MotoGP: Bezzecchi denies Marquez world title as motorsport returns to Qatar

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi wins Qatar Grand Prix as Ducati’s Marc Marquez finishes second.

Marc Marquez has been made to wait another two weeks to win his eighth MotoGP title after finishing behind Marco Bezzecchi at the Qatar Grand Prix in Lusail as motorsport returned to the country after a delay due to the United States-Israel war on Iran.

Ducati’s Marquez had a chance to retain his crown on Sunday after winning the sprint race but needed his closest rival, Jorge Martin, to finish without any points.

Pole-sitter Bezzecchi claimed his sixth GP win of the season to cut the gap separating him from Marquez to 74 points.

However, the Italian, who is third in the championship standings, essentially has no chance of winning his first world title because that gap is the same as the number of points that remain available.

Bezzecchi was undone on Saturday by crashing out of the sprint race when trying to overtake Marquez in a desperate attempt to put pressure on the Spaniard.

“It feels amazing,” Bezzecchi said after he bounced back to win on Sunday. “I’m very happy. It was the performance we deserved

“It’s been a fantastic weekend for us. I’ve been super quick and super comfortable on the bike.

“It’s a shame for yesterday, but it’s part of the game, and to bounce back like this makes everything even better.”

Martin couldn’t quite emulate his heroics from Saturday when he shot up from 11th on the grid to nearly overtake eventual winner Marquez before eventually finishing third.

But racing this weekend for the first time since suffering a broken right wrist, Martin was given a warm round of applause from his team after keeping the title race alive.

Martin, Bezzecchi’s teammate at Aprilia, finished seventh and is still in contention even though he is 60 points off the pace with two race weekends remaining.

But Marquez could claim a record-equalling eighth premier class title, one more than his great rival Valentino Rossi, if he finishes two points ahead of Martin in the Portimao sprint in two weeks.

“[My strategy] was just to try to manage the race for the first five laps,” Marquez said.

“I saw that in one part of the race, I was super fast, but I knew that riding on that riding style, I was eating the front tyre.

“Third position was [would have been] OK, but I saw that [Raul] Fernandez was struggling, so you never know. I attack and four points more.”

Fernandez finished third at Qatar’s MotoGP, which marked the return of major motorsport to the region for the first time since the war on Iran began.