Why you shouldn’t give up on MotoGP 2025 now the title battle is over

This weekend’s Indonesian Grand Prix at the Mandalika circuit will mark the first as Marc Marquez begins his reign as the 2025 MotoGP world champion. After three years of down-to-the-wire title battles in the premier class, it’s the first time since 2019 that a championship has been wrapped up so early.

As such, it’s easy to think that the 2025 season is now a write-off with nothing left to fight for and the last five races just passing time until we can start thinking about next year.

But that would be to ignore some major ongoing plot points still to be resolved this season and some that could well lay the groundwork for intrigue next year.

There are some of the stories to keep you entertained as MotoGP 2025 nears its end even with the championship trophy awarded.

Marc Marquez’s chase for more history is far from over

The emotional scenes of Marc Marquez wrapping up his seventh MotoGP world title at the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix will live long in the memory, as the 32-year-old ended five years of going to hell and back in his quest for more glory.

But there are still jobs left for him to tick off in this unforgettable season in which he has well and truly returned to the top of the world.

This first comes this weekend in Indonesia. Ducati nears the triple crown, with the teams’ championship still up for grabs. That can be decided at Mandalika, though admittedly that doesn’t necessarily hinge solely on Marquez’s shoulders.

The Indonesian Grand Prix is one of two circuits left on the current calendar where he hasn’t won at. Since 2022, he hasn’t actually finished a grand prix at Mandalika, with a third in last year’s sprint his best showing so far. Arguably, this weekend is the toughest of his season so far.

A win on Sunday would bring his total number of grand prix wins to 100, with only Valentino Rossi (115) and Giacomo Agostini (122) ahead of him. It would also be his 74th MotoGP win, edging him closer to Rossi’s all-time record of 89.

Victory at Mandalika would also be his 23rd at a different venue, equalling Rossi and putting him one away from Mick Doohan’s total of 24 - something Marquez could equal if he wins the Indonesian and Portuguese Grands Prix over the next few weeks.

By the end of the year, if he wins the final five grands prix, his total in the premier class would swell to 78. He could also beat his own record of 13 grands prix wins in a single season from 2014.

Pecco Bagnaia could finally give Marc Marquez a run for his money

For much of this season, Pecco Bagnaia has been a shade of the rider that won two world titles with Ducati and narrowly missed a third last season. But some “unconventional” changes to his bike for Japan - thought to be 2024 forks, swingarm and ride height device - allowed the Italian to put in a vintage weekend.

Bagnaia stormed to pole, dominated the sprint and won the grand prix, bringing his tally in the premier class to a Dani Pedrosa and Eddie Lawson-equalling 31.

If he is well and truly back, we can now get to see just what kind of a challenge Bagnaia could have offered Marc Marquez this season had he shown that form from the start of the campaign.

The coming phase of the season is always a strong one for Bagnaia, who won the sprint in Indonesia last year and the grand prix the year before, while also finishing third in Australia and winning in Malaysia in 2024.

Now uninhibited by the championship battle, Marc Marquez is free to unload the tank. In previous years when he has been able to do that after winning the title, he has on occasion gone well over the limit. But we also haven’t seen what Pecco Bagnaia can do when he is pushed right to the limit in an equal battle with Marquez.

That is a tantalising prospect that could be played out over the next five rounds and set the tone for something much bigger in 2026.

More importantly, at least in terms of saving face, Bagnaia is now only 66 points behind Gresini’s Alex Marquez in the battle for runner-up spot. Given the year he has had and the general licking he has taken from the younger Marquez brother, second would be a massive result for Bagnaia and won within his grasp if he can keep up the Japan pace.

The battle for third is far from over

Admittedly, who finishes third in a championship is not something that will often be recalled as time goes on. That said, in 2025, it remains interesting.

In recent rounds up to Japan, Aprilia and Marco Bezzecchi were hounding Pecco Bagnaia on the factory Ducati. That gap, after a bruising weekend for Bezzecchi in Japan, has gone up to 32 points.

But the RS-GP has proven to be a consistently quick package and most much of the second half of the year the only one that was able to challenge Marc Marquez. Bagnaia’s recent resurgence makes that battle a lot harder.

If Bezzecchi is able to win it, though, it would be a major boost for Aprilia in a difficult season for the brand with all that has gone on with Jorge Martin, and send a pretty big warning shot Ducati’s way for 2026.

Time running out for KTM and Yamaha to end their win droughts

In a lot of ways, the fact we are still talking about KTM in a racing sense at this stage of the 2025 season is a victory in itself given the financial crisis that enveloped the Austrian company over the winer coming into the new campaign.

But it’s long wait for another MotoGP win continues. Three years have passed since it was victorious at the 2022 Thai Grand Prix with Miguel Oliveira, and four years since it topped a podium in the dry - again, that was Oliveira, who did so on that occasion at Barcelona.

Pedro Acosta has enjoyed a much more competitive run since the summer break, though this came to a bit of a grinding halt in Japan as he burned through his tyres and faded like a stone out of the podium battle.

With Enea Bastianini’s form still hit and miss, Brad Binder not as competitive as we would expect and Maverick Vinales recovering from injury, Acosta feels like KTM’s best hope of a win in the final few rounds.

Sole hope for ending a victory drought also applies to Yamaha, who will be looking at 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo to ensure its Japanese rival Honda doesn’t end the year with a big one-up on it.

Quartararo’s one-lap speed in 2025 has been nothing short of stunning, and the results he has been able to drag out of an M1 that continues to struggle far exceed the capabilities of the bike.

Yamaha hasn’t celebrated a win since the 2022 German Grand Prix, and of all the brands it looks like the least capable of doing so again this year. But you can be sure that Quartararo isn’t going to leave 2025 behind without giving it a damn good go.