Marc Marquez won the Sprint and Grand Prix at Misano

Marc Marquez swept the 2026 San Marino Grand Prix at Misano, winning Saturday’s Sprint by 1.068 seconds and then Sunday’s 27-lap Grand Prix by 0.657 seconds from his brother Alex on September 13, 2026, to take the lead of the MotoGP World Championship for the first time this season. The Ducati Lenovo rider is now level with Jorge Martin on 274 points and ahead on countback, having erased a 102-point deficit in the three and a half months since Mugello. Home favourite Marco Bezzecchi, who had taken pole with the first ever 1m 29s lap of Misano, crashed out of the lead at Turn 13 before completing a single lap of the Grand Prix, and Martin faded from the lead to fifth with arm pump. Pedro Acosta completed the Sunday podium for KTM.

Key Takeaways

• Marc Marquez won both the Sprint and the Grand Prix at Misano, his fourth Saturday-Sunday double of 2026 and a maximum 37-point weekend.
• Sunday’s win was his 78th in the premier class, his seventh at Misano and his fifth Grand Prix victory of the season, in a new race-time record of 41m 13.013s.
• Marco Bezzecchi took pole with a lap record of 1m 29.982s, finished second in the Sprint, then crashed from the lead at Turn 13 on the opening lap of the Grand Prix.
• Jorge Martin passed Marquez for the lead on lap 7 but was overtaken on lap 12 and dropped to fifth as arm pump left him unable to brake or open the throttle properly.
• Alex Marquez finished second for the first Marquez brothers 1-2 since Catalunya 2025, and Pedro Acosta took his 15th premier-class podium without a win.
• Only 14 of 21 starters finished the Grand Prix; Francesco Bagnaia, Diogo Moreira, Jack Miller and Johann Zarco all crashed, and Ai Ogura missed the weekend with a fractured thumb.
• Marquez and Martin are tied on 274 points with eight rounds to go, Marquez leading on countback with five Grand Prix wins to Martin’s one, and Bezzecchi is 33 back.

The San Marino and Rimini Riviera Grand Prix was round 14 of 22, run over 27 laps of the 4.226km Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in front of a record weekend attendance of 184,051. It came a week after Aragon and one week before Austria, and it arrived with the championship on a knife edge: Martin had led since Assen, Marquez had been closing at every round since the summer, and Bezzecchi was racing at his home track fresh from a dominant Friday. By Sunday evening the order at the top had flipped, Aprilia’s two title challengers had both been dealt heavy blows, and the Ducati that looked out of the title fight in May was back in front.

Qualifying: Bezzecchi’s record pole at home

Bezzecchi put pole out of reach on his very first Q2 run, setting a 1m 29.982s that broke Francesco Bagnaia’s 2024 lap record of 1m 30.031s and stood as the first ever sub-1m 30s lap of Misano. He was half a second clear at that point, and only a final-run charge from Marquez cut the gap to 0.198s. Fermin Aldeguer completed the front row on the year-old Gresini Ducati, ahead of Fabio di Giannantonio, who crashed from provisional second and slipped to fourth, and Martin in fifth. Alex Marquez also fell in Q2 and lined up ninth.

Bagnaia’s confidence crisis reached a new low. The double champion was knocked out in Q1 and qualified 14th, his worst ever grid position at Misano, punching his fuel tank in frustration after losing the rear on his final attempt. Johann Zarco was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Bezzecchi, and Franco Morbidelli carried a long-lap penalty into the Grand Prix for riding slowly in front of Enea Bastianini in Friday practice. Trackhouse ran a single bike all weekend: Ai Ogura, who had been third in the championship, was ruled out with the fractured thumb he suffered in a motocross training crash before Aragon, and stand-in Lorenzo Savadori was unavailable.

Sprint recap: how did Marc Marquez beat Bezzecchi at Misano?

Saturday’s 13-lap Sprint was decided at the first corner and in the tyre choice. Marquez took the medium rear against Bezzecchi’s soft, got a marginally better launch from second on the grid, claimed the inside line into Turn 1 and took the holeshot from the pole-sitter. He eased out to half a second by lap 4 and roughly a second by lap 6, managing the harder rubber while Bezzecchi’s soft tyre held up better than expected.

The Aprilia rider came back at him. By lap 9 the gap was down to 0.7s and Bezzecchi took another tenth out of it on lap 10, but Marquez answered with a 1m 30.7s on lap 11, the decisive lap of the race, and crossed the line 1.068s clear. It was his sixth Sprint win of the season and the 21st of his career. “With the medium rear I could finish second or third, or take the victory,” he said afterwards. “It made the difference.”

Martin climbed from fifth on the grid to third, passing di Giannantonio on lap 7 to limit the damage in the title race, with Alex Marquez fifth and Acosta sixth. Fabio Quartararo’s afternoon lasted three laps: he crashed at Turn 14 trying to pass Diogo Moreira for 11th, complaining afterwards of “zero rear support”, and remounted to finish last, three laps down. The Sprint result cut Martin’s championship lead to 14 points overnight.

2026 San Marino MotoGP Sprint results: top 10

Race recap: how did the 2026 San Marino Grand Prix unfold?

Bezzecchi did everything right for 13 corners. He took the holeshot from pole, defended the inside through the opening sectors with Marquez glued to his rear wheel and Martin up to third, then lost the front of his Aprilia into Turn 13 and slid into the gravel in front of his home grandstand. The championship’s third-placed rider was out before the end of lap 1, and Marquez inherited a lead he had not yet had to fight for. “Everything was going well, but I did a mistake in Turn 13 and I lost the front,” Bezzecchi said. Asked whether the pressure of racing at home had played a part, his answer was a flat “no”. He admitted it “hurts a lot”.

Martin then produced the surprise of the race. The remaining factory Aprilia rider went past Marquez at Turn 4 on lap 7 and built a lead of more than eight-tenths over the following laps, riding in the low 1m 31s. Marquez, who later admitted that seeing Bezzecchi’s crash had made him “relax too much”, raised his pace from lap 11, closed the gap and went back through at Turn 6 on lap 12. Martin had no answer. His right forearm had been tightening since the early laps, and by the halfway point he was lapping in the high 1m 32s and being passed from all sides. Alex Marquez took second from him two laps after Marc’s move, Acosta followed, and Aldeguer relegated him to fifth.

The closing laps became a family affair. Alex Marquez closed to within striking distance of his brother, but Marc responded each time the gap came down and won by 0.657s, completing the first Marquez 1-2 since Catalunya 2025. “When you race with this pace it’s easy to make a mistake,” Marc said. “I tried to manage my lead, and when Alex got closer I pushed again. At this track it is hard to overtake without a big speed advantage.” Alex called it “an unexpected podium” and joked that his brother “was playing a bit”. Acosta held off Aldeguer for third, his 15th premier-class podium without a victory, and the Gresini rookie set the fastest lap of the race, a 1m 30.936s on lap 22, just 0.059s off Bagnaia’s standing race lap record.

Behind the top five, Raul Fernandez salvaged sixth for the one-bike Trackhouse team, di Giannantonio was seventh, Bastianini eighth, Luca Marini ninth for Honda and Quartararo took the final point in 10th. The attrition rate was brutal. Bagnaia crashed out at the start of lap 6, extending a miserable weekend, and Moreira, Miller and Zarco all fell later in the race. Joan Mir and Alex Rins retired to the pits, leaving just 14 of the 21 starters at the flag.

2026 San Marino MotoGP race results: top 10

Brad Binder, Toprak Razgatlioglu, Franco Morbidelli and Pol Espargaro were the other classified finishers in 11th to 14th. Marquez’s winning time of 41m 13.013s was a new race-time record for Misano, around 1.6 seconds quicker than Enea Bastianini’s 2024 benchmark.

From 102 points down to the championship lead

The scale of Marquez’s comeback is hard to overstate. After the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello at the end of May he trailed the championship leader by 102 points and looked out of the title race. Since the Hungarian round he has scored 203 points to Martin’s 118, and his 37-point weekend at Misano was the fourth time this season he has won both the Sprint and the Grand Prix. He is the first Ducati rider to lead the standings in 2026, and the win keeps Ducati and Aprilia level on seven Grand Prix victories apiece, with Ducati leading the constructors’ championship by two points, 412 to 410.

Marquez put part of the turnaround down to a change of mindset, saying he “felt free” after stepping back from social media before the race. The numbers back up the mood: Sunday was his 78th premier-class win and his seventh at Misano, a circuit where he now holds the race-time record as well.

Martin’s arm pump dilemma

Martin left Misano with the same points total as Marquez but a much bigger problem. “This is a track where we all struggle with arm pump, but for my side it was completely blocked,” he said. “I couldn’t do anything. Everybody was overtaking me because I couldn’t even open the throttle.” He explained that his right forearm weakened lap by lap until “eventually I couldn’t control the bike”. The 2024 champion has not suffered from the condition since surgery in 2019, during his Moto2 career, and said he had never experienced it at Misano before.

He has ruled out an operation before Austria and will use the Red Bull Ring weekend to judge whether the problem can be managed. If it cannot, surgery after the Austrian Grand Prix is on the table, which would put a question mark over the rest of a season in which he is fighting for the title.

2026 MotoGP championship standings after San Marino

Marquez and Martin are tied on 274, with Marquez classified first because he has five Grand Prix wins to Martin’s one. Bezzecchi’s crash leaves him 33 points adrift in third, di Giannantonio is 51 back and Acosta’s podium lifts him to fifth on 209. Ogura, who has now missed two rounds, has slipped from third to sixth, and Bagnaia’s scoreless weekend leaves him ninth, 131 points behind his team-mate.

When is the next MotoGP race?

There is no rest for the championship. Round 15, the Austrian Grand Prix, takes place at the Red Bull Ring on September 18-20, just five days after Misano. Ogura is targeting a return there, Martin will be assessing his forearm, and Bezzecchi needs to start clawing back a 33-point gap on a track where Ducati has traditionally been strong. After Austria the season heads overseas for Japan on October 2-4 and Indonesia on October 9-11, then Australia, Malaysia and Qatar, before finishing in Europe at Portimao and Valencia in late November.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the 2026 San Marino MotoGP?

Marc Marquez won the 2026 San Marino Grand Prix at Misano on September 13, 2026, for Ducati Lenovo, beating his brother Alex Marquez by 0.657 seconds with Pedro Acosta third. It was his fifth Grand Prix win of the season and his 78th in the premier class.

Who won the Misano Sprint?

Marc Marquez also won Saturday’s 13-lap Sprint, taking the holeshot from pole-sitter Marco Bezzecchi and winning by 1.068 seconds. Jorge Martin was third. It was Marquez’s sixth Sprint win of 2026 and the 21st of his career.

What happened to Marco Bezzecchi at Misano?

Bezzecchi took pole with a lap record of 1m 29.982s and led the Grand Prix from the start, but lost the front of his Aprilia at Turn 13 on the opening lap and crashed out. He finished second in the Sprint and is now 33 points behind in the championship.

Why did Jorge Martin drop to fifth?

Martin passed Marquez for the lead on lap 7 but suffered severe arm pump in his right forearm, which left him unable to brake or open the throttle properly. He was repassed on lap 12 and fell to fifth. He may have surgery after the Austrian Grand Prix.

Who leads the MotoGP championship after San Marino?

Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin are tied on 274 points, with Marquez officially leading on countback thanks to five Grand Prix wins against Martin’s one. Marco Bezzecchi is third on 241, Fabio di Giannantonio fourth on 223 and Pedro Acosta fifth on 209.

Why was Ai Ogura not racing at Misano?

Ogura fractured his thumb in a motocross training crash before the Aragon Grand Prix and had surgery. Doctors advised him not to race at Misano, and Trackhouse could not find a replacement, so the team ran only Raul Fernandez. Ogura hopes to return in Austria.

When is the next MotoGP race after San Marino?

The Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring is next, on September 18-20, 2026. It is round 15 of 22, and it is followed by the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi on October 2-4.