The Japanese Grand Prix took place under cloudy weather. Jorge Martín, who had crashed yesterday, was ruled out of the Grand Prix due to a collarbone injury. So after a successful warm-up lap, the race could start.

The start went well for Francesco Bagnaia, who managed to hold his position. Marc Márquez had a slightly slower start but quickly caught up and took back third place. Pedro Acosta had a brilliant launch, moving immediately into second place. Even Fabio Quartararo started strong, almost passing Marc at the beginning, and improved to fourth place. Alex Márquez, the only rider who could stop his brother from winning the title, was in eighth place. Joan Mir, who had dropped from third, managed to overtake Quartararo and get back to fourth. Right after this move, Quartararo began to drop quickly, falling from fifth to ninth.

So after the first lap, the top 10 looked as follows: Bagnaia, Acosta, Marc, Mir, Morbidelli, Bezzecchi, Alex, Fernández, Quartararo, Marini.

Meanwhile, at the front, Francesco Bagnaia extended his gap to over a second, while his teammate Marc was still trailing Acosta. On lap 4, Luca Marini became the first rider to retire due to technical issues with his bike, which was unfortunate as Marini had been having a solid race.

Marco Bezzecchi, who had been stuck behind Morbidelli for some time, managed to overtake him and move up to fifth place. Meanwhile, Joan Mir, who was running in fourth, began closing the gap to Marc Márquez ahead of him.

By lap 10, Bagnaia had stretched his lead to 2.5 seconds over Acosta. At the same time, Mir caught up to Marc and was just 0.2s behind. The top 10 on lap 10 was: Bagnaia, Acosta, Marc, Mir, Bezzecchi, Morbidelli, Alex, Fernández, Quartararo, Zarco.

As lap 11 started, Marc considered sending a move on Acosta into Turn 1 but instead waited and overtook him cleanly at Turn 2. Joan Mir, who had shown incredible pace so far, was determined to get on the podium. He caught Acosta for third and managed to overtake him on lap 14, moving up into the top 3.

Meanwhile, at the front, Bagnaia again extended his gap, now four seconds ahead of his teammate Marc. Pedro Acosta, after his strong start, began losing pace. On lap 16, Acosta was overtaken by Marco Bezzecchi, who climbed into fourth place.

Acosta’s pace worsened further, likely due to tyre problems, which allowed Morbidelli to catch and overtake him. On lap 17, Marc Márquez received a track limits warning.

Acosta’s struggles only continued, as he became the slowest rider on track. To make matters worse, he ran wide into the gravel after a mistake, but managed to rejoin.

Then, on lap 19, smoke began coming from Bagnaia’s bike. Even though his pace remained strong, something was clearly wrong.

On lap 20, the first yellow flag of the session was shown after Takaaki Nakagami crashed into the gravel. But Bagnaia’s situation looked concerning—the smoke persisted, and there was speculation he could even be shown a black flag.

On lap 21, Jack Miller suffered a broken chain and was forced to retire. Coming into the final lap, Bagnaia still held a 2-second lead over Marc.

Francesco Bagnaia won the race, while Marc Márquez clinched his 7th MotoGP title. The podium was completed by Joan Mir.

2025 Japanese Grand Prix