The Winners and Losers of the 2025 MotoGP Season
27 November 2025The 2025 MotoGP season gave us unbelievable results, at both extremes.
Whilst some riders vastly exceeded expectations, others experienced a season that left them disappointed, and desperately waiting for the Winter break.
Let’s look back at the winners and losers of the 2025 season:
The Winners
Alex Marquez
- Overall Championship Position: 2nd
- Best Grand Prix Result: 1st (Grand Prix of Spain, Grand Prix of Catalonia, Grand Prix of Malaysia)
- Worst Grand Prix Result (Not including DNFs): 14th (Grand Prix of Hungary)
With a previous best MotoGP Championship position of 8th in 2024, Alex Marquez is easily the rider who has shown most improvement this season. The BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP rider had steadily improved his overall performance with each season he had spent in the MotoGP paddock, but it’s fair to say that he had not been considered as a title contender for 2025. Right from the 2025 season’s first round in Thailand though, Marquez was fighting at the front, and achieving podium finishes. In 2025, Marquez went from achieving zero wins in the premier class to three, with his victories in Jerez, Catalunya, and Sepang, and albeit briefly, spent time leading the World Championship standings. This was the season that Alex Marquez cemented himself as a serious title contender, and dismissed any speculation that he was only in the MotoGP paddock because of his older brother.
Staying with the Gresini Racing team, but this time with a factory spec bike, Alex Marquez will be looking to add more victories to his name in 2026 and hopefully battle with his brother once again for the MotoGP title.
Marc Marquez
- Overall Championship Position: 2nd
- Best Grand Prix Result: 1st (Grand Prix of Spain, Grand Prix of Catalonia, Grand Prix of Malaysia)
- Worst Grand Prix Result (Not including DNFs): 12th (Grand Prix of Spain)
Coming into the 2025 MotoGP season, all eyes were on Marc Marquez as he made his debut with the Ducati Lenovo Team. Having finished 3rd overall in 2024 in his first year riding a Ducati, as a rider for satellite team Gresini Racing, MotoGP fans all over the world were keen to see what Marquez would achieve on a factory spec machine, and he did not disappoint. Across the season, Marquez showed us truly brilliant racing, and reached some incredible milestones, including equalling and then surpassing Ángel Nieto’s record of victories across all classes. Though for Marquez, surely no moment from the 2025 season comes close to the emotional 2nd place finish at the Grand Prix of Japan that saw him clinch his ninth World Championship title.
Marquez’s impressive form had many wondering whether he would break his own record for most Grand Prix wins in a MotoGP season (currently standing at thirteen from Marquez’s dominant 2014 season), but a crash during the first lap of the Grand Prix of Indonesia saw him sustain injuries to his shoulder - injuries thankfully unrelated to those he sustained previously.
Marquez missed the final rounds of the 2025 season, along with the Valencia test, to undergo surgery and focus on recovery. His season came to a premature end, but there is no doubt that Marquez will look back on 2025 with a huge amount of happiness and relief, and will be focused on getting himself back to full fitness to defend his title in 2026, continuing his work with the Ducati Lenovo Team.
Marco Bezzecchi
- Overall Championship Position: 3rd
- Best Grand Prix Result: 1st (Grand Prix of the United Kingdom, Grand Prix of Portugal, Grand Prix of the Valencian Community)
- Worst Grand Prix Result (Not including DNFs): 14th (Grand Prix of Spain, Grand Prix of France)
Moving to a different team, and working with a different manufacturer, is a challenging task for any MotoGP rider, and has historically been met with varied results. Alongside this, having the reigning MotoGP World Champion as your new teammate is sure to pile on the pressure. This was the set up for Marco Bezzecchi’s 2025 season, his first season with Aprilia Racing. As if the pressure to perform well wasn’t already high enough for Bezzecchi, Jorge Martin’s injuries throughout the season made Bezzecchi’s performance even more critical to the team’s development and success.
In Martin’s absence, Bezzecchi impressively rose to the occasion and boldly led the team to three Grand Prix victories, becoming the first Aprilia rider to win three races in the same season. Bezzecchi proved that the Aprilia was capable of fighting up front with the Ducatis, with the battle between Marc Marquez and Bezzecchi during the Grand Prix of San Marino and the Rimini Riviera being a thrilling display of talent, determination, and horsepower combined.
Bezzecchi has shown himself to be one of the top riders that could challenge Marc Marquez for victories and potentially the Championship in 2026, and will be striving for further success with the Aprilia Racing team, whilst managing the competition from Jorge Martin on the other side of the garage.
The Losers
Somkiat Chantra
- Overall Championship Position: 26th
- Best Grand Prix Result (Not including DNFs): 13th (Grand Prix of Indonesia)
- Worst Grand Prix Result (Not including DNFs): 19th (Grand Prix of the United Kingdom)
Somkiat Chantra had a huge task ahead of him as he entered the MotoGP paddock, becoming the first Thai rider to race full-time in MotoGP. Joining the Idemitsu Honda LCR team, with a bike that was not known for achieving strong results, whilst navigating negative comments surrounding his suitability for the MotoGP class, was a challenge. There is no doubt that Chantra is a talented rider, having won the 2016 Asia Talent Cup, and achieving victories and other podium finishes during his time in the Moto2 World Championship. However, 2025 saw him unable to replicate those results in MotoGP, and Chantra ended the season with seven points, scoring those points across five grands prix, achieving his best result of 13th at the Grand Prix of Indonesia.
Like many other riders throughout 2025, Chantra’s season was impacted by injuries. Arm pump surgery after the Grand Prix of Spain saw Chantra ruled out of the Grand Prix of France, and a ligament injury sustained during a training accident saw him miss a further four rounds.
Chantra is the only rider featured in this article who won’t be returning to MotoGP for 2026, having moved over to the WorldSBK paddock for next season. Chantra will be racing for the Honda HRC team alongside British rider Jake Dixon, and with both riders placing in the top 10 during their first day of testing, Chantra has shown a promising start to his career in the WorldSBK Championship.
Jorge Martin
- Overall Championship Position: 21st
- Best Grand Prix Result: 4th (Grand Prix of Hungary)
- Worst Grand Prix Result (Not including DNFs): 13th (Grand Prix of San Marino and the Rimini Riviera)
Going into the 2025 season as the reigning MotoGP World Champion, Jorge Martin was expected to be confident and ready to defend his title, even though he would be swapping his Ducati for an Aprilia - a significant change. However, Martin’s 2025 hopes were marred by consistent injuries across the season, during which he was only able to ride his #1 bike in seven grands prix.
The first day of pre-season testing in Sepang in February saw Martin fracture his right hand and left foot in a nasty highside, requiring surgery and ruling him out of any further participation in the test. Just a few weeks later, Martin was confirmed to be missing the season opener in Thailand after fracturing his left hand in a training crash, once again requiring surgery. Martin missed the first three rounds of the 2025 season as he recovered, and was ready to eventually make his debut with the #1 plate at the Grand Prix of Qatar. However, Martin suffered a further setback as a crash during Lap 14 of the grand prix resulted in a pneumothorax and several broken ribs, seeing Martin miss the following seven rounds as he received hospital treatment, then began his recovery and rehabilitation.
Returning for the final race before the Summer break, Martin’s determination was clear, and resulted in an admirable 7th place finish for what was his first completed grand prix of the season. Two rounds later, Martin secured his best result of the season - a 4th place finish, made even more impressive by him achieving this from 16th on the grid.
Bad luck continued to follow the 2024 World Champion though, as a horrible Lap 1 crash during the Sprint at the Grand Prix of Japan saw Martin take out teammate Bezzecchi, and suffer a displaced fracture of his right collarbone. With this injury also requiring surgery, Martin was absent from the following four rounds, before returning for the final race weekend to make a cautious return to racing, mindful of his pain and fatigue.
Martin will continue to race with Aprilia in 2026, despite rumours circulating during the 2025 season that he was looking to end his contract with the manufacturer early. Hopefully a season without further injuries lies ahead for Martin, so we are able to see what he is fully capable of on the Aprilia.
Francesco Bagnaia
- Overall Championship Position: 5th
- Best Grand Prix Result: 1st (Grand Prix of the Americas, Grand Prix of Japan)
- Worst Grand Prix Result (not including DNFs): 16th (Grand Prix of France)
Francesco Bagnaia had, quite simply, a miserable season in MotoGP this year. After narrowly missing out on the World Championship title in 2024, the two-time MotoGP World Champion was expected to be right up there once again, fighting for the title, and more importantly, battling with his new teammate, Marc Marquez.
Whilst the first few rounds did suggest that this would be the case for Bagnaia, as the season continued, it unfortunately became clear that he was experiencing issues with the GP25, specifically the front end, and was consistently unable to match the pace of his teammate. Bagnaia wasn’t alone with his struggles, with Pertamina Enduro VR46 MotoGP Team’s Fabio Di Giannantonio having similar experiences, but the stark contrast between Bagnaia’s previous seasons in MotoGP with the Ducati Lenovo Team and his results during the 2025 season, were what made the problem even more apparent. Growing frustrations between Bagnaia and the Ducati Lenovo Team were clear, as tweaks and changes weren’t enough to alleviate the problems, and both parties admitted they were running out of patience.
There were, at points, glimmers of hope throughout the latter part of the season that suggested Bagnaia’s woes were coming to an end, most notably the double win in Motegi, where he finished over four seconds ahead of Marc Marquez in 2nd place. But in a season where consistency was so integral to staying in the title fight, Bagnaia couldn’t manage this, and five consecutive DNFs in the last five grands prix of the 2025 season saw him eventually finish 5th in the Championship standings.
Overall, Bagnaia will be glad to turn the page on the 2025 season, and look ahead to what will hopefully be a stronger 2026 with the Ducati Lenovo Team.
There are currently only three riders with confirmed seats for the 2027 MotoGP season, and with several big names on the grid rumoured to be considering moving to different manufacturers, a strong performance in the first half of the 2026 season will be incredibly important for every rider, to secure their spot on the grid for the first year of MotoGP’s new regulations in 2027. With all riders using the Winter break as an opportunity to reflect, it’s clear that some will be looking to build upon their successes in 2025, whilst others will be hoping for a complete reset.
