Marquez's sprint points key to MotoGP title lead

Marc Marquez is all but certain to clinch his 10th world championship at next week's Portuguese Grand Prix, a result his sprint race form has been central to. The Ducati rider has taken 10 sprint wins this year, lifting his career sprint tally to 25, and has scored 164 sprint points across the opening 20 weekends, an average of 8.2 per race (8.5 excluding the Barcelona sprint he missed).

In the 18 grands prix he contested, excluding Le Mans and Barcelona, Marquez scored 267 points, an average of 14.8 per race. His sprint haul therefore equals more than 60% of his Grand Prix tally, even though a Sunday win pays 25 points compared with 12 for a Saturday win.

Marquez also outscored his main rivals in the sprints. He finished 45 points ahead of Jorge Martin, who has four sprint wins this season, and without the sprints the two would be separated by just 15 points in the standings, leaving the title fight more open heading into the final two rounds.

The widest gap came with Marco Bezzecchi, who has seven sprint podiums but only 80 sprint points, less than half of Marquez's total. Based on Grand Prix results alone, Bezzecchi would lead the championship by 10 points rather than trail Marquez by 74.