Johann Zarco started the season as the defending World Champion, having secured his first championship title at the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix. With victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix – his sixth of the 2016 season – Zarco was able to retain his title, amassing an unassailable points lead ahead of the final round in Valencia. As a result, Zarco became the first French rider to win multiple world motorcycle racing titles, as well as becoming the first rider in the Moto2 era to defend the world championship, and the first to do so in the intermediate class since Jorge Lorenzo in and . Zarco completed the season with victory in Valencia, as he won the championship by an eventual margin of 42 points.