Marco Bezzecchi won the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday, leading every lap to beat Marc Marquez by 3.083 seconds and delay the Ducati rider's coronation as MotoGP world champion.

Marquez arrived at the Lusail International Circuit with the title within reach. He had won Saturday's sprint race, and a victory in the grand prix combined with a scoreless day for his closest rival, Jorge Martin, would have sealed a second successive championship and drawn him level with Valentino Rossi's record tally of eight premier-class titles. It did not work out that way.

Bezzecchi, starting from pole position, made a clean start and was never headed across the 22 laps. Raul Fernandez ran second for much of the race before fading to third, 3.614 seconds behind the winner, while Marquez had to fight his way back after dropping as low as fourth during an early battle with KTM's Pedro Acosta. Acosta passed Marquez for third on the third lap but handed the place back on lap six with a suspected tyre pressure problem, and Marquez finally swept past Fernandez down the main straight with three laps remaining to secure second.

Martin, meanwhile, rode through the pain of a broken right wrist to finish seventh, 14.023 seconds behind Bezzecchi. The 2024 champion was competing only 15 days after breaking his wrist in a sprint race crash in Australia, an injury that forced him to withdraw from the previous race. He had started 11th on the grid and finished third in Saturday's sprint before his measured ride on Sunday kept his slim title hopes alive for at least one more round.

The result leaves Marquez with a 60-point lead over Martin and a 74-point advantage over Bezzecchi, with exactly 74 points still available across the final two rounds. The championship now moves to Portimao in Portugal from 20 to 22 November, where Marquez can seal the title in the sprint race if he outscores Martin by two points.

For Bezzecchi, the win was his sixth grand prix victory of the season and a statement after a bruising Saturday. He had crashed out of the sprint following contact with Marquez at the first corner, yet he responded by bolting to the front at the first corner on Sunday and never being headed. It was also a personal landmark: he had never previously finished better than ninth in Qatar.

Only 16 riders started the race, the smallest grid of the season, after the Yamaha riders were absent and Francesco Bagnaia was ruled out following a heavy crash in the sprint. Luca Marini also withdrew with fatigue issues. Just 14 riders reached the finish, with Brad Binder and Diogo Moreira retiring before the end.