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Middle East · Sport · Qatar Source-checked
Marco Bezzecchi won the Qatar Grand Prix from pole, and Marc Marquez finished second, so the Spaniard cannot yet clinch a record-equalling eighth title. He leads Jorge Martin by 60 points with two race weekends left.
Marc Marquez will have to wait to win his eighth MotoGP championship after finishing second behind Marco Bezzecchi in the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Ducati rider, aged 33, won Saturday’s sprint race and would have retained the title if his closest rival, Jorge Martin, had finished outside the points, the BBC and Al Jazeera both report. Martin, the 2024 champion, was back after missing the previous race with a fractured wrist and finished seventh, which kept the contest alive. Al Jazeera says Martin received applause from his team in the pit lane.
Bezzecchi started from pole and claimed his sixth grand prix victory of the season. The Italian is Martin’s Aprilia team-mate. The BBC says Raul Fernandez was third. Al Jazeera reports that Bezzecchi crashed out of the sprint on Saturday while trying to pass Marquez, and he said after the race that it was a shame about the sprint but that bouncing back made the win even better. He called the weekend fantastic and said he was very comfortable on the bike.
The title picture is clear. Marquez leads Martin by 60 points, according to both reports. Bezzecchi, who is third, is 74 points behind Marquez, which is the same as the number of points still available. The BBC says he can therefore still catch him on paper, while Al Jazeera says he has essentially no chance of winning his first world title.
Marquez gets another chance to clinch the championship at the second-to-last race weekend in Portimao, Portugal, in two weeks, the BBC reports. The BBC says a title there would draw him level with Valentino Rossi’s record tally of premier class titles. Al Jazeera words the record differently, so we do not give a number for Rossi.
Al Jazeera adds that motorsport returned to Qatar after a delay caused by the United States and Israeli war on Iran.
The season is close to being decided, and Marquez is one race weekend from a record-equalling title, with the next chance coming in Portugal.
The BBC and Al Jazeera describe Rossi's record differently, so we do not state it as a fact. We did not check the official MotoGP standings.
Each link goes to the specific article or document we used. Two articles carrying the same wire report count as one source.
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