Jorge Lorenzo details Marc Marquez strength rivals “don’t have” in MotoGP title fight

There are three “trump cards” left for Marc Marquez to play in the 2026 MotoGP title battle, Jorge Lorenzo thinks.

Reigning MotoGP champion Marquez was 102 points off the championship lead after his first race back from surgeries in May at the Italian Grand Prix. The Spaniard is now just 18 points behind championship leader Jorge Martin and has jumped Marco Bezzecchi, who led after Mugello but has scored only 13 points since then.

Marc Marquez, meanwhile, has won three of the four grands prix since the Italian race as well as two of the Sprints. It means Marquez has outscored every other rider in the last four races, and only Dutch Grand Prix winner Ai Ogura has scored more points in the last three rounds.

Five-time world champion Jorge Lorenzo, who was team-mates at Repsol Honda with Marquez in 2019, believes the Ducati Lenovo Team rider also has “trump cards” left to play at three specific races coming up in the second half of the season.

“He has three trump cards that the others don't have, which are those three circuits with an anti-clockwise layout,” Lorenzo said on his Duralavita podcast, as reported by Motosan.

“First Aragon, then Phillip Island at the end, and Valencia, which happens to be the last [round]. 

“If he gets there with the classification very close, he could have a significant competitive advantage. 

“The other riders don't have that specific asset that really makes the difference.”

Lorenzo added: “I think when you get to a circuit with left-hand corners, like these three, you have an 80–90 per cent chance of winning. 

“On circuits with right-hand corners, however, things are much more even. This championship is becoming super interesting.”

Marquez’s affinity for left-handed circuits is most obviously demonstrated at the Sachsenring, where there are only three right-handed corners and 10 lefts, seven of which are chained together through the second and third sectors.

The 33-year-old won his 10th premier class grand prix (13th across all categories) at the Sachsenring last weekend (10–12 July), equalling the record for wins at a single track set by Giacomo Agostini at Imatra.

Marquez also has eight victories at Aragon, seven in the premier class, including four in a row between 2016 and 2019. MotorLand was also the site of Marquez’s first win after leaving Honda for Ducati when he won the 2024 Sprint and grand prix.

The Valencia numbers are less solid for Marquez, who hasn’t raced there since 2023 and hasn’t finished a race there since 2019. He has three wins there across all classes, and finished third there in both years (2013 and 2017) when he went there with the title on the line, clinching on both occasions.