MOTEGI: Marc Marquez dominated Saturday’s Japanese Grand Prix sprint, narrowing his points gap to seven against championship leader Jorge Martin, who will start from pole in Sunday’s race.

Marquez, on Ducati, overtook his rival at the first corner and finished 2.466 seconds faster than Martin, who was demoted one position to third due to a penalty for exceeding track limits in the final lap.

The same was true for Italian KTM rider Enea Bastianini, allowing Brazilian Honda rider Diogo Moreira to take second place for the segment.

“We did more modification for the spring race, and I feel much better on the bike,” Marquez said. “I was comfortable riding on the first position. A job done, now for tomorrow.”

In qualifying earlier in the day, Martin stormed to pole position for the Grand Prix on Sunday, joined by Marquez and Pedro Acosta for an all-Spanish front row at Motegi.

Martin, riding an Aprilia, made it back-to-back poles after going fastest in Austria two weeks ago in qualifying.

He ended up finishing second in the grand prix behind KTM’s Acosta.

Martin set a blistering lap record of 1:42.371 at the Motegi circuit.

After lukewarm performance in practice sessions, Martin said his team was finding form and getting used to the track.

“I didn’t expect to fight for the pole position... Maybe for the first row, but I was able to do a great lap, honestly,” he said. “I feel we have great potential. The pace is really good.”

Italian Marco Bezzecchi on Aprilia will start fourth, ahead of Ducati riders Alex Marquez of Spain and Fabio Di Giannantonio of Italy.

The third row will feature Bastianini, Raul Fernandez on Aprilia and Moreira.

Local hero Ai Ogura on Aprilia will start from the fourth row.

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2026