Marc Márquez won the MotoGP Sprint at Losail on Saturday and said he spent four or five corners with his airbag inflated after contact with Marco Bezzecchi, according to DAZN. The Ducati rider took 12 points from the shortened race in Qatar, where Bezzecchi fell after trying to pass him mid-corner. Race Direction issued no penalty for the incident.
Speaking after the race, Márquez said the touch nearly put him on the ground as well. "I even came close to crashing, I was four or five corners with the airbag on after the contact," he said, per DAZN. He described the collision as a surprise rather than a deliberate move, explaining that he was following the same line he had used on every lap — braking, running slightly wide and coming back — when he found the Aprilia rider inside him. He added that Bezzecchi appeared to be carrying extra speed and expected the Italian to show it again in Sunday's race.
Why it matters
The 12 points matter because Márquez can now close out the 2026 title in Qatar on Sunday, with Spanish outlets including MARCA and El Confidencial framing the weekend around his championship arithmetic. The contact matters because it has become a talking point beyond the result: no sanction was issued, but DAZN reports that Aprilia was angered by the episode, with team boss Massimo Rivola among those unhappy. For Márquez, the more immediate concern was physical — an airbag that stayed inflated through several corners is a safety system responding to a crash-level impact, and he said he was close to losing the bike.
A red flag, a changed plan and an unexpected rival
Márquez began his post-race remarks by sending a message to his Ducati teammate Pecco Bagnaia, saying he hoped Bagnaia was not seriously hurt. He said the red flag reshuffled everyone's plans, including tyre choices. In the first part of the race he felt comfortable — Bezzecchi was pushing at the front, but Márquez said he was riding well and would have lost to the Italian anyway on pace. In the second part he got a good start and defended hard, as he had done in Australia, to lead for as many laps as possible.
What he did not anticipate was Jorge Martín arriving in the fight. Márquez said he had told himself to settle down after Bezzecchi's fall, then suddenly saw the Aprilia rider, which threw his planning into disarray. From that point he decided he had to finish ahead of Martín and pushed to build and hold a gap. DAZN notes that Martín has been riding through discomfort since fracturing his radius in Australia, and Spanish coverage of the Sprint described his effort as heroic.
Looking ahead to Sunday, Márquez rated Martín's race pace as very close to his own, suggesting the qualifying-style effort is where Martín has struggled most this weekend. He named Bezzecchi as clearly the strongest rider of the weekend and also praised Fabio Di Giannantonio's form. Given Bezzecchi's error on Saturday, Márquez said his priority in the long race is simply to beat Martín — by one position, one point or two, he said it makes no difference.
On the championship, he was careful not to overstate his position. He said he wants to wrap up the title as soon as possible but described Saturday's 12 points as gifted in quotation marks — earned through work, but not backed by the pace he felt he had. He expects 25 points on Sunday to be unrealistic and said he will start the race without ruling anything out.
Watch whether Márquez converts his Sprint win into the title on Sunday at Losail, and whether Race Direction's decision not to penalise the Bezzecchi contact draws any further response from Aprilia.
