2026 MotoGP (spoilers allowed)

[Lightcycle]

This season has been quite a roller-coaster!

From the pre-season with many people claiming 2026 would be boring because of a MM93 domination, to discounting him completely mid-season, to the entire Aprilia squad completely self-destructing on and off the track, to Martin's injury two weeks ago pointing to his championship hopes to be all but lost, to his superhuman performance in the latest sprint race...

That racing incident clash between Marquez and Bez should have ended up with MM93 on the floor - rider on the outside normally gets punted by the inside rider. As it was happening, I thought, "Oh no, shades of Bez taking out Marquez like late last year".

But no.

High drama almost every race weekend. What a season!

Smart money would predict a 8th premiere-class WC for Marquez, but after this season, I truly expect *anything* to happen.

As it stands, Marquez might not have a chance to clinch it in the main race tomorrow. With the Yamaha boycott, Pecco out with injury and Vinales threatening to withdraw, the grid may only have 15 riders. So as long as Martin stays on the bike and crosses the finish line, it means, like on Oprah, "You get a point, you get a point... EVERBODY gets a point!"

In which case, the title decider moves to Portugal.

 

[Hardwrkr13]

This season has been quite a roller-coaster!

From the pre-season with many people claiming 2026 would be boring because of a MM93 domination, to discounting him completely mid-season, to the entire Aprilia squad completely self-destructing on and off the track, to Martin's injury two weeks ago pointing to his championship hopes to be all but lost, to his superhuman performance in the latest sprint race...

That racing incident clash between Marquez and Bez should have ended up with MM93 on the floor - rider on the outside normally gets punted by the inside rider. As it was happening, I thought, "Oh no, shades of Bez taking out Marquez like late last year".

But no.

High drama almost every race weekend. What a season!

Smart money would predict a 8th premiere-class WC for Marquez, but after this season, I truly expect *anything* to happen.

As it stands, Marquez might not have a chance to clinch it in the main race tomorrow. With the Yamaha boycott, Pecco out with injury and Vinales threatening to withdraw, the grid may only have 15 riders. So as long as Martin stays on the bike and crosses the finish line, it means, like on Oprah, "You get a point, you get a point... EVERBODY gets a point!"

In which case, the title decider moves to Portugal.

Remarkable that MM93 didn't go down but imo he was at fault and should have been given a penalty. MM went wide and Bez took advantage and had track position. Maybe I'm wrong and officiating certainly didn't see it my way but that's just my opinion.

 

[Lightcycle]

Remarkable that MM93 didn't go down but imo he was at fault and should have been given a penalty. MM went wide and Bez took advantage and had track position. Maybe I'm wrong and officiating certainly didn't see it my way but that's just my opinion.

I thought so too, at first.

But at the risk of being labelled a MM93 FanBoy, I offer up these pictures of Marquez *not* running wide:



Shows Marquez, Diggi and Martin all riding the same line.

Another angle:




Also, Bez's onboard footage during the first four laps, all taken at the same point in corner 1:

Lap 1:



Lap 2:

Lap 3:

Lap 4:



He inches visibly closer to Marc each successive lap and he is definitely lining up some kind of move. But to me, it looks like Bez was being "overly opportunistic" while Marquez took the exact same line the previous 3 laps.



I also hear that Marquez should have conceded the line, but if anything, he stood the most to lose by holding it, as the outside rider almost always get punted off the track by the inside rider.