“Statement Of Intent.”
Okay, time for Part 2 of my Dre’s Race Review series for the busiest weekend in Motorsport ever, and it’s time to review what felt like a critical weekend in the MotoGP Championship, and the travelling circus headed to Lusail International Circuit for the Grand Prix of Qatar. And with it, we got one of the most sour-feeling races from the series for some time. Let’s talk about why.
Reversal Of Fate
COTA felt like the first major flashpoint of the 2025 season. Marc Marquez started the season perfectly in Thailand and Argentina, but the eagle-eyed pundits knew that those were two of Marc’s stronger rounds. COTA was an open goal for Marc, and he made a colossal mistake by overthinking on the grid and then losing concentration when leading by multiple seconds. Just like that, Marc lost the Championship lead and gave Bagnaia a huge 30-point swing. As mentioned at the time, Marc Marquez is the original carrier of the Bozo gene. Kazuya Mishima, before the bloodline.
And man, did it rear its ugly head in Qatar. Pecco Bagnaia suffered his first meaningful crash of the season in Q2, losing the rear and sliding off at Turn 4, a corner that gave the whole field a heap of trouble. It forced him to start both the race and the GP from 11th place. And in the Sprint, he struggled to find his rhythm until over halfway through, and could only manage seventh. With Marc Marquez pulling away from Alex for their sixth 1-2 finish of the year, it was 9 more points gained for MM93.
The Grand Prix was a different story. Marc took the hole shot, but a late apex at Turn 1 forced him to sit the bike up early, losing a part of his rear wing’s aero, and letting third-place rider Franco Morbidelli lead the early laps.
Marquez looked genuinely rattled early as he figured his pace out, with Pecco Bagnaia making a pass early before Marc countered into Turn 1. It was as close as Pecco would come to the win, as Marc had a surprise challenger we’ll get to a minute after Alex Marquez outbroke himself and clattered into the side of Fabio DiGiannantonio, damaging his front aero fairing and dropping him to seventh.
Bagnaia had some of the damage mitigated to finish second in the end, but he ended up being beaten by Marquez on the road by four and a half seconds, on a track that Marc hadn’t won at in 11 years. A track that Pecco comfortably won last year and a Ducati stronghold. That’s an emotional hammerblow. Jerez is next in a fortnight, and that’s arguably Pecco’s best track, winning there for the last three years, and a win over Marc last year. Just one problem… Marc’s not on the GP23 anymore. If Pecco loses that one… where is he winning?
We’re four race weekends deep. So far, the only person who’s beaten Marc Marquez… has been himself.
Heart Of A Champion
But let’s be real here, the reason this race is being talked about is because of Jorge Martin. The World Champion’s first week of the season, since a training crash in pre-season, broke the scaphoid bone in his left hand. Jorge had ridden surprisingly well for his first time out, finishing out of the points, but keeping the bike upright and within a couple a seconds a lap of the big hitters.
The weekend was going to plan as a tester for Martin to get some race sharpness… until horror struck halfway through the race. Martin crashed on the outside of Turn 12, having run over the elevated kerbs installed for F1, landing on top of them. But sadly, Diggia was running right next to Martin as he crashed, and the Italian clipped him during the crash, causing massive injuries.
Jorge Martin has 11 broken ribs and a collapsed lung. He was sent to the local Hospital and will be staying for several days to see how his lung recovers. I’m playing this down, but let me make it clear… Jorge Martin is lucky to be alive tonight. There is no timeline for his return to racing, and honestly, none of that matters right now.
A visibly shaken Diggia after the race, described it as: “The worst scene of my life.”
A lot has been made of the race continuing despite the accident, with Martin visibly treated just off the edge of the track. Now, I know the TV can sometimes flatter in terms of angle. But if a rider needs a trip to the hospital and needs more than two minutes of medical treatment before he can be moved, I think you need to Red Flag the race and make sure the rider is safe. I do sometimes struggle to ponder just how much it takes for Race Direction to get to that point, and that thought alone scares me. It’s an issue that keeps cropping up when races are happening, and injuries happen, and it’s frustrating to watch as a fan.
But again… none of this feels like it matters. We’re so very lucky Martin is still with us. There’s nothing that could have been done to prevent it, and that, my friends, is the unfortunate peril that is bike racing.
*sighs*
Maverick By Nature
Is it safe to call Maverick Vinales’ race the surprise of the season so far?
KTM has been… and I’m being kind here, treading water for 2025 so far. Nothing particularly bad, but nothing to write home about as they trade punches with Yamaha, KTM and Aprilia. Until Qatar, the best any KTM had finished on the road this season was seventh.
So to have Maverick qualify on the second row was a nice surprise. Maverick kept us guessing in the Sprint as he fell to 10th and out of the points. But in the Grand Prix, he came alive. He stuck with the leading group and then made moves to rally past Morbidelli, Bagnaia, and Marquez to lead half the race. He ran wide late on to open the door for Marc to pass him at the Turn 6 hairpin with 4 laps to go, and that was the opening for Marc to go on and win, but a second place performance on the road is ridiculous for Maverick Vinales and exactly what KTM needed – Some proof that their bike is still competitive at moments. Easy to forget that Brad Binder was on the podium at this very race a year ago.
*sees Maverick Vinales under investigation for tyre pressures*
MOTHERFUC-
And that’s just the problem. Maverick was too good. Because he spent so much time leading at the front of the race, his tyre pressures were too low, and he failed to make 60% of the required laps in the window for his bike to be compliant. As a result, he took the 16-second time penalty and dropped to 14th. A crushing blow for the Tech3 team and KTM as a whole.
I hate having to write again about how friggin’ stupid this system has become. Marc Marquez intentionally gave up the lead in Thailand six weeks ago because he knew he was in trouble of running foul of the same rule via his dashboard when he led early. The fact that he had to do that in a RACE is ridiculous on every level.
But this is what happens when the sport generates the perfect storm of bullshit. The teams brought this on themselves. They were taking liberties with tyre pressures and dodging the sensors, likely for years before Mat Oxley rumbled them after the 2022 Spanish GP. It was at a point where teams were sending their riders out with tyres as low as 14 PSI (A police officer is calling that flat if he pulls you over), and then acting surprised when we had Lap 1 crashes as a result.
The sport couldn’t figure out how to handle the problem. Mid-season regulation changes, and a warning system where everyone got a “Joker” where they could go over without penalty. Then the sport went the complete other way and tried to make it a technical regulation, only to back down at the last minute when the riders and teams appealed, leading us to the time penalties we have now.
And on top of that, measures that the sport could have taken were left lagging. Michelin took a while to adapt, but they had developed a new tyre that could have solved a lot of the issues with front grip, which the riders loved last year, but it was scrapped because there wasn’t enough testing. The sport isn’t mandating more testing in general due to expenses, and now Michelin’s confirmed to be gone at the end of next year, which makes me wonder – Are they even going to bother developing anything more, given it’s essentially dead money to them?
The tyre pressure debacle is a collective failure from all the major players in the sport, and it’s embarrassing that nearly three years have passed since the public news of this broke, and we’re still having to roll our heads over a completely avoidable mess.
At least KTM can take some hope out of the weekend, even if the result didn’t stand. Because it can’t be fun when Pedro Acosta is going back in time to the 2024-spec bike, right?
The Lightning Round
Sincerely, I hope Fabio DiGiannantonio gets a hug and has some love and support around him, from all accounts I read, he seemed visibily shaken by what had happened, the poor man. Horrendous.
Johann Zarco. 4th. On a Honda. And just six seconds off the win. He’s been incredible in settling the ship for the Japanese factory, and he’s third amongst the independents in the overall standings, with one of them in front on a GP25. Madness.
Someone please get Fabio Quartararo a Ducati, immediately. First front row start for Yamaha since 2022, and seeing that bike get swept up because of the lack of top end during the Sprint and the Race was painful. Said before that Fabs has been too loyal for his own good, and it seems that pre-season testing was a bit of a false dawn, especially in terms of race pace.
Credit to GhostRaptor on our Discord Server for pointing this one out, but as it stands right now, if scoring continues at this pace, when the concessions checkpoint hits in Brno, EVERYONE will be in Tier D except for Ducati…
Ducati – 148/148 (100%)
Honda – 49/148 (33%)
Aprilia – 43/148 (29%)
KTM – 42/148 (28%)
Yamaha – 42/148 (28%)
The cutoff for Tier C is 40%. Ducati hasn’t just been perfect this year; they’ve locked out every podium in 2025 so far as well. Jesus Christ.
Why can’t Aron Canet ride every Moto2 race like that one? Man, that was perfect. My pick for the Moto3 title in Angel Piqueras is looking stronger by the race weekend as well, although I’m gutted for Taiyo Furusato missing out by just nine thousandths of a second. If he didn’t take the defensive line on the final corner, he wins. Brutal. Still, I think it’s the first time we’ve had two Japanese riders on a GP podium since 2014.
The Verdict: 6.5/10 (Decent) – This wasn’t bad at all. An excellent first half, seeing Morbidelli lead, Marc Marquez have to work for it from a vulnerable position, and the rise of Maverick Vinales. It all spread out and got a bit processional at the end, but this worked out fine in the end. Get well soon, Jorge.
