Michelin bans soft tyre for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. A day on, riders are still working out what that means for the race. The French tyre firm pulled the compound from the race allocation on Saturday, 3 October 2026, after several riders had serious overheating trouble in the sprint.
The medium rear stays in the allocation. Michelin hasn’t ordered any single tyre for Sunday. Instead, it has pointed riders towards the hard rear, a tyre built with a reinforced casing. Michelin calls it the safer choice for anyone hoping to hold a strong pace to the flag.
What changed at Motegi
The ban followed serious tyre trouble in Saturday’s sprint, as the original Motorsport report explained. Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia were hit hardest. Heat built rapidly in their soft rear tyres during the sprint.
Michelin’s Piero Taramasso explained the new approach for Sunday. “Michelin has withdrawn the soft rear from the race allocation. The medium remains available but will require careful management, while the hard rear, featuring a reinforced casing, is Michelin’s recommended option for riders looking to maintain a strong pace throughout the race.”
Why Michelin acted
Michelin says the problem hit riders differently. Riding style, bike setup, wheelspin and how much energy each rider sent through the rear tyre all played a part in how badly the soft tyre suffered.
Taramasso pointed to three things happening together at Motegi. “Motegi’s new high-grip asphalt, combined with a track temperature of around 40°C and an exceptionally fast sprint pace, generated very high rear-tyre temperatures. The race was completed nine seconds faster than in 2025.” That extra speed, on a resurfaced track, pushed tyre temperatures past what Michelin expected.
What the riders said
Marc Marquez won the sprint from Diogo Moreira, Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini. Martin and Bastianini each lost a position for running wide on the final lap. Martin’s problems were bad enough to change how he described his own race.
“I don’t even know how I finished, I thought I wasn’t going to be able to finish the race,” Martin said. He was the slowest rider on the grid on that final lap. He lost more than a second to both Bastianini and Moreira. Bagnaia’s rear tyre fared even worse. It split right through the centre of the rubber, leaving his bike dangerous to ride.
Jack Miller knows this grid as well as anyone, and he was blunt about Sunday. “So tomorrow we will all have to use the hard compound. I can almost guarantee it,” he said, a view we explored further in our Jack Miller talking points. Not everyone agreed beforehand. Fabio Quartararo said, “To be honest, I think the soft will be the option for the race.” Marquez clashed with Michelin over tyre casings earlier this year, as we detailed in our Michelin casing report. He added, “I’m not ruling out the soft as an option for the race.” Both comments came before Michelin made its call.
What the soft tyre ban means for Sunday
Michelin bans soft tyre use outright, so medium and hard are now the only rear options for the grand prix. The medium can still do a job, but Michelin warns it needs careful handling across race distance.
The hard is the tyre Michelin wants riders on. It’s the same compound used in Thailand, Brazil and Austria this season. Taramasso frames it as the tyre built to hold a strong pace deep into the race. Michelin stopped short of making it compulsory, so riders technically still have a choice.
What happens next
MotoGP has confirmed that Sunday morning’s warm-up will be doubled to 20 minutes. That gives teams extra time to test the hard tyre before the race. Miller backed the change, reasoning that riders need a proper look at the compound before committing to it for the race.
Even so, Michelin’s decision leaves real doubt over the grid. The situation echoes the 2013 Australian Grand Prix. Bridgestone forced a mid-race pit stop that year, because it couldn’t guarantee its tyres would survive the full distance. Marquez came in a lap late, took a black flag, and nearly lost his first MotoGP title as a result. Michelin has supplied MotoGP’s tyres for years, through plenty of tight weekends like this one, as our Michelin tyre struggles piece and our Michelin supplier update both show. Motegi has already shown it can still catch everyone out.
