Here's the thing: round 19 of 22 in 2026 is finally upon us, and Thursday at Sepang delivered plenty of talking points before a single wheel turns in anger. From a new outright championship leader to riders battling through pain barriers, Media Day gave us a proper look at the stakes.
Jorge Martin arrives at Sepang second in the championship and just 10 points behind Marc Marquez. After his crash at Phillip Island, the title contender has been declared fit for the weekend and plans to give it a go, admitting: “If it wasn’t for the Championship…” Marc Marquez, the reigning World Champion and current series leader, weighed in on his rival's condition by insisting that the Martinator is not here to make up numbers.
The championship fight is truly heating up. Marco Bezzecchi finds himself 50 points behind the leader, though Ducati Lenovo Team boss Tardozzi recently played that gap down by claiming 50 points is nothing. Bezzecchi, taking to the media alongside Marquez on Thursday, is adamant that closing that gap is a lot harder than it seems.
It is not just the championship contenders dealing with physical struggles, either. Raul Fernandez, riding as the #25 SuperFile Trackhouse star, joins the injury list for the weekend but remains keen to get stuck in at Sepang.
Elsewhere on the grid, Honda HRC arrives at full strength by welcoming back both Joan Mir and Luca Marini. The 2020 World Champion Joan Mir returns from illness alongside his teammate as Honda hunts a repeat of their podium success here from 2025.
Tomorrow, the talking stops and the machines fire up at Sepang, a circuit that has hosted so many classics before. The action goes green at 09:00 local time, sitting at UTC +8, as one of the most important weekends of the year gets underway.
