MotoGP team-mate rivalries
29 April 2025Just like in Formula 1, MotoGP team-mates are a rider’s first and only benchmark. With razor-thin margins and identical machinery, comparisons emerge naturally and when you have two titans of the sport side-by-side, it often leads to fireworks. Here are our favourite MotoGP team-mate rivalries.
2025: Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia
Although still in its infancy, this team-mate battle has the potential to be legendary.
Marc Marquez may have made an instant and significant splash in his first races as a factory Ducati rider, but Pecco Bagnaia is a respected champion in his own right, and won’t take this lying down.
The contrast between Marc’s innately untamed riding style and Pecco’s more balanced, consistent approach will undoubtedly be a talking point throughout 2025 and will surely see them come to blows at some point.
2006-2008: Nicky Hayden & Dani Pedrosa
When a fresh-faced Dani Pedrosa made the step up to the premier class in 2006, he carried the momentum of three consecutive World Championships from the 125 and 250cc categories.
The Spaniard partnered Nicky Hayden at Honda and both riders his the ground running with the former taking a second and a win and the latter securing four podiums in the opening four races.
Hayden’s consistency put him right in the fight for the title come the end of the season, but tension between the two reached fever pitch at the penultimate round at Estoril, where Pedrosa took out his team-mate.
The American bounced back to win the title in Valencia, but Pedrosa had made his intentions known and backed them up when he finished runner-up the following season.
2007-2010, 2013-2016: Valentino Rossi & Jorge Lorenzo
Few team-mate battles have been quite as controversial and explosive as Rossi vs Lorenzo. The arrival of the young Spaniard at Yamaha ruffled feathers, not least because he was a rising star joining forces with one of the all-time greats of the sport.
The rivalry brought with it some iconic moments: the wall in the garage, intense on-track clashes, most notably in the iconic last lap duel at the 2009 Spanish Grand Prix, and both riders lifting titles in Yamaha colours.
When Rossi returned to the team in 2013 after a spell with Ducati, tensions had simmered. That was until 2015 relit those fires.
That year saw one of the fiercest championship battles in the sport’s history, with Rossi and Lorenzo going hammer and tongs all season long.
