Race report

MotoGP San Marino GP: Marquez takes championship lead with Misano win

The championship takes a decisive turn as Marquez wins and Bezzecchi crashes

Marc Marquez capitalised on an opening-lap crash for Aprilia rival Marco Bezzecchi to win the San Marino Grand Prix and secure the lead in the MotoGP standings.

With Bezzecchi making another grave error early in the race after starting from pole position, the reigning world champion inherited the lead on the opening lap and then fought off Jorge Martin and Alex Marquez to claim his fifth win of the 2026 season.

After battling Ducati's Marquez through the middle stages of the race, Martin dropped down the order to fifth after his pace fell off a cliff, with Alex Marquez and Pedro Acosta completing the podium spots.

Following the race, Marquez is now level with Martin at the top of the standings on 274 points, but is ahead due to a greater number of race wins.

At lights out, Bezzecchi moved to the right to cover the inside line, ensuring Marquez couldn’t repeat his winning move from the sprint. While that allowed the Italian to retain the lead at Turn 1, he tried too hard to keep the reigning world champion at bay on the opening lap, sliding out of the race at Turn 12.

This left Marquez in the lead, followed by the other Aprilia of Martin, who had cleared the Ducati's of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Fermin Aldeguer at the start to snatch second.

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team

Photo by: Andreas Solaro / AFP via Getty Images

While Marquez ran away at the front in the early stages of Saturday’s sprint, he couldn’t create a gap over Martin, who matched his pace through the early stages. With just three tenths separating the pair, Martin launched a surprise attack on Marquez into Turn 4, outbraking the factory Ducati rider to take the lead.

Marquez initially slipped eight tenths behind Martin, dropping into the clutches of his brother Alex, before picking up his pace closing the gap back up again. On lap 12, Marquez sent his Ducati up the inside into Turn 6, passing the Aprilia with ease to take the lead.

As Martin continued to drop down the order, losing places to Alex Marquez and Acosta on the next four laps, Marc Marquez began pulling away at the front, extending his advantage to a second.

Towards the closing stages of the race, Alex Marquez became a serious contender for victory, slashing the gap down to just four tenths of a second. But the factory Ducati rider didn’t make a single mistake in the final laps, taking the chequered flag by 0.657s to make it five wins in seven races.

Running a special livery to pay tribute to the late Marco Simoncelli, Alex Marquez recovered from a horrible Saturday to finish second, securing the first 1-2 for the Marquez brothers this season.

Acosta impressed aboard the factory KTM yet again, rising from seventh on the grid to complete the podium positions.

More to follow...

RACE

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	Retirement	Points
1	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	27	41'13.013			25
2	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	27	+0.657 41'13.670	0.657		20
3	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	27	+2.326 41'15.339	1.669		16
4	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	27	+6.027 41'19.040	3.701		13
5	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	27	+14.021 41'27.034	7.994		11
6	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	27	+18.252 41'31.265	4.231		10
7	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	27	+20.581 41'33.594	2.329		9
8	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	27	+20.858 41'33.871	0.277		8
9	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	27	+22.911 41'35.924	2.053		7
10	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	27	+23.229 41'36.242	0.318		6
11	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	27	+23.905 41'36.918	0.676		5
12	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7	Yamaha	27	+28.031 41'41.044	4.126		4
13	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	27	+28.927 41'41.940	0.896		3
14	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	27	+31.792 41'44.805	2.865		2
dnf	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	24	+3 Laps 37'26.700	3 Laps	Accident	1
dnf	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	16	+11 Laps 26'12.786	8 Laps	Retirement
dnf	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	5	+22 Laps 9'17.222	11 Laps	Retirement
dnf	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	5	+22 Laps 7'49.800		Accident
dnf	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	2	+25 Laps 3'28.171	3 Laps	Accident
dnf	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	1	+26 Laps 2'44.728	1 Lap	Retirement
dnf	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	0	+27 Laps 1'07.298	1 Lap	Accident
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