Aprilia’s Jorge Martin will start the Japanese Grand Prix from pole position after breaking the circuit record in Saturday’s qualifying session at Motegi.
The 2024 MotoGP champion will line up just in front of Ducati rival Marc Marquez, who won the sprint race on Saturday and has vowed to attack in the remaining rounds of the season.
Completing the front row will be Austrian GP winner Pedro Acosta, meaning the top three places on the grid will be occupied by riders representing three different manufacturers.
Starting fourth will be Martin’s team-mate Marco Bezzecchi, who lost significant ground in the title fight with an ill-judged move to start on medium tyres in the sprint.
Alex Marquez will line up in fifth place on Gresini but will have to serve a double long lap penalty for taking out Acosta and Fabio di Giannantonio on Saturday.
Di Giannantonio will start just behind the younger Marquez in seventh, while Enea Bastianini will take the start from seventh after narrowly missing out on a sprint podium on Saturday.
Completing the top 10 will be Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse), Diogo Moreira and Johann Zarco (both LCR). The latter will have to serve a double long lap penalty for attempting to restart his bike in the opposite direction at Turn 9 during Sunday morning’s extended warm-up.
Ai Ogura will start his home race from 11th on the grid.
Francesco Bagnaia, winner of the last two Japanese GPs aboard the factory Ducati, failed to make it into Q2 and is due to start 13th.
Michelin has banned teams from using the soft tyre in the grand prix, while suggesting the new reinforced hard compound as the primary option. The warm-up has been extended to 20 minutes to allow riders to evaluate the hard tyre. The medium compound can also be used during the race, but it has so far provided mixed results for riders.
2026 Japanese GP – Full starting grid
| Cla | Nº | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 89 | Jorge Martín | Aprilia | 1’42.371 | – |
| 2 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Ducati | 1’42.481 | 0.110 |
| 3 | 37 | Pedro Acosta | KTM | 1’42.493 | 0.122 |
| 4 | 72 | Marco Bezzecchi | Aprilia | 1’42.530 | 0.159 |
| 5 | 73 | Álex Márquez | Ducati | 1’42.546 | 0.175 |
| 6 | 49 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Ducati | 1’42.628 | 0.257 |
| 7 | 23 | Enea Bastianini | KTM | 1’42.669 | 0.298 |
| 8 | 25 | Raúl Fernández | Aprilia | 1’42.741 | 0.370 |
| 9 | 11 | Diogo Moreira | Honda | 1’42.916 | 0.545 |
| 10 | 5 | Johann Zarco | Honda | 1’42.918 | 0.547 |
| 11 | 79 | Ai Ogura | Aprilia | 1’42.933 | 0.562 |
| 12 | 20 | Fabio Quartararo | Yamaha | 1’43.059 | 0.688 |
| 13 | 63 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | 1’43.007 | 0.636 |
| 14 | 21 | Franco Morbidelli | Ducati | 1’43.136 | 0.765 |
| 15 | 15 | Somkiat Chantra | Honda | 1’43.196 | 0.825 |
| 16 | 10 | Luca Marini | Honda | 1’43.278 | 0.907 |
| 17 | 33 | Brad Binder | KTM | 1’43.399 | 1.028 |
| 18 | 54 | Fermín Aldeguer | Ducati | 1’43.419 | 1.048 |
| 19 | 12 | Maverick Viñales | KTM | 1’43.605 | 1.234 |
| 20 | 43 | Jack Miller | Yamaha | 1’43.811 | 1.440 |
| 21 | 42 | Alex Rins | Yamaha | 1’43.896 | 1.525 |
| 22 | 7 | Toprak Razgatlıoğlu | Yamaha | 1’44.031 | C |
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
