Round 4 of the 2025 MotoGP championship was held at the Lusail circuit in Qatar this weekend. Ducati’s Marc Marquez again came out on top with wins in both Saturday’s Sprint and the full-length GP on Sunday.
The podium on Saturday was filled out by Alex Marquez (Ducati) in second place and Franco Morbidelli (Ducati) in third. Sunday’s race saw Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) finish second and Morbidelli third.
Marc Marquez now has a 17 point lead in the championship over his brother Alex. For full results and points for Saturday’s Sprint race, visit the MotoGP site here. For full results and points for Sunday’s MotoGP race, visit the MotoGP site here.
Anyone here old enough to remember “The Honda Cup” days? Ducati isn’t quite there yet.
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I have had at least one Ducati since 1992. I have found that a lot of the general riding public has a bit of an “other” attitude about them. Honda is one the other end of that kind of scale. They are number one on the “not a Harley” list. So when MotoGP was the Honda Cup people kind of shrugged it off. They make every bike for everyone. But a Ducati Cup? Wait a sec. They make “other” bikes for weirdos like Mick.
I think the whole thing is fairly predictable. When 500GP went from the bare knuckle fairly inexpensive brawl it was to the all money consuming Formula One MotoGP series it has become, well, Ford and Chevy NASCAR turns into Ferrari and Mercedes Formula One. When the bodywork cost more to develop than the rest of the bike, you’re going to need a European bankroll to fund it.
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Bummer about the ridiculous tire pressure “rule” that hammered Vinales. They let the manufacturers run wild with aero, ride height devices and electronic nannies then come up and enforce some stupid rule regarding tire pressure.
Also at this point it seems MM is on track to get 22 poles and win 43 of the the 44 races. Only his crashing out at COTA and possible future crashes will prevent him from winning the rest. He has no competition whatsoever. Best rider on what is the best bike by a mile or 1.61km (for the rest of the world). I don’t mind so much though, it’s still much better than watching Nascar, F1 or any professional team sports.
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I’ll never understand the alure of watching other people have fun on television. I got rid of my last television in the nineties. I became intolerant of all the ads. It’s kind of funny watching the general public respond to successful ad campaigns. Suddenly everyone is clamoring for some product that I never heard of that is all but forgotten a year later. Why are the kids riding four stroke dirt bikes? That’s what’s on television.
Don’t get me started on the places that call themselves sports bars that are simply bars with a million televisions. Those aren’t sports bars. They are clearly TV bars where you eat, drink and soak in advertising.
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I thought the race was great with drama and some close battles. Not a fan of the tire pressure rule though
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I didn’t sign up for MotoGP this year because of the domination of Ducati and Marquez, so I’m not surprised at the results. I’m not a fan of the tire pressure rule and from the outside it looks like it’s so sensitive that if your bikes tire pressure isn’t initially set up for leading the race you better not. I appreciate that this rule was designed to run the tires within safety margins, but when have you ever seen a blowout on a MotoGP bike? Maybe they should go back to running any manufacturer’s tire at any pressure you want to risk? That would shake up the field and make it more of a race instead of following the leader. Crazy idea I know, but today’s MotoGP has lost it’s draw for me.
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what is the incentive to lead? in thailand, mm93 played his brother for a chump, let am73 lead, allowed his front tire to regain sufficient pressure, then move past for the win. bet he let mav into p1 also, to let mav’s tire cool and to let his heat up. it’s just odd that riding hard enuf to lead the race causes your tire to cool down. unless sandbagging has now become the winning tactic.
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i doubt MM wanted to follow anybody (for long) as he likely would have had his bike set up for leading (whereas MV surely did not) based on his Pole position and Sprint results. at the end of the sunday’s race MM said to his crew that he still had some pace left in case he needed it (*that’s gotta suck for Pecco who finished nearly 4 seconds off. some say Pecco’s season is expected to start at Jerez…we’ll see…MM is winning at tracks that he is not expected or favored to). iirc from the 18th lap onwards MM was lapping the fastest.
MM choosing not to simply follow whomever until the last 4-5 laps is what makes the races interesting and not much else.
sandbagging. interesting.
all the years MM struggled on the POS Honda, the odd time he followed the leader(s) through a particular section during practice/qualifying…he was routinely criticized by the forum experts for following whomever.
since the start of 2025 I’ve heard, on numerous occasions, other riders being praised for following (trying to at least) MM around and earning a higher grid positions. funny.
AM ‘was’ the points leader by following MM around and could be again the next time MM makes a big error.
There has been a few recent report/opinions from respectable race industry folks that it’s only MM that will beat MM.
like him or not he’s had a very impressive 2024 and more so (so far) 2025 season.
seems that since he’s on a good bike now he is not smashing into so many people so many times.
3:54 p.m, April 16.
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tire pressure and tire management is sure something.
Pecco used up too much tire getting to the front and had to leave off.
MM knew Frankie’s tire wouldn’t last and so he could hang back.
Vinales, like many others on the grid, starts off with below the allowed min PSI because they know riding mid pack will heat the tires into the allowable range. so KTM (and Vinales) aren’t heart broke about the 16 second penatly because they are happy to know/see MV can get the bike to the front (where the tire cooled off and voila). MV said (before he was awarded the 16 second) with MM and Pecco that the KTM is the first time he’s been on a fast bike (doesn’t tun so well though). wow.
MM said he started his race wen Pecco passed him.
very interesting.
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There have been a lot of complaints in the past couple years that aero has ruined MotoGP racing. You would think that with this years race results we would be bored beyond belief. Funny how its been pretty exciting each race. Also the tire pressure rule needs to change. Setting the bike up to ride mid pack and somehow the rider gets to the front and his pressure drops in the cooler air below the minimum for the required laps and he gets bumped 16 seconds back is just dumb. Start on the back of the grid next race or something like that makes more sense. What would make more sense is to run whatever pressure you want and suffer catastrophic loss of the tire like they did in the early 2000’s.
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Isn’t that cute? Look how Marc has taught his younger brother to run into people and endanger their safety. A regular dynasty of disaster.
I’m having a tough time figuring out the tire thing. It does seem that the people who violate the rule get good results. But wait a sec. Do these guys have some kind of zillion watt tire warmers that you can sunbathe next to? The bikes go fast, for four strokes, and have a ton of downforce. Are they bleeding tire pressure as they race with a rider operated control? I don’t get it. Maybe the next tire supplier won’t make tires that work better with less than minimum pressure or be as worried about tire failure as Michelin seems to be.
Whatever, 500GP turn into DieselGP which morphs into NannyGP with bike with every rider aid known to man and a tire pressure nanny rule that changes the results of far too many races. But at least you have to pay to watch them. I honestly never looked into using a VPN trick to get around the pay wall. The way things are going I never will. Me, a guy who loaths cities used to ride into Minneapolis to hang out at a bar with my buddies to watch 500GP races can’t be bothered to even look into watching what they have become. The problem with races to the bottom is that the bottom always wins.
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Typical ray of sunshine from Mick.
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On that note. I hear Martin’s down again with broken ribs. Poor guy is having a tough year.
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your concern for the endangered safety of participants in a sport you don’t watch and also disparage most frequently is rather priceless.
i was glad to see MV at the front this weekend. when MV first appeared in MotoGP I thought he was going to give the defending champ a continuous run for his money.
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“your concern for the endangered safety of participants in a sport you don’t watch and also disparage most frequently is rather priceless.”
😂 Crap that was funny
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“What would make more sense is to run whatever pressure you want and suffer catastrophic loss of the tire like they did in the early 2000’s.”
I don’t get why the tire pressure rule is necessary. I can only recall there ever being one catastrophic tire failure in premier class motorcycle race (Daytona superbike). This is not the same thing as superbikes on a high-banked oval.
The penalty is also too severe. It results in a points sway that completely alters a rider’s position in the standings over something that’s pretty hard to control and unjustified in the 1st place. It’s just too much.
I also don’t get the aero-hate. It’s not a very big difference and the racing is far closer than it ever was prior. In the early 2000’s a gap of a few to several seconds was considered close. Now a gap of a few seconds is thought to be a sound beating.
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