Crash MotoGP Pocdast: Will Marc Marquez treat Japan like a normal weekend?

In the latest edition of the Crash MotoGP Podcast, the team asks will Marc Marquez treat the Japanese Grand Prix like a normal weekend with the title on the line?

This weekend’s 17th round of the 2025 season sees MotoGP head to its first overseas race outside of Europe and the UK since April’s Qatar Grand Prix.

Motegi has been the setting for many dramatic races over the years as well as the scene of numerous title victories.

Marc Marquez celebrated MotoGP titles at Motegi in 2014, 2016 and 2018 when he was with Honda. The circuit also represented the last place he scored a podium with HRC before making the decision to leave for Gresini Ducati late on in 2023.

After winning the recent San Marino Grand Prix, the factory Ducati rider comes to Japan with his first opportunity to win a seventh premier class title and ninth of his career overall.

To do so, he needs to outscore Alex Marquez by just three points across the whole weekend to seal the deal.

So, will he treat Japan differently to previous rounds?

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“I think it’s very much a case of when not if now,” Crash MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren said.

“But still, as he said himself in San Marino, it is going to be different. He’ll try to do it as a normal weekend. Three points [to win]. Should be pretty much a formality, but you never quite know. But even if it doesn’t, it rolls over to the next weekend.

“It will be different and happening at Motegi, which was previously the home race for Honda. I suppose the only interesting thing will be how much does he treat it as a normal weekend?

“Will he be looking at what Alex does? If Alex is nowhere near the front will that take the pressure of Marc even more?

“Or if Alex is at the front, will he try to raise his game to get it settled this weekend at the first chance, or will he take the Catalunya approach when he wasn’t fastest and took the points? So, that’s the only question mark.

“But it’s just closing the circle for Marc that began with his last title in 2019 and everything that has happened since.”

Crash Senior Journalist Lewis Duncan added: “I think Marc has to treat it like a normal weekend.

“He’s wise enough to know that if he lets off, he starts letting [thoughts of] the championship creep in, then that’s when the mistakes creep in and he doesn’t need to be doing that.

“So, he’ll go and he’ll push, and that’s what Marquez does. That’s the way he’ll want to win the championship. When has Marc ever wobbled around to a seventh or an eighth, just gotten to what he needs to do to win a championship?

“Think the last time he won a championship, in Thailand [in 2019], against Fabio [Quartararo]. That was a totally pointless battle. He didn’t need to do that.

“He could have just sat behind Fabio, but he wanted to win and he won the championship with a great battle. He knows the best way for him is to keep the pressure on.”