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Written by Nina Rogerson
The MotoGP season kicked off this weekend in Thailand for the first of twenty-two rounds. With an exciting season ahead of us, we’ve recapped some of the big stories from the first grand prix of 2025.
Jorge Martin to miss opening rounds.
One of the biggest stories from the first race weekend of 2025 was centred around the reigning world champion and his absence from the Grand Prix. Jorge Martin crashed on the opening day of the Sepang test and suffered fractures on his right hand and left foot. He was sidelined for the remainder of pre-season testing but had hopes of starting his title defence in Thailand.
Just days before the start of the season, it was announced that Martin had suffered another set of injuries in a training incident. Aprilia revealed that Martin’s new injuries consisted of damage to his left wrist, fractures to his right hand and heel fractures on his left foot. This meant that Martin would not start the season in Thailand, and it was revealed on Thursday that he would also miss the Argentinian Grand Prix in just under two weeks.
This definitely wasn’t the way Aprilia and Jorge Martin wanted to start the season with the number 1, but it looks like we’ll have to wait that little bit longer to see the World Champion on track.
Marc Marquez is here to dominate.
Image via @ducaticorse on X
Coming into this season we knew Marc Marquez was going to be a strong force. After all, he’s Marc Marquez and he’s on a GP25. He was super strong in pre-season testing so seeing him top FP1 on the first day wasn’t a shock. Even watching him lead the sprint from lap 1 to take the gold medal wasn’t a complete surprise.
Marc executed Plan A off the line for both the Sprint and the Grand Prix and came home in a dominating fashion both times. The strangest moment for the elder Marquez brother was during the main Grand Prix when he dropped back behind his younger brother Alex. At the time it was unclear what was wrong because he’d gone from being over a second ahead to dropping back into P2.
Marc revealed in the press conference that it was due to worries over his tyre pressure. He dropped behind Alex to ensure his tyre pressure did not drop too low from the clean air at the front. This is something we’ve seen Marc do before, in Assen last season he waved Di Giannantonio past to try and avoid a tyre pressure penalty but unfortunately got handed a penalty anyway.
Thankfully for Marquez, this time he avoided a tyre pressure penalty and was able to take a win at the opening round of the season for the first time since Qatar 2014.
Image via @marcmarquez93 on X
Alex Marquez could be a serious contender this season.
During the start pre-season all eyes were on Marc Marquez as he was making his GP25 debut, but it was clear as testing went on that his younger brother Alex also meant business this season. Alex comes away from the Thai Grand Prix with a Sprint podium and a Grand Prix podium, putting himself in the history books as one half of the first sibling 1-2 in modern MotoGP.
Jumping on the championship winning GP24 it’s obvious from the opening round that Alex Marquez will be a big name throughout the 2025 season. He’s still yet to win a Grand Prix himself but if comments from his brother are enough to go on, this year will be the year.
Ai Ogura already looks to be the pick for Rookie of the Year.
Image via @TrackhouseMoto on X
With three new rookies on the grid this season we’ll all be keeping a close eye on them to see who takes the title of Rookie of the Year. If you’d have looked at the rookies and the machinery they would be on this year, you would be forgiven for thinking that Fermin Aldeguer would enter as the favourite since he’s on a GP23.
But, following a strong performance in pre-season testing, it was Ai Ogura on the Aprilia that we were all looking at for the first round. It was a stunning debut for the Japanese rider with a P4 finish in the sprint and P5 in the Grand Prix. Ogura’s P5 finish on Sunday made for the best rookie debut GP result since none other than Marc Marquez back in 2013.
We know it’s only the first round and we’ve got 21 more GPs to tune into, but it does look like Ogura could be a strong podium contender this season.
KTM’s off-track struggles seem to be carrying over to be on-track struggles.
Image via @KTM_Racing on X
One of the big stories of the winter break was that KTM were going through some financial difficulties. There was a hearing for the Austrian company just days before the first grand prix where their restructuring programme was approved and they managed to avoid bankruptcy.
Last time we were at Thailand, which was only a few months ago, Pedro Acosta was on the podium. This year he finished in P19 after an early crash in the Grand Prix. Brad Binder managed to bring it home in 8th after a poor qualifying position, but it does just look like KTM are not where they want to be.
So, the 2025 MotoGP season has officially kicked off and it looks like it’s going to be a good one! We head to Argentina next where Marc Marquez will be hoping to continue this winning streak, but will teammate Bagnaia come back with a bite or will we perhaps see our last Argentinian Grand Prix winner, Marco Bezzecchi take his first win for Aprilia? Tune in in just under two weeks’ time to find out!
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