Marc Marquez significantly extended his 2025 MotoGP championship lead after winning the Qatar Grand Prix, seeing off a shock challenge from Tech3 KTM rider Maverick Vinales.
Leading positions
1 M Marquez
2 Vinales
3 Bagnaia
Full results at bottom of page
A collision between the Marquez brothers was the big flashpoint of the early going, as Marc kept the lead off the line but went wide at Turn 1 and was tagged hard by Alex coming out of the corner - doing damage to the seat unit winglets on the elder Marquez's Ducati.
The contact allowed Franco Morbidelli’s VR46 Ducati to sneak into the lead, with Alex Marquez dropping into fourth behind the quick-starting Vinales - then being overtaken by Fabio Di Giannantonio.
He tried to work his way back past the VR46 man immediately, but a half-hearted lunge at Turn 12 only yielded more contact, sending both riders wide, with Marquez rejoining seventh and Di Giannantonio at the back, his race effectively ruined.
All this melee allowed Pecco Bagnaia to effectively negate his poor qualifying, the two-time champion quickly up to fourth that became third with a Turn 1 move on Vinales on lap fourth - and then second as he drafted past Marc Marquez the next time around.
In meantime Morbidelli had led by as much as a second, but the Italian has struggled so far in his Ducati tenure to maintain race pace over a full distance - and this race was no different.
Bagnaia, the elder Marquez and Vinales quickly began bearing back down on him - and they continued to trade positions in the meantime, Vinales fighting past the two factory Ducatis before arriving at the back of Morbidelli.
Morbidelli covered off Vinales into the final corner on lap 16, but Vinales still outdragged him on the main straight - with Marquez using the slipstream to get past, too.
Bagnaia, who had dropped back in that phase of the race, got past that very same lap - but remained a fair way back from the leading duo as Marquez latched on to the back of Vinales.
Though the KTM had looked a menace on its tyres for much of the season - and indeed, for much of the weekend - Vinales kept himself in the lead for longer than expected, but on lap 16 of 22 he went in wide at Turn 6 and Marquez needed no second invitation to reclaim the lead.
Marquez was firmly in control from there on, yet Vinales still had another surprise in store by maintaining good enough pace to force Bagnaia to throw in the towel in the fight for second.
However, Vinales is under post-race investigation over tyre pressures - which, if he is deemed to be in breach, will demote him to 14th in the classification.
Behind the podium battle, Morbidelli stabilised his pace drop-off and just held on to fourth ahead of LCR Honda's Johann Zarco - whose fifth-place finish was still the best grand prix finish by a Honda rider since Motegi 2023.
Rookie Fermin Aldeguer completed by far the best weekend of his MotoGP career so far in sixth for Gresini.
The Di Giannantonio collision left Alex Marquez with a long-lap penalty that ended up dropping him to 12th, from which he recovered to seventh in the end - breaking his streak of seven consecutive second-place finishes.
Fabio Quartararo didn't quite have the same pace as in the sprint but was still the lead Yamaha in eighth, ahead of Pedro Acosta (KTM) and Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia).
Di Giannantonio was one of the faster riders at the end of the race but ended up 16th, out of the points. During his recovery ride he'd collided with Joan Mir and picked up a long-lap penalty of his own.
Mir stayed on his Honda in that collision but - having missed the sprint due to gastroenteritis - ultimately pulled into the pits to retire.
Three riders crashed out of the race, one of them being the returning reigning champion Jorge Martin - who dropped it over the kerb and has been taken to the medical centre after receiving medical attention at the side of the track.
Also crashing out were Pramac Yamaha riders Jack Miller and Augusto Fernandez.
Results
1 Marc Marquez (Ducati)
2 Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) +1.800s
3 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +4.535s
4 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +6.495s
5 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +6.668s
6 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +7.484s
7 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +9.764s
8 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +12.895s
9 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +14.219s
10 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +14.368s
11 Luca Marini (Honda) +15.137s
12 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +17.459s
13 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +17.563s
14 Brad Binder (KTM) +17.632s
15 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +18.758s
16 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +26.340s
17 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +26.925s
18 Somkiat Chantra (LCR Honda) +38.186s
DNF Jorge Martin (Aprilia)
DNF Augusto Fernandez (Pramac Yamaha)
DNF Joan Mir (Honda)
DNF Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha)
