Reigning MotoGP champ sails to Japan sprint victory as sibling skittles rivals

Marc Marquez won the Japanese Grand Prix sprint on Saturday for the seventh time this season, tightening the MotoGP title race to seven points behind Jorge Martin. The reigning world champion delivered a lights-to-flag victory at Motegi, extending Ducati’s sprint dominance to four consecutive years. Marquez finished 2.754 seconds ahead of rookie Diogo Moreira, who earned his first sprint podium after Martin and Enea Bastianini were penalized one position for breaching track limits at turn 10 on the final lap. Martin started from pole but spent the race behind Marquez and was further punished for a last-lap indiscretion, losing two championship points. A major first-lap crash eliminated multiple riders, including Marc’s brother Alex Marquez and KTM’s Pedro Acosta.