Marc Marquez avenged his crash from the lead of the sprint race at the San Marino Grand Prix with his 11th Grand Prix victory of the season, the Ducati rider winning at Misano for the sixth time in his career on Sunday.
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Marquez can secure his seventh premier-class title and first since 2019 in the next round in Japan after the 32-year-old built his championship lead to 182 points with six events remaining. He will win the title if he scores three more points than fellow Ducati rider and younger sibling Alex Marquez at Motegi.
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Marc Marquez was a 0.568-second winner over Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi after a tense race-long battle between the two, Bezzecchi’s lap 12 error when he ran wide at Turn 8 and allowed Marquez to slip through the decisive moment.
Alex Marquez was third, 7.734secs behind his older brother, as Marc Marquez and Bezzecchi were the class of the field for a second straight day, Bezzecchi winning the sprint 24 hours earlier after Marquez crashed out of the lead.
With his victory, Marc Marquez set a new single-season points record with 512 points, surpassing Jorge Martin’s 2024 tally of 508 points with six rounds remaining.
“Today I gave everything I had,” Marquez said.
“It’s true that the mistake from yesterday give me extra concentration and extra power, extra energy. I was following [Bezzecchi] and trying to push him super close because I said ‘it’s impossible to do 27 laps without any mistake’.
“In the end, he did a small mistake on Turn 8 and then in some laps I struggle a bit … it’s super-important for Ducati, I felt the pressure this weekend to win the Italian GPs in Mugello and here, so I’m happy for it,”
Just 16 riders finished a crash-strewn race at Misano, Honda pair Johann Zarco and Joan Mir crashing in the same incident on the first lap, with Aprilia’s Ai Ogura (lap 3), KTM’s Maverick Vinales (lap 5), Marc Marquez’s teammate Francesco Bagnaia (lap 9), Yamaha’s Alex Rins (lap 10) and Vinales’ teammate Enea Bastianini (lap 12) all crashing out before the halfway stage.
KTM’s Pedro Acosta also retired, the Spaniard’s bike shedding its chain after eight laps.
Australia’s Jack Miller finished inside the points in 12th place, finishing 27.492secs behind Marquez, after the Yamaha rider started from a season-worst 21st place on the grid.
Miller did his best work early, gaining four places in the opening two laps and finishing ahead of Aprilia’s Martin, who was forced to serve a long-lap penalty after his bike broke down on the sighting lap to the grid, the Spaniard completing the race on his second machine.
Round 17 of the 22-round MotoGP season will take place at Motegi in Japan from September 26-28.
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