Five Things we Learned from Spanish MotoGP

A debut winner and new championship leader were crowned at the Spanish MotoGP in what was one of the best race weekends of 2025.

Jerez, one of the best-attended events every year, played host to round five of the season, and it did not disappoint as the Grand Prix delivered high drama once again.

But what are the five things we learned from last weekend’s races?

Other brands are closing in on Ducati

Since the start of 2024 Ducati has dominated MotoGP, winning 24 out of the last 25 Grand Prix’ dating back to the opening round of last season.

That’s a worrying statistic if you’re any of the other four brands currently racing in MotoGP, but Jerez offered hope for all of them.

Three KTM’s, a Yamaha, an Aprilia and a Honda all featured inside the top ten, and while that is something noteworthy, the gaps from those bikes to the leading Ducati was greatly reduced compared to races over the last 12 months.

The pick of the bunch was Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who not only finished second in Sunday’s race, but he secured an unlikely pole position, which was his first since Indonesia 2022 - 1134 days ago.

Quartararo was in contention for a top three finish in the sprint before sliding out of second, but the 2021 world champion delivered on the promise shown by giving eventual winner Alex Marquez a run for his money.

While KTM didn’t manage to produce a headline-grabbing result, the Austrian brand was well represented throughout the top ten as Maverick Vinales led the charge by finishing in fourth place, building on his impressive showing in Qatar.

Brad Binder and team-mate Pedro Acosta both moved up the order to finish sixth and seventh, while Ai Ogura was the lone Aprilia in the top ten, as was Luca Marini for Honda after Joan Mir slid out of a potential top ten result.

Ducati remains the brand to beat, but it was clear at Jerez that the chasing pack is getting closer to making life hard for the Italian company.

4 - Quartararo is a difference maker

Anyone who has watched MotoGP since the Frenchman arrived in the premier class will know that Quartararo possesses the type of talent that very few on the grid have.

With Alex Rins mired down the order, as were both Pramac Yamaha riders, Quartararo’s pole position and podium in the Grand Prix were proof that shelling out more than 10 million euros annually (reportedly) to retain his services was a wise investment.

Yamaha has traditionally been competitive at the Spanish circuit, and credit must be given to the Iwata-based firm as it has worked tirelessly to provide Quartararo with a bike capable of fighting towards the front.

That said, this performance was very much about Quartararo as he put his Yamaha where very few have in recent years when going up against Ducati.

3 - Alex Marquez is here to stay

If we didn’t already believe it, Alex Marquez is absolutely a title threat! The Gresini rider has often played the role of Mr P2 this season, with his brother Marc mopping up eight out of ten wins across the five sprints and five Grand Prix races.

However, Marquez has been there both times to take advantage of his brother faltering, and both times he secured a top two finish, which allowed him to take over the series lead.

It might only be a one-point lead for Alex Marquez at this stage, but if you had asked anyone before the season started whether they thought Alex could be in the lead of the championship after Jerez, I would have said good luck finding someone who thought that would be the case.

But here we are, and Marquez was again superb in Jerez and after getting through on Quartararo for the lead during Sunday’s race, the Spaniard proved untouchable.

2 - Will the real Francesco Bagnaia please stand up

While consistency has been on his side in 2025, the pace to win races has not. Bagnaia is a one-time race winner so far this season, but that came thanks to Marc Marquez crashing out of a comfortable lead in America.

Yes, Bagnaia was there to pick up the pieces, but the Italian has looked frustrated and has struggled to overtake in races, something we have rarely seen before.

You can never discount the two-time MotoGP champion, and he is still within a Grand Prix win of the championship lead; however, both Marquez brothers have been considerably better than the factory Ducati rider through five rounds, and so far, there’s been no sign of that stopping.  

1 - Marc Marquez is the fastest, but Alex is more consistent

The 2025 title fight looks to be heading for a season-ending fight between two brothers, something we’ve never seen before. Marc Marquez has been the best, fastest and most assured rider so far this season, however, one very important area of his racing has let him down, which is consistency.

On one hand, you could argue that Marquez has been very consistent as he’s won eight out of 10 races, but two crashes in races he would have been expected to win have left the eight-time world champion on the back foot once again.

Two crashes at this stage in the season are also quite a lot, especially when main title rivals Alex and Bagnaia have finished every race so far.

The smart money will, of course, be on Marc Marquez to win the 2025 title because he looks unbeatable more often than not, but his mistakes, coupled with Alex breathing down his neck at every opportunity, suggest he won’t be let off the hook for individual errors.

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