Race report

MotoGP Japanese GP: Francesco Bagnaia dominates sprint, Marc Marquez closes in on title

Bagnaia scores an impressive comeback win, leading a 1-2 for the factory Ducati team

Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia bounced back from recent woes to score a dominant victory in the Japanese Grand Prix sprint, while his team-mate Marc Marquez inched closer to the title with a podium finish.

Bagnaia was never threatened during the 12-lap contest at Motegi, leading every single lap from pole position to clinch his first sprint win since last year’s Barcelona finale.

Marquez didn’t have the pace to fight at the front and finished almost two seconds behind Bagnaia, but with his brother Alex Marquez failing to score in the sprint, he heads to Sunday’s grand prix with one hand on the title.

At the start of the race, Bagnaia pulled away cleanly from pole position to lead the factory Honda of Joan Mir, with Pedro Acosta making a rapid launch from fourth on the grid to snatch third place from Marc Marquez into Turn 5.

Further back, reigning champion Jorge Martin lost control of his Aprilia under braking for Turn 1, taking out his Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi in a nasty crash.

With the yellow flags quickly cleared, Bagnaia continued to extend his advantage over the chasing pack, building a buffer of six tenths by the time Acosta grabbed second from Mir on lap 2.

Although Acosta was expected to be a more potent threat than Mir, Bagnaia had no trouble keeping him at bay, pulling out a lead of 1.5s in the first five laps.

The two-time MotoGP champion continued to cruise at the front, taking the top spot by 1.842s in his most competitive showing of the 2025 season.

Marquez recovered from a slow first lap to grab second behind Bagnaia after passing both Acosta and Mir at the final corner in quick succession.

While the 32-year-old initially struggled to overtake Mir, running wide on a number of occasions, he eventually managed to complete a block pass on lap 8.

The overtake on Acosta with three laps to go was much easier as the KTM rider struggled in the latter part of the sprint.

With Alex Marquez finishing a distant 10th at the end of a tough race, the Ducati star can wrap up the title on Sunday if he doesn’t concede more than six points to his brother.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Toshifumi Kitamura / AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile, Acosta hung on to third place at a track where he scored his maiden pole last year, while Mir likewise stayed in fourth to celebrate a big points haul for Honda on its home turf.

Fifth place went to Franco Morbidelli on the VR46 Ducati, while Fabio Quartararo was classified sixth on the factory Yamaha.

Luca Marini made it a double points finish for the factory Honda team in seventh, while the final points went to Trackhouse duo Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura in eighth and ninth respectively.

Gresini’s Alex Marquez, who had qualified eighth after advancing from Q1, dropped to ninth on the opening lap before tumbling to 10th place.

MotoGP Japanese GP - Sprint results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	12	20'59.113		164.7		12
2	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	12	+1.842 21'00.955	1.842	164.4		9
3	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	12	+3.674 21'02.787	1.832	164.2		7
4	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	12	+4.300 21'03.413	0.626	164.1		6
5	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	12	+5.130 21'04.243	0.830	164.0		5
6	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	12	+8.913 21'08.026	3.783	163.5		4
7	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	12	+9.102 21'08.215	0.189	163.5		3
8	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	12	+10.334 21'09.447	1.232	163.3		2
9	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	12	+10.480 21'09.593	0.146	163.3		1
10	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	12	+11.487 21'10.600	1.007	163.2
11	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	12	+13.492 21'12.605	2.005	162.9
12	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	12	+13.823 21'12.936	0.331	162.9
13	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	12	+15.425 21'14.538	1.602	162.7
14	T. Nakagami Honda HRC Test Team	30	Honda	12	+16.352 21'15.465	0.927	162.6
15	M. Oliveira Pramac Racing	88	Yamaha	12	+18.211 21'17.324	1.859	162.3
16	M. Viñales Tech 3	12	KTM	12	+20.706 21'19.819	2.495	162.0
17	S. Chantra Team LCR	35	Honda	12	+21.883 21'20.996	1.177	161.9
18	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	12	+43.428 21'42.541	21.545	159.2
dnf	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	11	+1 Lap 19'25.979	1 Lap	163.0	Accident
dnf	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	9	+3 Laps 15'56.363	2 Laps	162.6	Retirement
dnf	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	6	+6 Laps 10'39.082	3 Laps	162.2	Mechanical
dnf	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	0				Accident
dnf	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	1	Aprilia	0				Accident
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