Marco Bezzecchi put Aprilia at the head of the final Qatar MotoGP practice at Lusail, with the RS-GP taking all four of the leading positions. Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura followed in second and third, while Jorge Martin completed the Aprilia sweep in fourth.

Tyre strategy repeatedly changed the order. The leading Ducati, KTM and Honda riders opened the session on soft rears, whereas the Aprilias used mediums. Marc Marquez spent much of the practice at the front on the soft before moving to a medium. Bezzecchi took the reverse approach: the medium dropped him temporarily to sixth, then a soft rear carried him back to the top.

Michelin views the soft rear as a workable Sprint choice, even though the nine leading riders selected medium tyres at both ends in each of last year’s Qatar races.

Marquez reaches his first title opportunity

Marc Marquez can settle the 2026 MotoGP championship in Qatar, his first opportunity to secure a tenth world crown. The factory Ducati rider must score 30 points more than Jorge Martin and eight more than Marco Bezzecchi. A Grand Prix victory reduces the required margin over Bezzecchi to seven points. In the Sprint, Marquez needs to finish at least five points ahead of Martin to keep a Sunday title outcome possible. If that condition is not met, the fight continues into the final rounds at Portimao and Valencia.

A different field in Lusail

Yamaha is absent from the Qatar round because of existing company-wide travel restrictions and is expected to return at the Portuguese Grand Prix. Fabio Quartararo, Alex Rins, Jack Miller and Augusto Fernandez therefore miss the season’s 20th round. Fernandez had been replacing the injured Toprak Razgatlioglu at Pramac.

Alex Marquez is also out after recent surgery and is replaced by Iker Lecuona. Joan Mir remains sidelined by fatigue-related vision issues, with Honda bringing in Jake Dixon. Dixon has two previous MotoGP starts for Petronas Yamaha SRT, both in 2021 while he was competing in Moto2. Jorge Martin and Raul Fernandez return after injury-related absences from Sepang, while Fermin Aldeguer is back after breaking his hand at Mandalika.

Qualifying 1 is next for riders outside Friday’s top ten, including KTM’s Pedro Acosta, a 2026 Sprint and Grand Prix winner. The official Qatar records list Fabio di Giannantonio’s 1m 50.406s Ducati lap from 2026 as the outright best, while Marc Marquez holds the fastest race lap with 1m 52.561s from 2025.