TV GUIDE: Where and when you can watch this weekend's title deciding race action

With three major championships potentially being decided this weekend, there’s plenty of reasons to spend Sunday in front of the telly for a marathon of bike racing.

It’ll be an early start or a straight through crew to catch the Japanese Grand Prix from Motegi, where Marc Marquez can potentially tie up his third MotoGP world championship.

The Spaniard needs to leave Japan with a 76 point lead in the championship to win the title with three races to go but that’s a real long shot. The permutations are many, but Marquez lifting the title will only come about if he wins the race, with Jorge Lorenzo out of the top three and Valentino Rossi finishing 14th or below.

Motegi has never been kind to Marquez, who has never won in the MotoGP class in Japan, and indeed the man himself is playing down his chances, saying that he is looking at damage limitation this weekend. He said: “The Japanese Grand Prix is an important appointment for us as it is Honda’s home race and one where we have great memories, as we clinched the title in 2014. On the other hand, it’s a circuit that has always been a bit challenging for us. So for example, if Aragon was a track that I marked for attacking, Motegi is one that I marked for giving up as few points as possible. That said, we’ll approach it with an open mentality, aiming for the best result possible but ready to adapt to the circumstances.”

By contrast, Marquez’ Respol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa is a three-time Japanese Grand Prix winner, having stood upon the top step last year and in 2011 and 2012. He said: “Motegi is one of my favourite tracks, and in addition to the fact that it’s Honda’s home circuit, I’ve had good results there. Clearly, we want to get the best result possible in front of our Japanese fans, but we must arrive there and start working on the bike and the tyres to understand if we’ll be able to be as competitive as we have been lately. At this moment, the most important thing is to find the best combination between the tyres and the bike, with myself also in the formula of course, to try and start to go well beginning Friday.”

Live bike racing on TV this weekend

Friday 14 October

Saturday 15 October

Sunday 16 October

ITV4 will show MotoGP highlights at 8pm on Monday, World Superbike highlights at 8pm on Tuesday and a comprehensive British Superbike programme from 7.25 on Wednesday evening.