What a wild season this has been. Two rounds and three riders remain in the fight, with Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team) staring down a championship match point at the Portuguese GP. The gap stands at 60 points back to Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing), who is still working his way back to 100 percent fitness, while Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) sits 74 points behind after his latest win in Qatar to keep his mathematical hopes alive.
Remarkable doesn't even cover what Marquez has pulled off to erase a daunting 102-point deficit. The #93 managed just nine points at the season opener in Thailand after a drop one position in the Sprint and a Sunday retirement, followed by a crash at the Spanish GP that left him down and out. Then came the turning point at the French GP, where a Sprint crash left him with a fractured fifth metatarsal in his right foot alongside a shoulder operation for an injury from the 2025 Indonesian GP. Missing Barcelona, he made a humble return with seventh at Mugello, and then unleashed six victories across the next nine Grands Prix.
A crucial Australian GP Sprint win when Martin crashed, a seventh Grand Prix victory of the season in Malaysia, and a 10th Sprint win paired with a Sunday second place in Qatar pushed his advantage to 60 points. Now, at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve, Marquez has the chance to complete the biggest MotoGP points comeback in history.
Jorge Martin, meanwhile, is no stranger to defying odds. Three podiums in the first five rounds, including a French GP victory, set the tone before further podiums at Mugello, Assen, Silverstone, and a fourth Sprint victory of the season at the Red Bull Ring. That left his lead at just 12 points heading into the flyaways, with a second-place finish in Japan and another podium in Indonesia keeping the pressure on.
Then came the chaos of Phillip Island. Martin crashed on lap eight of the Australian Sprint, suffering a non-displaced fracture of the distal radius in his right wrist while Sunday's race was cancelled. A superhero-like return in Malaysia proved too much as he withdrew following FP2, but he bounced back in Qatar to claim bronze in the Sprint and seventh on Sunday, keeping himself in contention with a 60-point margin to overcome.
Last but not least, Marco Bezzecchi enjoyed a dream start by winning the opening three Grands Prix and taking five Sunday podiums from the first five rounds, capped off by an emotional home victory at Mugello. A rocky mid-season saw a DNF at Balaton Park, a suspension following an altercation with a marshal at the Czech GP, and fast crashes at the Dutch GP and German GP that resulted in a collarbone break.
Returning after the summer break, Bezzecchi scored two consecutive podiums before crashing on lap one at the San Marino GP. Podiums in Austria and Japan paved the way for victory at the Indonesian GP, and he rebounded from a Sprint crash in Qatar to take another win. Seventy-four points back with 74 points up for grabs, Bezzecchi admits he needs a miracle, but in this championship, anything can happen.
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