Calling the first half of the 2026 seasons unfavourable to Marc Márquez would be an understatement. However, the second half is proving to be a much better one for the Spanish rider; he just won the San Marino GP and became the championship leader for the first time. After Marco Bezzechi crashed out in the first lap, Marc’s path to winning the race was largely hurdle-free; except for three laps where he lost the lead to Jorge Martin, who finished the race in P5, and now ranks second in the championship.

1. Marc Márquez battled Jorge Martin and brother Alex Márquez for the thrilling win
2. Jorge Martin eventually ended up finishing fifth, hindered by a pre-existing arm condition
3. Pedro Acosta continued to be the most successful KTM rider

Easy start, but wasn’t for long

At lights out, Marco Bezzechi, the rider ranking third in the championship, had a stronger start and led most of the first lap but quickly crashed out towards the end of it at turn 12, handing the lead to Marc. Jorge Martin too had an impressive race start from P5, overtaking Fabio Di Giannantonio and Fermin Aldegeur to get into P2 at the end of lap 1. Marc had a comfortable 0.9 second over Jorge Martin when the crash happened so there was no immediate battle for P1.

Jorge Martin and later Alex Márquez vied for P1

However, Jorge Martin, who entered the weekend as championship leader, decided to mount an attack quickly and overtook Marc Márquez a few laps later and held onto the lead for three laps. While initially appearing to settle for P2, or even P3 after Alex started closing the gap too, Marc reacted quickly, taking back the lead from Jorge and then started building up a gap; until Marc’s younger brother Alex Márquez decided to overtake Jorge Martin for the second position and started closing the gap to Marc Márquez as well. However, Marc sustained his half a second lead over his younger brother until the very end, and eventually won the race with a 0.657 second lead. This victory made him a seven-time winner at the Misano World Circuit, where the San Marino GP has been hosted since 2007.

Pedro Acosta continues to shine in the orange limelight

Pedro Acosta, who was behind Alex Márquez, also overtook Jorge Martin a few laps later; and Martin was yet again overtaken by Alex’s Gresini teammate Fermin Aledegeur, leaving him with fifth place in the end. Jorge Martin explained in the post-race interviews that he had an arm pump issue that restricted his performance; he added that he will decide his next steps after next weekend’s Austrian GP.

Pedro Acosta continued his impressive performance on KTM’s RC16 and delivered a consecutive podium, after coming in second at the Aragon GP. The nearest KTM rider to Acosta, to put his performance into context, was Tech3’s Enea Bastianini in eighth. Brad Binder, Acosta’s Factory KTM teammate, finished eleventh.

Other notable events from the premier race

Both the Factory Aprilia Racing and Gresini Racing teams sported special liveries for the weekend. Aprilia called its livery on the RS-GP “Perla Bianca” (white pearl). Gresini’s livery was a tribute to the late Marco Simoncelli and also to mark the team’s thirty years in the premier class of MotoGP.

Besides Marco Bezzechi, Jack Miller, Diogo Moreira, and after that Márquez’s factory Ducati teammate, Francesco (Pecco) Bagnaia also crashed out of the race in first, second, and fifth laps, respectively. Joan Mir and Alex Rins retired from the race for undisclosed reasons in laps five and sixteen, respectively. On lap 24, Johan Zarco also had a crash, leaving LCR Honda with a double DNF for the weekend. In the end 14 out of 22 riders finished all 27 laps, with Tech3’s Pol Espergaro (who continued as Maverick Viñales’ replacement) finishing last.

Marc leads the 2026 championship for the first time

With his performance over the weekend, taking all 37 available points, Marc Márquez leads the 2026 rider’s championship for the very first time. As the championship moves onto Austria for the next race, Marc Márquez and Jorge Martin both have exactly 274 points. In June, when he rejoined the grid at Mugello GP, Marc was trailing 102 points to the then championship leader, Marco Bezzechi. He has equalled the point difference in seven races, though, it remains to be seen how Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzechi take the fight to Marc Márquez in the remaining seven races. In addition to that, Ducati has also overtaken Aprilia in the constructor’s championship, now leading by two points. All in all, the 2026 season has turned out to be a lot more interesting than initially expected.

Moto2 and Moto3 were also eventful!

Things were just as much as interesting, if not more in the other two classes as well. In Moto3, Máximo Quiles, 18-year-old Spanish racer of the CFMoto Aspar team, continued his domination, winning today’s race with a nail-biting last corner overtake of David Almansa, who was leading the race until then; Quiles won the race with a 0.021 second lead, just over the width of the front tyre. Moto2 race had a chaotic start, after a mistake from rookie Ángel Piqueras took him and two of the front runners, Senna Agius and Daniel Holgado down and out of the race in the very first corner. Manuel González, who currently leads the championship, took the lead thereafter and held onto it till the end successfully. This marked Manu’s first race win since the Hungarian GP.