Five things we learned from MotoGP Japanese GP after tyre drama

The 2026 MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix was dominated by tyre-related conversations, as Michelin went from coming under fire on Saturday to being praised for delivering a remarkably consistent rear tyre for Motegi’s resurfaced asphalt.

Amid the tyre drama, Marc Marquez claimed his sixth grand prix win of the season to close within two points of the championship lead, defeating Aprilia duo Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi in convincing fashion.

Honda enjoyed a podium on home turf on Saturday, Pedro Acosta suffered an unusually off weekend, while Ai Ogura came away with a sixth-place finish in the first leg of MotoGP’s Asia-Pacific tour.

Here are five things we learned from MotoGP’s 2026 Japanese GP.

Marquez and Martin now emerging as lead title contenders

Will it be Martin vs Marquez for the title?

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While this week’s Indonesian GP will offer the most concrete answer about whether Bezzecchi can rediscover his early-season form, it is becoming increasingly clear that the fight for the 2026 MotoGP title is likely to boil down to Marquez and Martin.

Both riders have impressed with their consistency this year and have emerged as the lead runners for their respective brands. Marquez has easily been the more explosive of the two, and has proved to be unbeatable in several rounds. Martin, on the other hand, has been banking solid points and hasn’t put a foot wrong since the summer break ended. While he may have only one grand prix win to his name this season, it shouldn’t be forgotten that he was leading at Misano until developing arm pump. His pace in the Spielberg sprint was another indicator of what he can achieve when he is performing at his peak.

Bezzecchi should have been right there with the pair in the title fight, but his costly crash at the San Marino GP won’t be easy to undo, especially while he continues to recover from his knee injury. A 49-point deficit may prove to be too big to bridge, with Marquez and Martin proving they can limit the damage at tracks where they are less competitive.

Aprilia has made major strides on its weakest tracks

Aprilia has the best all-round bike package

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Ducati may still have some bogey tracks on the calendar, but the Japanese GP proved that Aprilia now has the most versatile bike on the grid. Even if you discount Sunday’s race as an outlier due to the different tyre construction, the sprint proved that Aprilia is now competitive at stop/go layouts.

By no means does Aprilia now have the fastest bike on such tracks. Ducati very much retains the upper hand at circuits featuring hard braking zones and aggressive acceleration exiting corners. But after overcoming its long-running overheating issues in 2025, Aprilia has now made another step forward to cure one of its last remaining weaknesses. Having never even finished on the podium in a Sunday race at Motegi, the Noale-based manufacturer set the lap record in qualifying and scored podiums in both the sprint and the grand prix.

All of this lends credence to Fabio Di Giannantonio’s theory that the field has bunched up so much that there is no such thing as a ‘Ducati track’ or an ‘Aprilia track’ anymore. Riders are now able to make a significant difference, and Marquez definitely played a key role in Ducati’s fifth consecutive win at Motegi.

Three tyre choices can add intrigue to MotoGP races

A detailed view of the Ducati rear tyre

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The fact that the tyre compound riders didn’t even want to touch at Motegi turned out to be the best choice for Sunday’s race was a huge lesson in itself. But there is a bigger question about how the show can become better when riders are given three different options over a weekend. At most races, Michelin only brings two different tyre specifications for front and rear each, while adding a third compound only added to the allocation at select events.

This will change in 2026, when new tyre supplier Pirelli will take over and let riders choose between softs, mediums and hards slicks. The wider range should give teams more options to work with, potentially leading to greater strategic variation. 

With the weekend format set to be overhauled further in 2026 to incorporate an additional sprint qualifying, riders will have to make the most of the time available in practice to trial different compounds and decide what works best for them.

In theory, the field will converge on a specific compound if a tyre is vastly superior to the other. At Motegi, the impression was that the hard was the best option for the grand prix and the sprint, and potentially even qualifying - a fact only learned after the race. But in reality, some tyre compounds will suit one rider more than another at most circuits.

Alex Marquez has become really inconsistent this year

Alex Marquez has lost the consistency that enabled him to finish runner-up in the riders' standings last year

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Alex Marquez’s runner-up finish in the 2025 season was largely down to his consistency. He finished over 100 points clear of Aprilia rival Bezzecchi simply because he finished the bulk of the races on the podium, often shadowing his elder brother.

However, his 2026 campaign couldn’t be any different, with his form fluctuating race to race for no apparent reason. Even after taking his injury into account, this hasn’t been the kind of season one has come to expect from the Spaniard. With two consecutive Sunday retirements, he has even dropped behind struggling factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia in the standings.

To be clear, he hasn’t lost any pace aboard the Gresini Ducati. Just look at how he fared in the Aragon sprint or the San Marino GP. Those brilliant results have been interspersed with too many errors, as illustrated by last weekend’s events at Motegi. He genuinely appeared as one of the quickest riders on the field on Friday, only to throw away his chances with avoidable incidents in both the sprint and the grand prix.

While Aprilia usually has two - sometimes even three - riders performing at the front, Ducati could do with having another rider acting as Marc Marquez’s wingman.

Bastianini can still show the same late-race pace

Bastianini demonstrated his late-race pace prowess - and why he is staying on the MotoGP grid in 2027

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Enea Bastianini hasn’t lost any of his trademark late-race pace. While there have been other instances this year where he charged through the field during the final laps, Japan was the closest he came to climbing on the podium. 

On Saturday, when Acosta was eliminated on the first lap through no fault of his own, Bastianini picked up the baton for KTM and battled Martin all the way to the finish. That a track limits infringement cost him third place was unfortunate, even if the penalty was absolutely fair.

Sunday was where he shone in particular, overtaking Acosta on track before mounting a late attack on Bezzecchi. With Michelin’s hard tyre working so well and recording limited degradation, it was no surprise that the Italian was able to keep them alive in the closing stages, recording a series of fastest laps. Ultimately, just 0.078s separated him and Bezzecchi in what turned out to be a thrilling drag race to the finish line.

Bastianini has been the only KTM rider to defeat Acosta this year - whether on pure pace or due to mitigating circumstances. Hence, it should come as no surprise, as he is the one with a [Trackhouse] contract for 2027, with both Brad Binder and Maverick Vinales getting booted out of MotoGP.

MotoGP heads straight to Indonesia for the second leg of its Asia tour

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