Alex Marquez takes Sepang pole as Martin's wrist injury opens door for championship leader Marc

Seventy thousandths separate the Marquez brothers

Alex Marquez took pole position for the 2026 PETRONAS Grand Prix of Malaysia with a lap of 1:56.493 at Sepang, beating his brother and championship leader Marc Marquez by 0.070 seconds as Jorge Martin withdrew with a fractured wrist.

Pedro Acosta completed the front row, just 0.014 seconds behind Marc and 0.084 seconds away from pole. Ai Ogura finished fourth and Marco Bezzecchi fifth, leaving the leading five riders separated by only 0.175 seconds across the 5.54 km circuit.

Alex became the ninth different polesitter of the season. His late improvement delivered his first pole since the 2025 Catalan Grand Prix, after a session in which five riders held the fastest time at different stages.

Marc starts second for Saturday's Sprint and Sunday's main race with an opportunity to extend his championship advantage. He arrived at Sepang leading Martin by 10 points, but the Aprilia rider's injury has removed his closest challenger from both races.

The Tissot Sprint is scheduled for 15:00 local time on Saturday. Three race weekends remain after Malaysia, with the championship due to move to Qatar the following week.

How Alex recovered from fifth to first

Alex immediately set a demanding target in Q2, the final qualifying session that decides the first 12 starting positions. His opening flying lap of 1:56.697 put the Gresini Ducati ahead, with Marc initially responding in 1:56.964.

Acosta and Enea Bastianini were also competitive early, before Aprilia's riders moved into contention during the final attempts. Bezzecchi recorded 1:56.668, improving Alex's opening benchmark by 0.029 seconds.

Ogura then went faster still. His 1:56.617 beat Bezzecchi by 0.051 seconds and briefly put the Trackhouse rider on provisional pole. The two Aprilias had displaced the Ducatis at the front, but several decisive laps were still underway.

Marc reclaimed first place with 1:56.563 despite a slide and a subsequent correction during the third sector. Acosta followed him across the line in 1:56.577, using the Ducati ahead as a reference and moving into second.

Alex had slipped to fifth before his final response. His 1:56.493 restored him to the top and pushed everyone else down one position. From his opening benchmark to his pole lap, he found another 0.204 seconds, enough to turn a place on the second row into the best starting position.

A close contest across three manufacturers

Ducati secured the first two positions, but KTM and Aprilia were close enough to keep the qualifying contest open until the final laps. Acosta's third place put a KTM alongside the Marquez brothers, while Ogura and Bezzecchi occupied the next two positions.

Ogura produced the fastest second sector of qualifying, taking 27.855 seconds through that part of the circuit. Acosta's completed lap matched his theoretical ideal time of 1:56.577. An ideal lap adds together a rider's best individual sector times, showing how fast a lap could be if those best sections came together.

Alex's ideal time was 1:56.456, just 0.037 seconds faster than the lap he actually delivered. Marc's was 1:56.540, compared with his completed 1:56.563. Both brothers therefore put together laps very close to their best combinations of sectors.

Francesco Bagnaia's Sepang best lap of 1:56.337, set in 2024, remained intact. Alex missed it by 0.156 seconds. He already holds the circuit's fastest race lap, a 1:58.873 set in 2025, when he also won the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Why Martin stopped his comeback

Martin arrived in Malaysia trying to race with the wrist fracture he suffered in the previous Saturday's Sprint at Phillip Island. He completed Friday's first practice without problems, but his running became limited later that day and again on Saturday morning.

The Aprilia rider completed eight laps across three short runs in final practice. His best was 2:00.359, leaving him 21st. The timing results put him 1.843 seconds behind session leader Bastianini; another account placed the gap at 1.5 seconds.

Aprilia Racing team manager Paolo Bonora explained that Martin's main difficulty was applying force while braking. Riders must support and control their bodies as the motorcycle slows sharply, placing substantial demands on their arms and wrists.

Bonora said Martin felt better than on Friday, but the braking problem remained:

His feeling was better, to be honest, compared to yesterday, but he was not able to force during the braking. So we decided all together to not continue and to keep focused on the Doha GP.

Martin's withdrawal followed discussions involving the rider, the team and MotoGP medical director Dr. Angel Charte. Aprilia confirmed that his Malaysian weekend was over in a statement:

Jorge Martin will withdraw from the remainder of the Malaysian GP to continue his recovery from injury,

Martin will return to Spain for an assessment before deciding whether he can race at the Qatar Grand Prix the following week. His participation there has not been confirmed.

Two weekends reshape the title fight

Marc entered Saturday with a 10 point championship lead over Martin, while Bezzecchi was 50 points behind the leader. Martin's absence gives Marc two opportunities in Malaysia to increase that advantage, starting with the Sprint.

Phillip Island had already changed the championship contest. Martin lost the lead and fractured his wrist while battling Marc for victory in the Sprint. He was ruled out of Sunday's Grand Prix, but that race was cancelled, preventing any further loss of points that weekend.

Malaysia now puts the focus on Marc's ability to turn his front row start into results. Alex stands directly ahead of him, Acosta is alongside, and Bezzecchi remains within reach from fifth. Qualifying has given Marc a strong starting position, while the points will be decided in the two races.

Martin's recent sequence shows how quickly the situation developed:

• Previous Saturday, Phillip Island: Martin fractured his wrist in the Sprint and lost the championship lead.
• Previous Sunday: the Australian Grand Prix was cancelled.
• Friday, Sepang: Martin completed first practice, then limited his afternoon running.
• Saturday morning: he attempted final practice before withdrawing from the Malaysian weekend.
• Following week: Qatar is the next scheduled race weekend, subject to Martin's fitness assessment.

Zarco and Bagnaia take the Q1 places

Johann Zarco and Bagnaia reached Q2 through the opening qualifying session. Q1 gives its two fastest riders another chance to compete for the leading grid positions, while the remaining riders take places farther back.

Zarco set 1:57.341 early in the session, a time nobody subsequently beat. Bagnaia initially recorded 1:57.561 and later improved to 1:57.552, securing the second place available.

Luca Marini came closest to displacing Bagnaia. His 1:57.623 left him 0.071 seconds short after an error in the final sector. Another account described the margin as just over a tenth, but the listed lap times put it at seven hundredths.

Zarco went on to qualify eighth, while Bagnaia finished tenth. Marini starts 13th, immediately ahead of Diogo Moreira and Brad Binder.

Bastianini's practice pace meets a tougher qualifying test

Bastianini led Saturday's final practice in 1:58.516, with Alex second in 1:58.804. Both set their best laps during simulated qualifying attempts using fresh soft tyres near the end of the session.

Bezzecchi and Ogura finished third and fourth in that practice session, having shown strong pace on used tyres. Marc was eighth in the listed final results, 0.581 seconds behind Bastianini.

Sepang was hot and dry. Final practice took place with an air temperature of 31 degrees Celsius, a track temperature of 38 degrees and humidity of 69 percent. By Q1, the air had reached 32 degrees and the track 41 degrees.

Bastianini ultimately qualified seventh, 0.477 seconds behind pole, despite recording qualifying's highest speed at 341.7 km/h. His result shows the demands of a complete lap: speed along a straight is only one part of the time, alongside braking, cornering and acceleration.

The starting order beyond the front row

Ogura and Bezzecchi share the second row with Fabio Di Giannantonio, who qualified sixth at 0.349 seconds behind Alex. Bastianini, Zarco and Franco Morbidelli form the third row.

Bagnaia starts tenth, followed by Joan Mir in eleventh and Maverick Viñales in twelfth. Mir and Marini both returned to action for Honda HRC this weekend. Marini missed Phillip Island because of a virus, while Mir had been receiving treatment for fatigue issues since Misano.

Yamaha's four riders were eliminated in Q1. Jack Miller was its highest qualifier in 16th with 1:58.148. Alex Rins was only 0.007 seconds slower in 17th, and Fabio Quartararo took 18th with 1:58.219.

Iker Lecuona qualified 19th in 1:58.456 while continuing to replace Fermin Aldeguer at Gresini. Augusto Fernandez finished 20th in 1:58.855, replacing Toprak Razgatlioglu at Pramac following the Turkish rider's shoulder surgery. Fernandez is due to remain in that role through the end of the season.

Key Points

• Alex Marquez took Malaysian Grand Prix pole in 1:56.493, his first pole since the 2025 Catalan Grand Prix.
• Marc Marquez qualified second, 0.070 seconds behind, with Pedro Acosta third.
• Ai Ogura and Marco Bezzecchi completed a top five separated by 0.175 seconds.
• Jorge Martin withdrew because his fractured wrist limited his ability to brake.
• Marc entered the weekend leading Martin by 10 championship points, with three rounds remaining after Malaysia.
• Martin will return to Spain for assessment before deciding on Qatar.
• Saturday's Sprint is scheduled for 15:00 local time at Sepang.