Despite Marc Marquez making a big profit at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Marco Bezecchi remains favorite for the MotoGP title.
Bezechichi Taking his second sprint podium of the year on Saturday, race winner Marquez cut the deficit to six points. However, he had a bloody wipeout of 25 days later, at no fault of his own, after team-mate George Martin took him in turn one.
Marquez has now closed the gap to 72 points.Climb to the fifth in the ranking. The fact that he is regarded as the main threat to the Aprilia riders, not Fabio di Giannantonio in third or Pedro Acosta in fourth, does not speak for his fearsome reputation.
Which of Marc Marquez’s 100 wins is the best?
Why the 2026 MotoGP title is worth asking.
Still, Marquez is unlikely to win the championship. No rider has come back from a deficit of more than 91 points (Francesco Bagnaia vs Fabio Quartararo in 2022), and the title holder is 102 points back after Mugello.
Moreover, one has to go back to 1992 for the last time a rider lifted the trophy despite missing the race due to injury. Even then, Wayne Rainey was only able to pass Mick Doohan Due to the Australian’s long layoff.
Marquez is the storyteller, but it will be the title in case Go to Bezechichi or Martin. The sad fact is that if both riders win, they will have an asterisk next to their name.
Bezeci has established himself as one of the MotoGP elite not only this season but also in the second half of last year. While he still makes a lot of mistakes, based on the data so far he will be a worthy championship winner.
Will Francesco Bagnaia’s record-breaking championship return?
But if Marquez can’t bounce back, this will always look like a title worth less.
The narrative – right or wrong – will be that the champion was naturally unlucky not to win a full qualification and chase down Marquez. This is the reality of modern sports talk.
Bezecchi and Martin, who have already won titles, may not care. But the Aprilia bosses told themselves they wanted to beat Marquez at his best from here on out to boost the sense of success.
Jorge Lorenzo thinks Marquez could have won titles with Honda. In the year If it weren’t for his long arm problems in the early 2020s. Perhaps from that point of view, one could argue that Joan Mir, Fabio Quatararo and Bagnaia were lucky, but the failure of the Japanese manufacturer was very serious.
When he finally put those surgeries behind him in 2024, Marquez was riding a vintage Ducati, which may have kept him out of contention with Martin and Bagnaia.
There is a lot of conflicting information here and ultimately the only thing that matters is the name engraved on the trophy. But for as long as he’s been around, every MotoGP season has been seen through Marquez’s tinted glasses, finding him the greatest of all time.
Receive competition news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
