Marc Marquez will have to wait for a record-equalling eighth MotoGP title after finishing second behind Marco Bezzecchi at the Qatar Grand Prix.
The 33-year-old Spaniard won Saturday’s sprint race and could have clinched a second successive championship in Sunday’s grand prix if his main rival, Jorge Martin, had finished outside the points.
Martin, the 2024 champion, returned from injury after withdrawing from the previous race with a fractured wrist and finished seventh, keeping Marquez’s title celebration on hold.
Marquez, riding for Ducati, leads Aprilia’s Martin by 60 points. His next opportunity to seal the title comes at the season’s penultimate race weekend in Portimao, Portugal, in two weeks’ time.
Bezzecchi, Martin’s Aprilia teammate, started from pole and claimed his sixth Grand Prix victory of the season. Spain’s Raul Fernandez, riding a Trackhouse Aprilia, finished third.
The result leaves Bezzecchi with a mathematical chance of catching Marquez. The Italian is 74 points behind the leader, the same number of points still available in the championship.
Marquez, whose first MotoGP title came in 2013, is seeking to draw level with Valentino Rossi’s record tally of premier-class championships.