Marco Bezzecchi won the 22-lap Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail, leaving the MotoGP championship contest unresolved. Marc Marquez finished second, 3.083 seconds behind the Italian, so he could not secure an eighth premier-class title in Qatar. Jorge Martin brought the factory Aprilia home in seventh, keeping his own championship challenge alive with two races still to run.

Starting from pole, Bezzecchi held the lead at the launch while Raul Fernandez moved past Marquez for second at Turn 2 on the opening lap. Pedro Acosta briefly moved into third by overtaking Marquez at Turn 15 on lap three, but tyre-pressure problems later damaged his pace. Marquez reclaimed second at the start of lap six and then caught Fernandez, whose speed began to fade. The Ducati rider completed the pass across the start-finish line with three laps remaining. Fernandez was also carrying an injury during the race, adding to the difficulty of defending his position.

Bezzecchi had already stretched the advantage to one second by the beginning of lap eight and controlled the run to the chequered flag. It was his sixth grand prix victory of the season and leaves him 74 points behind Marquez in the title battle. Fernandez finished third, 0.531 seconds behind Marquez, with Ai Ogura fourth. Enea Bastianini was classified fifth ahead of Acosta, although the move was described cautiously. Fabio Di Giannantonio, Johann Zarco and Iker Lecuona completed positions eight through 10. Franco Morbidelli, Fermin Aldeguer, Maverick Vinales and Jake Dixon were the other finishers, while Brad Binder and Diogo Moreira retired with separate problems.

Marquez needed to win in Qatar and see Martin score no points to clinch the championship at this round. That scenario disappeared when Bezzecchi took the victory and Martin reached seventh. Bezzecchi had also won Saturday’s sprint after a controversial collision with Marquez, giving the Italian a second strong result at Lusail and extending the title fight into the final two races.