Marc Márquez came into the Japanese GP weekend declaring that he was in Full Attack Mode.

That warning proved appropriate as he won both races and closed to within two points of Jorge Martín in the MotoGP Championship standings.

The only time Márquez didn’t attack was in the Go-Kart race on Sunday morning dreamed up by the Liberty Media ‘Sports Entertainment’ bunch. He showed that circus the contempt it deserved – muck about earlier in the weekend, if you really must, but not on the morning of the main race – by sending someone else in his place.

The bad news for the rest of the riders was that Márquez only faced a fine, rather than the body-double being forced to race his Ducati.

Ominous Performance

That would have been the only realistic chance they had of denying the reigning champion. Martín did his best to push him in both races, but it felt like Márquez always had a bit in hand if he needed it.

Márquez has talked about the need to manage his energy over a race weekend and the Full Attack Mode stance in Japan was another part of the calculated approach he is taking to attaining World Championship number 10.

Mandalika, the site of next weekend’s GP, is as much of a bogey track as Márquez has. Add in the hard rear Michelin tyre that will be used, that the Ducati doesn’t like as much as the Aprilia and KTM, and the sense is that Indonesia will be a case of making the best of things.

That meant that he needed to capitalise at Motegi. The result: two wins, 37 points, job done.

Martín still in it, but is Bez?

It also felt that Martín was taking the same mindset, only the other way around. He knows that Mandalika is a big opportunity and that getting solid results in Japan was a good enough way to start the fly-away section of the calendar.

A third (‘thanks’ to a VAR-style track limit intervention knocking him back one position in the Sprint) and a second was equally ‘job done’.

However, that puts just a little more pressure on Martín’s shoulders to make hay in Mandalika. Finishing in front of Márquez in both races is the bare minimum in Indonesia; matching Márquez’s Motegi 37 points is the obvious ultimate target.

He does finally appear to be getting comfortable on his Aprilia and, by all accounts, had some of his swagger back in the paddock. Martín has always had a steeliness to go alongside his talent. The higher the stakes, the more he fights. It’s going to be exciting to see what his version of Full Attack Mode looks like in Indonesia.

It was a solid enough weekend for his teammate Marco Bezzecchi too, yet he sits 47 points behind Márquez in 2nd and 49 behind Martín. Solid isn’t going to be enough to beat either of those two rivals to the title from here. If Bez is going to make a fight of it, he needs to get his gloves off now.

A weekend of randomness

The new asphalt at Motegi added a nice bit of randomness to the weekend, testing the best riders and engineers in the way that a World Championship season should.

The hard tyre was shunned by all until the delamination of Pecco Bagnaia’s rear tyre in the Sprint made Michelin recommend it as a precaution for Sunday’s Feature Race. It turned out to be the best of Michelin’s options, to the surprise of everyone (including Michelin themselves).

The Beast Is Back?

The surprise of the weekend was a return to form for Enea Bastianini, harshly (if correctly) denied a podium in the Sprint but claiming two excellent fourth places all the same.

It’s not often Pedro Acosta gets beaten by another KTM. Whilst it’s impossible to know how Acosta’s weekend would have played out had he not been taken out on Lap One of the Sprint, you’ve still got to give Bastianini credit for his performances.

Like a temperamental hand dryer, Bastianini’s MotoGP career has veered from blowing red hot to ice cold. Whilst his ex-Factory Ducati teammate Pecco Bagnaia’s pending move to Aprilia has grabbed the headlines, Bastianini’s switch to Aprilia (in the Trackhouse team) might be just as notable in terms of a potential fresh start.

The Aprilia’s accounted for 4 of the top 6 in the Main Race at Motegi.

Other Things

A return to Motegi sadly didn’t have quite the effect for Bagnaia as it did in 2025, when he claimed two victories out of nowhere. However, if anyone deserved a bonus point or two from the weekend it was Pecco for his Nori Haga tribute helmet design.

Somkiat Chantra also deserves a mention for his points-scoring finish (13th) as a replacement rider. His debut season in World Superbikes has been pretty miserable – largely due to injuries and an uncompetitive Fireblade – and this will surely be a much-needed confidence boost for him, as well as reminder of his talent.

One thing we didn’t need a reminder of is that big corporations will always put money ahead of any other argument when making decisions. So it is that apparently MotoGP will be heading to Qatar after all, despite all previous signs leading to the more sane position that holding a motorbike race in a region that most countries are advising their citizens not to travel to is not a good idea. Liberty Media have decided that not losing that money (for F1 and MotoGP) is more important.