He’s back! The Qatar GP with Boris

MotoGP 2025

Round Four – Qatar – Lusail – Sunday

Nothing a bit of bum-ramming doesn’t fix!

The MotoGP circus arrived in the Qatari desert with only one question – how can anyone stop the Marquez Mafia from continuing to piss Spanish victory into everyone’s cordial?

So far, Marc had won everything – apart from an own goal in COTA when he munted himself off the track. Of course, the biggest surprise in 2025 has been his brother, Alex, who has been riding close shotgun on his elder sibling, and was leading the championship as they arrived in Qatar.

What the hell was going on there? A possible explanation could be Alex’s new choice of eyewear – a clear pair of horn-rimmed glasses he perches above his massive gum-line each time he grids up. It’s possible he’s partially blind, and the specs realign his retinas for each race. Hard to say.

The brothers repeated their one-two dominance in the Sprint, and when they lined up, one and two, for Sunday’s main event, no-one really expected a different result.

Fabulous had somehow managed to wedge his struggling-but-a-bit-improved Yamaha into third, and both the VR46 blokes, Morbidelli and Digi, had been respectably quick in Practice and Qualifying. The boss, Don Rossi, was at the track. And no-one wants to disappoint the Godfather. So there were vague glimmers of hope. Marc had never won a MotoGP race in Qatar, but Digi had back in 2023.

But on the first corner, as Marc once again rocketed into the lead, his brother suddenly reverted back to his familiar rear-ending form and rammed him from behind. A chunk of Marc’s rear stegosaurus aero flew into the night, and Morbidelli went howling into the lead.

Digi quickly wedged himself into fourth, and a cranky Pecco, who had been chucked back to eleventh on the grid, started to carve his way to the front. Much to everyone’s surprise, including his own, Maverick Vinales was also at the pointy end.

Everyone was on Medium/Medium Michelin slicks, and the prediction was the tyres would start to fall off a cliff some five or six laps from the end of the race. Whoever managed them the best would reap the rewards at the tail-end of the contest.

Franki quickly made a nice one-second gap back to Marc, who looked to be holding up the rest of the field, but that was one of those illusions he throws up now and again. He was just foxing.

But his brother was not finished being a crazed bum-rammer. As Digi relegated him back to fourth, Alex instantly fought back by shoving his Gresini into Digi’s Ducati, forcing them both off the track, and crueling any chance Digi might have had for a podium.

The stewards almost immediately slammed Alex with a Long Lap Penalty for riding like an irresponsible ape, but none of that helped Digi, who was still fuming after the race. He said Alex had “Completely destroyed my race”, and it was a “Strange and dangerous manoeuvre”, which was fairly accurate. He also called for harsher penalties, possibly one involving wild dogs, ropes, and shovels. And that sounded rather fair as well, seeing as how Alex still managed to get himself into sixth while Digi finished back in sixteenth.

Marc continued to fox at the front, and let Pecco past into second as Franki charged on in the lead. None of them were gapping Vinales, who was pushing his normally reluctant chatterbox of a KTM harder than seemed wise.

Zarco was once again the leading Honda, albeit a satellite LCR machine, and he was also not that far off the front. Mir retired, citing stomach issues, a nice change from his usual gravel-churning DNFs. And our beloved Jack Miller also sent himself into the rocks, complaining about stomach issues before the race as well. It’s possible neither of them are good with cous-cous and deep-fried camel.

The current world champion, Jorge Martin, was back for the first time this year. But no-one, including him, was expecting Martin to set the world alight on his Factory Aprilia.

He was clearly struggling in Practice and Qualifying, and started the race in 14^th, which was pretty good, considering his condition.

Prior to arriving at Qatar, he’d only done some 14 laps on his new bike in testing, before breaking ten bones in his body and pretty much putting paid to a title defence in 2025.

He got through the Sprint race, but crashed hard and fast in the main race, and was hauled off for a medical examination – and the results were not good. He was diagnosed with broken ribs and a drain was put in to drain fluid from his chest. His title defence is over, and it never really even started.

As the race entered the second half, it got even more interesting. Marc and Pecco engaged for second, and Marc came off the better. This upset Pecco a touch and that meant Maverick could relegate him to fourth. And then Batmav just went full send. It was beautiful to see.

He started threatening Marc, and their ensuing battle brought them up to Morbidelli, whose one-second lead was rapidly evaporating. Batmav then managed to somehow out-brake Marc into Turn One, turn his KTM with great success, and slam himself into second. Team boss, Herve Poncharal, was surely wetting himself in the pits.

KTM has been struggling a fair bit this year, and neither Acosta or Binder have been able to provide any hope, while poor old Beast is still trying to understand why his Austrian spanking paddle constantly wants to kill him. So what Vinales was doing at the front was anyone’s guess.

And then Batmav was really at the front. He passed Morbidelli and grabbed the lead, as Marc also sailed past the VR46 rider to secure second.

It quickly became a four-way shit-fight at the front, because Pecco could also see some hope of a podium. And he and Morbidelli went at it righteously, swapping places through several successive corners.

This duel gave Zarco a glimmer of optimism. He’d been hammering away in fifth, hoping rookie Fermin Aldegeur would stop pestering him. Zarco then managed to hunt Morbidelli down, but Franki fought back because the boss was watching, and he was already pissed about what had happened to Digi.

Batmav was in the lead, and as the race started to wind down, the predictable tyre drop-off started to make itself known. Maverick ultimately ran wide, and that allowed Marc to grab the lead, eke out a one-second gap, and that was how they sailed over the finish line – Marc, Maverick, and Pecco, who was really starting to suffer with grip towards the end.

The joy Vinales was radiating in Parc fermé was great to watch. But that did not last long when it was announced he was being investigated for tyre pressure issues. And then the penalty hammer fell. It was a sixteen-second penalty for having lower-than-permitted tyre pressures, and Maverick was relegated back to 16^th spot.

Brutal.

But this has never been a sport that cares about feelings, has it?

Marc is leading the championship once again, his bum-ramming brother is in second, and Pecco is a bit closer than he was a race ago. And now we all go back to Europe, where nothing is set in stone, and nothing is certain…well, part from Martin handing over the Number One plate at the end of the season.

Lusail MotoGP Race Results

2025 MotoGP Calendar