Pecco Bagnaia dominated the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi despite apparent engine drama, while Marc Marquez sealed the 2025 MotoGP title.
A second-place finish for Marquez was more than enough to clinch his seventh MotoGP crown, and his ninth title in grand prix racing, with five rounds to spare, but at one point it looked like it was going to be a win as Bagnaia nursed his smoking Ducati to the chequered flag.
Marquez had spent much of the sprint behind Joan Mir, but on Sunday a Turn 1 error from the Honda rider allowed him up into third right away – only for Marquez to get stuck behind Pedro Acosta instead.
With no way past the KTM rider in the early stages, Acosta too strong on the brakes and Marquez never close enough to even think about a lunge, Bagnaia eked out his lead to first two seconds on lap six, then over three seconds on lap 10 of 24.
By the time Marquez finally got past Acosta, pulling off a move at Turn 3 on the 11th lap, Bagnaia was 3.7s clear – and over the next few laps the gap never really threatened to to reduce.
But on the 15th lap Bagnaia’s Ducati began to smoke visibly, and a few laps later the smoke from the Desmosedici’s exhaust grew more aggressive, suggesting it was just a matter of time until the engine expired.
Remarkably, it held up – and Bagnaia’s pace never even really dipped too much, though Marquez would nearly halve his advantage with his own usual burst of pace on used tyres, before rolling out on the run to the finish to end up 4.2s back.
In third place was another milestone, Mir taking his first-ever podium for Honda and his first in MotoGP since the 2021 race at Portimao.
Acosta had begun to struggle for pace as the race approached halfway – and, with Marco Bezzecchi bearing down on them, Mir cleared the KTM rider before building enough of a gap not to worry about the Aprilia rider in the closing laps.
He even briefly looked like taking on Marquez for second, before the Ducati rider turned it up and cleared away.
Bezzecchi had overtaken Franco Morbidelli on the fifth lap, then both eased past Acosta – with Morbidelli ultimately finishing just 0.3s behind his fellow VR46 protege.
Acosta would get nothing out of the race at all, going off into the gravel when on the verge of being overtaken by Alex Marquez – who scored sixth place as his title bid officially came to an end.
Raul Fernandez was seventh as the sole Trackhouse Aprilia rider, his team-mate Ai Ogura having withdrawn on the eve of the race due to lingering hand pain from his injury at Misano.
Fabio Quartararo was up to fourth at the start, but was overtaken by Mir at Turn 3 on the second lap, then was too loose coming into Turn 5, allowing a Morbidelli lunge that then compromised him enough to drop three more places over the next few corners.
He rode a lonely race from there, fending off countryman Johann Zarco for an eventual eighth.
Gresini Ducati rookie Fermin Aldeguer was 14th after the opening lap but worked his way into the top 10.
There were three retirements from the race, one of them perhaps the lowest-speed crash possible – as Honda tester Taka Nakagami went off into the gravel and then tipped off.
Luca Marini was another Honda retirement, parking up with an unspecified technical issue for his first DNF of the season, while Jack Miller’s Pramac Yamaha lost its chain in the final laps.
Results
1 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati)
2 Marc Marquez (Ducati) +4.196s
3 Joan Mir (Honda) +6.858s
4 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +10,128s
5 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +10,421s
6 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +14,544S
7 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +17.588s
8 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +21,160s
9 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +21,733s
10 Fermanin Alduguer (Gresini Ducati) +23.107s
11 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 Ktm) +23,616s
12 Brad Binder (KTM) +23.882s
13 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +29,359s
14 MIGUEL OLIVEIRA (PRAMAC YAMAHA) +30,788S
15 SOMKIAT Chantra (LCR Honda) + 30,990s
16 Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) +31.712s
17 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +34.157s
18 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +34.792s
DNF Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha)
Dnf taka nakagami (honda)
DNF Luca Marini (Honda)