Marquez grits his teeth to score another win
Marc Marquez overcame significant challenges from his own bike and his rivals to secure another win in the Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix.
Marquez wrestled the championship lead back from his brother Alex with the third win of the year and his hardest fought.
Earlier in the weekend the #93 continued its perfect streak of pole positions and Sprint wins.
In the Sprint the brothers went toe to toe early on with Alex having a look at the start of the second lap, but the Gresini rider could not make it stick.
Marc Marquez immediately reclaimed the lead and shot a second up the road and did not look back.
It was once again a Marquez one-two finish, extending their dominance of the season.
The battle to join the brothers on the podium was an interesting battle.
Fabio Quartararo was the closest challenger in the early stages before Franco Morbidelli surged past.
Things came to a head on the final lap with Quartararo, rookie Fermin Aldgeguer and Fabio Di Giannantonio all on his tail, but Morbidelli held on.
Meanwhile, further back Francesco Bagnaia was nowhere, only mustering eighth as he was angry with his fuel tank, while Australia’s Jack Miller gambled on the Soft tyre and it did not pay off at all, languishing in 19th.
Come Sunday night things were much tougher for Marc Marquez.
He set himself up for a calm ride under the Lusail lights with a great start, but things bottled up at the opening turn where the #93 ran wide.
A heavy collision with his own brother left the eldest with significant damage to the seat unit winglets.
All the drama allowed Morbidelli to charge into the lead as Alex also dropped behind the fast starting Maverick Vinales and Di Giannantonio.
Alex Marquez tried to immediately fire back with a move on Di Giannantonio at Turn 12, but even more contact was made.
Both riders ran wide with Marquez falling to 12th, while his VR46 rival’s race was ruined going all the way to the back.
This clash parted the seas for Bagnaia, who was suddenly a factor in the top three.
But the rider with the most pace was Vinales and he attacked Morbidelli on Lap 16.
The KTM rider did so successfully, snatching the lead and bringing the factory Ducatis along with him.
Vinales put himself in position to take a shock win, leading the mid part of the race until Lap 16 of 22 when one mistake proved decisive.
The Spaniard ran wide at Turn 6 which presented the perfect gift for Marc Marquez to reclaim the lead.
The #93 rider was not going to let anything rob him of a second shot at victory as he blazed more than a second up the road.
Despite having Bagnaia breathing down his neck in the closing laps, Vinales held on for second.
But in devastating news for KTM Tech 3, Vinales received a post race 16s penalty for low tyre pressures which dropped him to 14th.
It pushed Morbidelli onto the podium, while Alex Marquez might have lost the championship lead, but still fought hard, making late ground to reclaim sixth.
There were a number of fallers including Australia’s Miller, plus Joan Mir and Augusto Fernandez.
But the biggest victim was Jorge Martin, who could not finish the first race of his title defence with Aprilia after missing the first three meetings with injury.
Marc Marquez took the blame for the bash with his brother and labelled this success as his best of 2025 so far.
“I’m super happy, especially because to myself it’s the most important weekend of the season,” he added.
“Because Thailand, Argentina, Austin were good circuits for me but here was the first circuit where I said ‘ok, maybe I will struggle a little bit’.
“But just I worked a lot during the weekend. I did a step on the right fast corners, which was also super important.
“The contact with Alex was a little bit more my mistake than his mistake, because I just opened the gas and I felt like the rear was going.
“I closed the gas again and he didn’t expect it.”
The European season will descend on MotoGP starting with the famous Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez on April 25-27.
2025 Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix results
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Time/Diff |
| 1 | Marc Marquez | SPA | Ducati Lenovo (GP25) | 41m 29.186s |
| 2 | Francesco Bagnaia | ITA | Ducati Lenovo (GP25) | +4.535s |
| 3 | Franco Morbidelli | ITA | Pertamina VR46 Ducati (GP24) | +6.495s |
| 4 | Johann Zarco | FRA | Castrol Honda LCR (RC213V) | +6.668s |
| 5 | Fermin Aldeguer | SPA | BK8 Gresini Ducati (GP24)* | +7.484s |
| 6 | Alex Marquez | SPA | BK8 Gresini Ducati (GP24) | +9.764s |
| 7 | Fabio Quartararo | FRA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +12.895s |
| 8 | Pedro Acosta | SPA | Red Bull KTM (RC16) | +14.219s |
| 9 | Marco Bezzecchi | ITA | Aprilia Racing (RS-GP25) | +14.368s |
| 10 | Luca Marini | ITA | Honda HRC Castrol (RC213V) | +15.137s |
| 11 | Enea Bastianini | ITA | Red Bull KTM Tech3 (RC16) | +17.459s |
| 12 | Alex Rins | SPA | Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) | +17.563s |
| 13 | Brad Binder | RSA | Red Bull KTM (RC16) | +17.632s |
| 14 | Maverick Viñales | SPA | Red Bull KTM Tech3 (RC16) | +1.800s+16s |
| 15 | Ai Ogura | JPN | Trackhouse Aprilia (RS-GP25)* | +18.758s |
| 16 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | ITA | Pertamina VR46 Ducati (GP25) | +26.340s |
| 17 | Raul Fernandez | SPA | Trackhouse Aprilia (RS-GP25) | +26.925s |
| 18 | Somkiat Chantra | THA | Idemitsu Honda LCR (RC213V)* | +38.186s |
| Jorge Martin | SPA | Aprilia Racing (RS-GP25) | DNF | |
| Augusto Fernandez | SPA | Pramac Yamaha (YZR-M1) | DNF | |
| Joan Mir | SPA | Honda HRC Castrol (RC213V) | DNF | |
| Jack Miller | AUS | Pramac Yamaha (YZR-M1) | DNF |
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