A scare for Marc Marquez (2nd): “The positive thing is that it happened in practice”

For defending champion Marc Marquez of the Ducati Lenovo Team, the weekend in the Arabian desert is nothing out of the ordinary, in that he is approaching it as he always does. Whether he becomes world champion in the premier class for the eighth time on Sunday is something over which he has only limited control anyway. If he repeats last year’s feat and wins both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, his closest rival, Jorge Martin (Aprilia), must lose at least 30 more points to Marquez.

Last weekend in Malaysia, where Martin had to sit out both races due to a broken right forearm, only the most die-hard optimists believed he would be able to race in Qatar. Clearly, the six days of recovery did the Spaniard good; he finished FP1 in fifth place and, with a stunning seventh-place finish in Friday evening’s free practice, went straight through to Qualifying 2 on Saturday afternoon. If he can deliver similar performances in the races – which, due to the pain, is considerably more difficult over the full distance than it is for a single fast lap – then the title decider will be postponed until the penultimate round in Portimão on 20–22 November.

Chain snapped: a shower of sparks under the floodlights

Marc Marquez had a scare when, whilst sitting second in free practice, 0.142 seconds behind his Ducati team-mate Fabio Di Giannntonio (VR46), his chain snapped on a straight, sending a shower of sparks flying under the floodlights. “The positive thing is that it happened during practice,” Marc noted. “I haven’t asked how many kilometres I’ve ridden with this chain; I trust my team – they’ll sort out the problem.”

“We got off to a good start, and by the end of practice I’d found a decent rhythm,” said the rider with 80 MotoGP wins to his name. “I was getting into my stride and now I need to focus fully on qualifying, because in MotoGP these days it’s crucial to start from the front row – or at most the second row. But it’s also clear that this weekend will be difficult because so many riders are fast. It looks as though Diggia and Bezzecchi are the best in terms of pace, but Martin and Bagnaia also rode strongly. Apart from them, I can see Raul Fernandez mixing it up at the front too.”

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07.11.2026 - 10:25