saturday was all Marc Marquez’s: in the Sprint race, he overtook pole-sitter Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) at Turn 1 and went on to claim a start-to-finish victory – his sixth Sprint win of the season. Things started differently on Sunday. Bezzecchi successfully defended his lead in Turn 1 and Turn 4 with all his might and took the lead, whilst Marquez had to settle for second place for the time being.

But after less than four kilometres, everything changed. In the fast Turn 13, Bezzecchi’s front wheel tucked in and he slid into the gravel trap; his Aprilia RS-GP was no longer rideable. Marquez inherited the lead, but was himself caught out shortly afterwards when he was overtaken by Jorge Martin (Aprilia) in Turn 4 after seven laps, allowing Martin to open up a gap of a few metres between himself and Marquez.

Marquez countered Martin

At first, Márquez took a while to get back into his rhythm. With a series of personal best lap times, the 33-year-old was soon back on Martin’s tail and took the lead on lap 12 in Turn 6 with a clean manoeuvre. Martin was unable to keep up and was overtaken several times as the race progressed, eventually dropping to fifth place. Marc Marquez’s next closest challenger was soon his younger brother Alex.

It remained thrilling nonetheless: the Gresini rider, who had worked his way up from ninth on the grid to second place, closed the gap to just three-tenths of a second in the final laps, before Marquez regained control of the gap and gave his brother no chance to attack.

Seven races ago, the title seemed out of reach

For Marc Marquez, it was his 78th MotoGP victory and his 104th Grand Prix win. At Misano, he triumphed for the seventh time in the premier class and for the ninth time across all classes – he is more successful at no other circuit where the race is run clockwise. With the maximum 37 points from Misano, he now has 274 points and is level with Martin at the top of the World Championship standings; however, thanks to his higher number of wins, Marquez is listed first. Hard to believe: after Mugello, he had been 102 points behind!

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“It feels unreal,” said the delighted Spaniard after the race. “You must never give up. I’ll keep pushing right to the end. It’s not over yet; it’s not finished yet.” He analysed his race with a self-critical eye: “After Bezzecchi’s mistake, I was too complacent, then Martin attacked me. After that, I regained my confidence and maintained the pace.” Referring to Misano favourite Bezzecchi, he replied: “We’re riding at the limit; a small mistake can cost a lot of points.” The action continues next weekend in Austria.