On Saturday morning, Martín looked like the man to beat. He took pole with a 1:42.371, a new Motegi lap record, and Márquez was 0.110s behind in second. Márquez admitted as much afterwards: “Even on the ideal lap Martin is in front of me, so he was faster.”

The Sprint was different. Márquez got the better launch, took the lead into Turn 1 and kept the gap at around eight or nine tenths for most of the race. He set the fastest lap, a 1:43.471, and then pushed again from lap 9 to make the last three laps easier. “I was there trying to control the race, and at lap 9, I tried to push a bit more to open more the gap,” he said. “I said, ‘Okay, I want to be more relaxed the last three laps’, and we did it well.”

He also credited a change to the bike between qualifying and the race: “For the Sprint, with a small modification we were able to be even faster and more comfortable.” On the opening-lap pass, he summed it up in one line: “As always, if it’s riding by instinct, it’s my strong point.” According to Speedweek, it’s the 22nd Sprint win of his career.

Motegi Sprint result: top 10

Further back, Luca Marini, Franco Morbidelli, Álex Rins, Somkiat Chantra, Maverick Viñales, Jack Miller, Toprak Razgatlıoğlu, Brad Binder and Francesco Bagnaia completed the finishers. Quartararo’s ninth was another small step in a difficult season for Yamaha, which is still waiting on its V4 project to make the difference.

For the first few laps, Martín’s pace matched Márquez’s. Then the rear tyre started to go. “My pace was very good, I think it was similar to Marc’s,” he said. “But after five or six laps I started having problems with the rear tyre.” The left side of the tyre went first, and by the closing laps the Aprilia was wheelspinning on the straights. “In the final four laps it was happening on the straights and there was nothing I could do: I was spinning all the way up to sixth gear.”

He still held second on the road, just ahead of Enea Bastianini, until the final lap. Both riders ran onto the green paint at the exit of Turn 10, and under MotoGP rules, exceeding track limits on the last lap means an automatic drop of one position. That handed second to Moreira and pushed Martín to third and Bastianini to fourth.

Martín’s first reaction was that he hadn’t touched the green. After seeing the footage, he accepted it: “It’s a shame. I’m a bit angry with myself for touching the green, because in the end it was a free position, which was mine.” He explained that he was so focused on a good drive out of Turn 10 that he took too steep an exit line.

Bastianini was less accepting. He said he’d held back from attacking Martín to avoid pushing too hard, and called the decision “a bit unfair because I didn’t gain any advantage.” The rule doesn’t consider advantage on the final lap, though, which is the same principle behind track limits in F1: touch the line, take the penalty.

The bigger worry for Martín is Sunday. Asked if there had been any warning of the tyre problem, he said: “Nothing, there was no sign at all and it is certainly worrying ahead of tomorrow.”

Moreira started ninth and was one of the fastest riders on track in the second half of the race. He was already close enough to the Martín–Bastianini fight to benefit when both were penalised, and the result is a landmark: the first Saturday podium for a Brazilian rider in MotoGP, on a Honda, at Honda’s home track. It’s also another good day for LCR Honda, with team-mate Johann Zarco seventh.

Márquez was quick to praise him: “Diogo is one of the most talented riders I ever see, riding every different type of bike.” The 2025 Moto2 champion has had a steady rookie year, and this is the result that puts him on the map.

The race lost three riders before the end of the first lap. At Turn 3, Álex Márquez made contact with Pedro Acosta, lost control of his Gresini Ducati and took Fabio Di Giannantonio down with him. All three were out on the spot. The stewards gave Álex a double Long Lap penalty to serve in Sunday’s Grand Prix.

For Acosta, who finally won his first Grand Prix a week earlier, it was a frustrating end to the Sprint. You can read more about Acosta’s number 37 and career, and about Álex Márquez’s number 73 and his season at Gresini. Our explainer on what causes crashes in motor racing covers why the opening lap is so often where it goes wrong.

Francesco Bagnaia had a miserable afternoon in the other factory Ducati. His soft rear tyre was destroyed in the closing laps, he pitted, and he was classified 19th, more than 41 seconds behind his team-mate. Marco Bezzecchi tried the medium rear instead, but couldn’t match the front-runners’ pace and finished sixth.

The title has swung back and forth between these two all season. They were level on points going into Austria, Martín built a 12-point lead by the time the paddock reached Japan, and one Sprint has taken almost half of it back.

After Sunday’s Grand Prix there are six rounds left, each worth up to 37 points (12 for a Sprint win, 25 for a Grand Prix win). Add Sunday’s 25 and 247 points are still on the table. With Bezzecchi 45 behind, this is realistically a two-rider fight. Our guide to how racing championships are scored explains the points systems in more detail.

The run-in

Martín and Bagnaia weren’t the only riders with tyre problems on Saturday. With new asphalt, track temperatures around 40°C and riders pushing hard in a short race, the soft rear blistered badly. After studying the data overnight, Michelin made a rare call. “We analysed all the data, the tyres, and the solution for tomorrow is that the soft rear will not be allowed,” said Michelin’s Piero Taramasso.

That leaves the medium and a reinforced hard rear with a stronger casing, which Michelin recommends but nobody has used all weekend. To give teams time to try it, the Sunday warm-up has been extended from 10 to 20 minutes. Jack Miller, who had blistering on the medium in the Sprint, said he could “almost guarantee” everyone would end up on the hard and called the situation a potential “lottery”.

That uncertainty could reshape the race. Márquez had no trouble with the soft on Saturday, and his tyre management over a full race distance has been his strength all year: “We know how strong Aprilia is in a single lap, but race pace is where I’m able to be very constant.” Martín starts from pole again, but needs the Aprilia to look after its rear tyre for twice the distance. “We will try something in the warm-up,” he said.

Bezzecchi will also be one to watch after taking the medium on Saturday. And Álex Márquez’s double Long Lap means one of the faster Ducatis starts its race on the back foot. If you’re following the 2027 line-ups as well, the 2027 MotoGP grid is now complete.

Japanese GP race start times

In the UK, the race is live on TNT Sports. Everywhere else, MotoGP’s own VideoPass streams every session.