The fifth round of the MotoGP, the Spanish Grand Prix, was held from April 25th to 27th at the Jerez Circuit-Ángel Nieto in Spain, with Marc Marquez (Ducati) winning the sprint race and Alex Marquez (Ducati) winning the final race.
Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) also took second place in the final race, earning his first podium finish since the Indonesian Grand Prix in 2023. Rookie Ai Ogura (Aprilia), the only Japanese rider competing in the MotoGP class, finished 12th in the sprint race and 8th in the final race.
Alex Marquez finally achieves his first victory
The Spanish Grand Prix marks the start of the European race season, which will see MotoGP travelling around Europe from now until September.
The rider who took pole position in Q2 (qualifying 2) of the Spanish Grand Prix was Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo. Yamaha has struggled in recent years, and even 2021 champion Quartararo ended the 2024 season without a win or podium finish.
However, his performance has been gradually improving in the 2025 season, and he secured third place in Q2 at the previous race, the Qatar Grand Prix, earning him a front row position. Quartararo will now be starting from the front row for the second consecutive race at the following Spanish Grand Prix.
In the sprint race (12 laps) held on Saturday afternoon, Quartararo crashed. Marc Marquez (Ducati) won the race. Alex Marquez (Ducati) came in second, and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) came in third. Ai Ogura (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) finished in 12th place.
Sunday’s race was 25 laps long. Quartararo, who started from pole position, took the holeshot. Bagnaia moved up to second, and M. Marquez was third. Behind Quartararo, Bagnaia and Marquez were engaged in a fierce battle for second place, and while the two were fighting, Quartararo opened up a gap of 0.7 seconds.
Quartararo was in the lead, followed by Bagnaia in second and M. Marquez in third, but on the third lap, M. Marquez suffered an unexpected crash at Turn 8. He rejoined the race, but dropped to near the back of the pack, dropping M. Marquez out of contention for the win or podium.
On the fifth lap, Marquez’s younger brother, Alex Marquez (Ducati), passed Bagnaia to move up to second place. Quartararo still held the lead, but the gap to A. Marquez, who had been showing overwhelming performance up to that point, was now just 0.3 seconds, making for a tough situation.
In second place, A. Márquez continued to lap behind Quartararo for a while, but on lap 11, under braking for the first corner, he made a well-timed pass on Quartararo, taking the lead and Quartararo dropping back to second. A. Márquez’s pace was excellent, and he quickly overtook Quartararo to build a lead of nearly one second.
Marquez, who was in the lead, had opened up a gap of more than two seconds to Quartararo and was now traveling alone. Quartararo maintained his second place, while Bagnaia, who had been keeping a gap of around 0.5 seconds to Quartararo and completing laps, remained in third place as the final stages approached.
Marc Marquez took the checkered flag in first place, marking his first MotoGP race victory in his home country of Spain. With Marc Marquez’s younger brother Alex Marquez taking the win, the Marquez brothers became the first brothers to win a MotoGP race together.
Quartararo took second place. This podium was the first for both Yamaha and Quartararo since the Indonesian Grand Prix in 2023. Ducati had been dominating the podium since the Japanese Grand Prix in 2024, but Quartararo’s podium finish ended this streak.
Bagnaia came in third place, and although he was unable to win, he has continued to consistently finish on the podium.
Coming in fourth place was KTM’s Maverick Viñales, who also finished second in the previous race, the Qatar Grand Prix. After the race, he was given a 16-second time penalty for a tire pressure infringement, which ultimately resulted in him finishing in 14th place, but he continued to show good performance in this race, following on from the Qatar Grand Prix.
M. Marquez, who crashed early in the race, finished in 12th place.
Ogura started from 15th place and made a big move up the ranks to finish in 8th place.
The sixth round of the season, the French Grand Prix, will be held at the Le Mans-Bugatti Circuit in France from May 9th to 11th.
Alex Marquez (#73) has won sprint races before, but this was his first win in a final race. ©MotoGP.com
Ogura started from the back of the pack but finished in 8th place. ©Trackhouse Racing
