Qatar GP cancellation could deal major blow to Marc Marquez's title hopes

Just two points separate championship leader Jorge Martin from Marc Marquez, while Marco Bezzecchi is coming off a win just 44 points back.

Marquez’s comeback from injury, retirement fears and a 102-point deficit have already made this a season for the ages, and with five races to go, anything could happen.

In two races’ time, the Qatar Grand Prix is scheduled to take place from November 6-8, yet questions over a cancellation continue to dominate the paddock.

The race has already been postponed due to the ongoing war in the Middle East, moving it from its original date of April 12.

Speaking after the Indonesian Grand Prix, Marquez commented: "I prefer not to give my opinion at the moment, but I'm very clear that life is short, and there are many races."

Martin was more forthcoming, adding: “From a sporting perspective, it doesn’t affect me, neither positively nor negatively.

Despite Martin’s insistence, his comments don’t paint the full picture, as riders' records at the Losail circuit are pretty strong indicators of how the cancellation will impact them.

GPblog has taken a look at the numbers and how they could impact the title battle, taking into account Moto2 and Moto3 results, as well as sprint races.

The Qatar Grand Prix certainly isn’t one of the nine-time champion’s strongest, given how he dominates at so many tracks on the calendar.

In 17 attempts, he’s won four times, including one sprint victory. However, the big caveat is that he did the double in 2025 in his first year on the factory Ducati.

Martin has three wins in Qatar, but two of them were in sprints, and the other was in Moto3 back in 2018.

On top of three retirements, he’s also had a number of low point-scoring races, including one blank in 20th and two 15th-place finishes.

Furthest back in the championship, and Bezzecchi has by far the worst record at Qatar of the title challengers.

He hasn’t won in Losail, nor has he even recorded a podium, with a best finish of fourth.

Unlike Aprilia teammate Martin, he’s only retired once, but he’s also had four other races without finishing in the top 15 point-scoring positions.

All of this suggests that while Marquez may not have Losail among his list of favourite tracks, it’s still a race where he would be expected to out-score his title rivals, suggesting that a cancellation could be bad news for the 33-year-old.