What we Learned From Qatar MotoGP
Marc Marquez is the biggest rival to Marc Marquez in 2025, that much is clear, but despite his flawless weekend in Qatar, there were plenty of things we learned
Round four of the 2025 MotoGP season is in the books, and while it was the same rider dominating, as has been the case thus far, there were various standout performances, as well as underwhelming ones.
Marc Marquez is currently on a one-way ticket to the 2025 title
Let’s dive right into the elephant in the room, which is that Marc Marquez is looking unbeatable in 2025, that’s unless he makes mistakes similar to what we saw in Texas when he threw a comfortable win in the bin.
The first three rounds suited Marquez, but Qatar was expected to be a lot tougher as the Spaniard had only won once under the bright lights in Lusail since joining MotoGP in 2013.
Marquez himself admitted he expected the competition to be much closer, and possibly have the edge over him heading into the weekend, but when it came to the most important sessions of the weekend, the eight-time world champion again secured pole, sprint victory and the win in the Grand Prix.
That means Marquez has secured all four pole positions so far in 2025, all the sprint wins available and three out of the four Grand Prix. The combination of Marquez and the factory Ducati is clearly proving to be one that, as of now, is looking somewhat unbeatable, and Qatar reinforced that thinking.
Has Quartararo turned a corner on the 2025 Yamaha?
While it was only Fabio Quartararo who made a real impact in Qatar for Team Blue, the signs were much more positive for the Iwata-based brand, as the 2021 MotoGP champion qualified an unlikely third before challenging faster bikes around him in the early stages of both races.
Quartararo ended the Grand Prix less than 13 seconds off the win, and while that might not impress many at face value, those margins for riders aboard the M1 have been a lot larger over the last few years.
Quartararo came across the line in a very strong P7 during last Sunday’s Grand Prix as he managed to beat the likes of Pedro Acosta, Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini on a much-improved Honda that was taken to P4 by Johann Zarco. It’s clear that Lusail, together with Quartararo’s performance, showed the M1 in a good light, although the true test will be to do that over the coming rounds.
Quartararo showed his immense talent by competing at the front in qualifying and both races given the dominance of Ducati once again, and as a result we believe it's clear that if Yamaha has made the necessary steps forward, then we can expect to see him floating around the front row and podium places more often in 2025.
The rookie of the year battle is on!
Ai Ogura was sensational through the first two rounds in particular, and while others took more time to adjust from Moto2 to MotoGP, it appears as though Fermin Aldeguer is a contender for the Japanese rookie going forward.
Aldeguer was not just fast in Qatar, as he also showed really good pace in the second half of both races, which is not easy for a rookie, especially at this stage in the season where they are still learning the bikes.
On top of that, Aldeguer was able to move forward in both races after starting eighth, eventually claiming P5 in the Grand Prix, which was one place lower than his efforts in the sprint race.
With the battle to secure top rookie in 2025 looking set to rumble on, one thing to remember is that Aldeguer has the advantage of being aboard last year’s title-winning GP24 bike which remains a very competitive machine against other brands, but also the new Desmosedici GP25.
Top Gun is back with a bang!
No, we don’t mean there’s a third Top Gun movie featuring Tom Cruise on the way! We mean Maverick Vinales after the Spanish rider finally showed us what he’s capable of aboard the KTM RC16.
With Acosta leading the way for much of 2025 when it comes to the four KTM riders, the 20-year-old would have been the obvious choice if you had asked us who would fight for a race win from the Austrian company’s four-strong line-up.
But it was not the former Moto3 and Moto2 world champion, as Vinales, who also qualified as the top KTM rider in Qatar, produced a performance that shocked many.
If you look at the results of the Grand Prix, my statement which reads “Top Gun is back with a bang” will look wildly out of place, but that’s because Vinales was relegated to 14th in the final classification due to the tyre pressure rule which is driving riders, teams, and quite frankly myself crazy at this stage.
Vinales received a 16-second post-race time penalty for a low tyre pressure, after the MotoGP race winner with Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia finished second behind Marquez.
That doesn’t even tell the full story because Vinales led for a few laps and looked every bit a match for Marquez before a mistake allowed the Ducati rider through. From there, Vinales couldn’t quite hang with Marquez, but he pulled away from Francesco Bagnaia in third.
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After graduating with a sports journalism degree, Robert joined Crash.net to lead the WorldSBK coverage in 2021, while also providing MotoGP coverage. Fulfilling that role for over three years, Robert was able to put his knowledge about all things racing to the test.
