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MotoGP riders predict a fierce battle between Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez for the 2026 championship, while concerns arise over the Michelin to Pirelli tyre switch in 2027 and a former world champion's illness ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix.
A host of MotoGP riders have predicted that the 2026 championship will come down to a head-to-head fight between Spaniards Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez, with one of Martin’s former teammates “surprised” with the Aprilia rider’s bounce-back campaign after his nightmare 2024 title defence last year.
Elsewhere, a group of experienced riders look set to be behind the eight-ball when MotoGP switches from Michelin to Pirelli tyres in 2027, while a former world champion remains sidelined with a mystery illness ahead of the final seven rounds of the season in just nine weeks. , your news wrap of the stories behind the headlines ahead of this week’s resumption of racing at Motegi for the Japanese Grand Prix from October 2-4.
MARTIN’S FOCUS REMAINS FORMIDABLE, SAYS FORMER TEAMMATE French veteran Johann Zarco feels a focused Jorge Martin will take some beating for this year’s MotoGP crown, with the Aprilia rider taking a slender 12-point lead over compatriot Marc Marquez into the flyaway leg of the season, with the next five Grands Prix taking place outside of Europe.won the 2024 title for Ducati in a year-long head-to-head fight with stablemate Francesco Bagnaia , moved to Aprilia for 2025 but had a tumultuous season where he competed in just seven Grands Prix and finished 21st in the standings after an assortment of injuries, and wasYamaha announced it would pair Martin with second-year Japanese sensation Ai Ogura Zarco was teammate to Martin at the Pramac Ducati squad from Martin’s rookie season in 2021 until the end of 2023, when the French veteran moved to LCR Honda.
Zarco and Martin spent three years together as teammates at the Pramac Ducati team from 2021. The oldest rider on the grid, 36-year-old Zarco is one of just five riders remaining on the grid from his 2017 rookie season with Yamaha, Marquez one of that quintet.after the recent race in Spielberg, Zarco predicted the title fight will come down to Martin vs Marquez, with his former teammate showing some familiar and formidable signs.
“He needed time, but the way I know him, when he finds this focus that he’s in now, it’s hard to bring him out of this focus. He has a big chance of being champion.
“But I’m always impressed with the way Marc is able to control, and that’s , for me, it will be between Martin and Marc.
”PODCAST: Michael and Matt review a dominant weekend for George Russell at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, catch up with 2025 Bathurst 1000 winner Matt Payne, and assess the MotoGP championship picture with seven rounds remaining |Marco Bezzecchi, who won the opening three rounds of the season and led the standings until he crashed out at Assen, has dropped to 42 points behind Martin after finishing third in both races at the Red Bull Ring; the Italian hasn’t won a sprint all season, and has been winless for eight consecutive events, “Even if Bezzecchi has been so impressive at the beginning of the season, I feel that he has maybe more pressure than the other two,” Zarco said.who they felt was the title favourite after Austria, the top three in the standings either deflected towards their opponents, or were coy about their chances.
“At the moment I see Marc, he’s so strong. Let’s see our potential in the difficult races … but we’ll try until the end.
” Bezzecchi wouldn’t be drawn – “Jorge is leading so for sure at the moment he’s the favourite Marc is super close to him … they are both favourites, and hopefully I can fight with them overseas” – while Acosta, 72 points behind Martin in fourth and the longest of long shots to stay in title contention until the end despite his impressive win in Austria, felt Marquez – his 2027 Ducati teammate – has the edge.
“Marc should win the championship at the end. He’s the guy that has more championships and experience, I’d put my money on him. ”Seven-time MotoGP race-winner Enea Bastianini is the latest rider to voice his frustrations over the lack of testing for some riders ahead of MotoGP’s switch to Pirelli tyres next year, the sport moving away from Michelin, which has been the sole tyre supplier for the last decade.
KTM rider Bastianini is one of 11 riders on this year’s grid changing teams for next year, the 28-year-old moving to Trackhouse Aprilia to partner Pirelli has conducted two one-day closed-door tests this season, one at Brno after the Czechia Grand Prix in June, and the other on the Monday after the recent round in Austria, where teams have trialled the new 2027 rubber with their 850cc prototypes.
Several manufacturers haven’t allowed their riders moving to new teams for next year to participate in the tests, meaning the first chance the likes of Bastianini, Francesco Bagnaia , Jorge Martin and Fabio Quartararo will get to try the 2027 tyres is at the one-day Valencia test after the final round of the season in December, where cold track conditions in the early days of the Spanish winter are unlikely to provide representative feedback.
“I tried with KTM to to see if it was possible to try, but at the end they told me no,” Bastianini said in Austria, after Bagnaia was similarly critical about being benched for the Brno test two months earlier. “I don’t know why the organisers didn’t think about the test like, ‘OK, all the riders need to test the Pirelli’. Every rider. It’s better for everybody to try the Pirellis before arriving in Valencia.
It was better to be mandatory for everybody.
“Just one day will be very complicated to think about how will be the future with the Pirellis. ” Bastianini is one of several riders who’ll have to wait for this season to be over before they try the 2027 Pirellis with their new teams.
Bastianini, Bagnaia, Martin and Quartararo were four of the eight regular riders who have signed elsewhere for next year who were not allowed by their current teams to test next year’s 850cc bikes and new tyres in Spielberg, with Fabio Di Giannantonio , Ai Ogura , Alex Marquez and Luca Marini all sitting out. Marini, though, was allowed by Honda to ride its 2027 bike in Brno, while KTM gave Ducati-bound Pedro Acosta track time on its 850cc machine at both tests.
, who rode KTM’s 1000cc 2026 bike – were in action in Austria; Agius, one of five premier-class rookies next year, already has plenty of Pirelli experience from its supply of tyres for the Moto2 championship. Honda has brought in ex-MotoGP rider Somkiat Chantra for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix, with 2020 MotoGP world champion Joan Mir remaining sidelined for at least the next two rounds as he continues to battle an undisclosed illness.
Thai rider Chantra, who raced for LCR Honda last season before moving to ride for the Japanese manufacturer in World Superbikes, will partner Luca Marini at Honda’s factory team at Motegi, with Japanese test rider Takaaki Nakagami – who filled in for Mir in Austria – already scheduled to compete in his home race as a wildcard. Mir, the 2020 world champion for Suzuki who will move to Gresini Ducati next season, withdrew from the Spielberg event following an early retirement with illness from the previous Grand Prix at Misano, a Honda statement citing “altered parameters in blood work, which require further investigation and testing.
”Further checks have recommended Mir sit out the Japanese Grand Prix and the next round in Indonesia the following weekend, delaying a possible return to the Australian Grand Prix from October 23-25 at the earliest. Honda is yet to announce Mir’s replacement for Indonesia, with the Mandalika round clashing with the World Superbikes event in Portugal, ruling Chantra out.
At KTM, Maverick Vinales’ participation in the post-Austrian GP test raises hopes the Spaniard will be back in the saddle this weekend in Japan, Vinales having missed the past four rounds and seven of the 15 held this season with the lingering effects of a left shoulder injury suffered in Germany 14 months ago.
Motogp Jorge Martin Marc Marquez Johann Zarco Pirelli Tyres
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