18:08
Lap 4/23
Bezzecchi now over a second clear of Marquez.
Marc Marquez, Fabio Di Giannantonio, 2026 Brazil MotoGP
© Gold and Goose
MotoGP Brazil race reaction LIVE: Bezzecchi leads Aprilia 1-2 after dramatic Sunday
Live updates from the race at the 2026 Brazilian MotoGP at Goiania, the second round of the 2026 season.
KEY MOMENTS
- Bezzecchi leads
- Race distance cut from 31 laps to 23
- Moreira expecting a long race
- Marc Marquez seeking double after sprint win
Live coverage of Sunday's 2026 Brazilian MotoGP at Goiania, where the premier class race is due to start at 15:00 local time.
Fabio Di Giannantonio starts on pole for only the second time in his MotoGP career today, ahead of Marco Bezzecchi and Marc Marquez.
It was a battle between Di Giannantonio and Marquez in the Sprint over 15 laps, but today's 31-lap race is the longest - in terms of the number of laps - of the season.
Bezzecchi, on the other hand, was fourth yesterday after running wide at turn 10, but topped Warm Up this morning and was the only rider to lap faster than 1m18s.
Jorge Martin is without a grand prix podium for Aprilia so far but he took his first Sprint podium aboard the RS-GP yesterday and seems to be growing in confidence aboard the bike. He starts from the second row today and should be in the podium battle once again.
Fabio Quartararo has been having a strong weekend on the Yamaha, finishing sixth in the Sprint yesterday after qualifying fourth.
Ai Ogura, too, has been solid this weekend on the Trackhouse Aprilia, qualifying sixth yesterday and finishing fifth behind the two factory RS-GPs. It's a stark contrast with his teammate, Raul Fernandez, who hasn't finished a session in the top-10 yet in Brazil after taking two podiums in Thailand and coming into this weekend third in the championship.
Speaking of the championship, the gap at the top of the standings is down to two points between Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta after yesterday, Acosta finishing only ninth. He was the only KTM to score points yesterday and the other RC16s start from the back three positions on the grid.
22 Mar 2026
18:07
Binder has crashed out to compound KTM's terrible weekend.
And only seconds later Martin demotes Acosta to fifth.
18:06
Lap 3/23
Bezzecchi strong on that lap, pulled three tenths on Marquez and now leads by 0.8s.
Di Giannantonio looking for a way back through on Marquez as Martin looks to find a way back past Acosta.
18:05
Acosta now up to fourth past Martin.
Fastest lap on lap two by Marquez but only 0.003s faster than Bezzecchi who is 0.5s clear.
18:04
Miller out
Miller has crashed out on the second lap of his 200th start.
18:04
Di Giannantonio wide at turn one and Marquez slides into second.
18:04
Lap 1/23
Bezzecchi leads lap one, Di Giannantonio second and Marquez third from Martin.
Great start for Acosta in P5. Not the best for Quartararo, thoguh, in P10 and a long way behind Mir in ninth. Bagnaia, too, in 14th.
18:02
Race start
It's lights out in Brazil for this shortened 23-lap race.
Great start for Bezzecchi who makes the hooleshot. Di Giannantonio second and then it's Marquez and Martin.
18:00
Warm-up lap
No delay to the start time. Riders are off on their warm-up lap.
No changes in tyre compound as far as we can see on live timing.
17:58
Live timing currently unchanged on the tyre front but it seems some riders have changed after the cut-off.
Potentially a delay to the start time coming as well, but at the moment we're just two minutes away from lights out.
17:57
MotoGP world feed commentator Matt Birt says the reason for the distance reduction is track degradation.
17:56
It's a change to the race distance that seems to have been made due to the high temperatures.
It's also one that changes the race completely, because the race is now almost 24km shorter than its original distance.
That means less fuel is needed, and tyres don't need to last as long. And it's a change that has been announced within 5 minutes of the start.
17:54
Race distance cut
Race distance has been cut to 23 laps just now from 31.
17:53
Tyres
As in the Sprint, every rider has chosen the hard-compound front tyre.
At the rear, almost everyone has chosen the medium-compound .The exceptions are all Yamaha riders, Quartararo, Razgatlioglu, and Rins, who have all chosen the soft. Miller, who is starting his 200th MotoGP race today, is the only Yamaha rider on a medium rear tyre.
17:51
Conditions
Still perfectly dry and sunny in Goiania 10 minutes out from the start.
Temperatures have dropped a little from the end of the Moto2 race. 30C air and 52C track temperature now.
17:47
Acosta 9th
Championship leader Pedro Acosta goes from ninth in Brazil. His points lead was cut to two yesterday after he finished ninth. Although it's nothing like what he managed in Thailand, Acosta has been much better than the other KTMs this weekend, who occupy the last three positions on the grid today.
17:42
Moreira ahead of first home race: "It will be a tough race"
Diogo Moreira has spoken on the grid ahead of his home grand prix, and he's expecting a long race.
"Let's see. At the end, it will be a long race, we have 31 laps to go, so it will be a tough race," Moreira told the world feed on the grid.
"We need to manage well the body, also the tyres, so let's see. At the end, you're going to push at the beginning so let's see at the end."
Diogo Moeira. Credit: Gold and Goose.
17:37
Pit lane open
Pit lane is open ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix and the riders are heading to the grid for what is the longest race of the year in terms of the number of laps at 31, that's one more than Sachsenring's 30 laps.
17:34
Marc Marquez chasing 100
If Di Giannantonio is to win today he must do what he could not yesterday and beat Marc Marquez.
Marquez's Sprint win yesterday tied him with Jorge Martin for the most of all-time (admittedly, a statistic that is only three-years-old), but a win today would be much more significant as he would move onto 100 grand prix victories across all classes.
Only two riders have achieved a triple-digit tally in the past: Valentino Rossi (115), and Giacomo Agostini (122).
17:27
Di Giannantonio on pole
Fabio Di Giannantonio starts on pole position today for only the second time in his MotoGP career. His last pole position came at Mugello in 2022.
A victory today would also be his second in the premier class after his memorable triumph in Qatar in 2023.
It would a timely success, too, given the current speculation that Fermin Aldeguer is on his way to VR46 Ducati next year.
17:16
Rain was forecast in Goiania for this afternoon, but the Moto2 race just finished under largely blue skies with some scattered clouds.
31C air temperature at the moment, 53C of track temperature with 45 minutes before the MotoGP start.
17:14
Welcome to live coverage of the MotoGP Brazilian Grand Prix, which is due to get underway in just under an hour at 15:00 local time.