The Moto2 champions Honda’s newest star hopes to follow - and some he doesn't

As the second half of the 2025 Moto2 season went on, Honda’s three-year deal with Diogo Moreira to bring him to MotoGP from next year has aged tremendously.

The Brazilian started the season as a title favourite, but looked like he was going to play second fiddle to a Manu Gonzalez who won four grands prix inside the first half of the campaign. By the summer break, Moreira had just one, while a brace of DNFs in Germany and Czechia left him 60 points down on Gonzalez in fourth in the standings.

As the summer break put a pause on proceedings, Gonzalez’s name was being heavily linked to a MotoGP step in 2026. However, he elected to stay in Moto2, while Moreira snagged himself a three-year factory HRC deal to join LCR for the 2026 season.

From the second half of the season, Moreira clearly had the better of Gonzalez, winning three times, while his rival suffered four non-scores. A disqualification in Indonesia due to a technical infringement turned a 20-point lead into just nine for Gonzalez, and any hopes of winning the title now had pretty much slipped away.

Moreira is now one of 15 names who have won Moto2 titles, since the class replaced the old 250cc category of the grand prix motorcycle world championship. All of them have served time in MotoGP, to varying degrees of success.

2010 - Toni Elias

Toni Elias is a unique entry into the pantheon of Moto2 world champions. He is the first ever Moto2 world champion, but also the only one to have already raced in MotoGP before his coronation.

The Spaniard made his grand prix debut in 1999 in the 125cc class, finishing third in the 2001 campaign before stepping up to the 250s. In three seasons, he won seven grands prix and finished a best of fourth in the standings, before making his MotoGP debut in 2005.

In 2006 he scored his only MotoGP win, albeit a brilliant one, as he beat Valentino Rossi and Kenny Roberts Jr. at Estoril by 0.002s. That victory ultimately helped deny Rossi the 2006 crown to Nicky Hayden.

Declining results led to a return to the intermediate class in 2010 for the new Moto2 category, where Elias cleaned up with seven wins for Gresini Racing. This earned him a step back up to MotoGP for 2011 with LCR Honda, but put in a fairly average season to finish with 61 points.

He stepped back to Moto2 in 2012, making several MotoGP appearances as a replacement rider over the next few years before leaving the paddock for good in 2015.

2011 - Stefan Bradl

The 2011 Moto2 season is one of those many what-ifs in motorsport. The title that year went to Stefan Bradl, who was locked in a season-long battle with Marc Marquez, who made his Moto2 debut that year.

Bradl won four races inside the first six rounds, but Marquez won seven - which was a record that wouldn’t be beaten until 2021, when Raul Fernandez narrowly missed that year’s Moto2 crown.

After the Australian Grand Prix, Bradl held a narrow three-point lead over Marquez in a fight set to go to the wire. But the first battle with diplopia that Marquez would face in his career came after a crash at the Malaysian Grand Prix. He was ruled out for the final two races and Bradl won the title.

Bradl moved to MotoGP in 2012 with LCR Honda. In six full seasons of MotoGP between 2012 and 2024, Bradl scored just one podium. He never quite took the best from decent Honda machinery in 2012 and 2013, though he became a key early part of development for Aprilia in 2014.

He was drafted in to replace Marc Marquez for the 2020 season after the Spaniard’s major arm injury, and has contested various replacement and wildcard outings with Honda since.

2012 - Marc Marquez

The most successful graduate from the Moto2 class, Marc Marquez won another seven races in 2012 - fully recovered from diplopia - to scoop that year’s title. When Casey Stoner announced his retirement from MotoGP partway through 2012, Marquez found himself front and centre for a factory Honda promotion, not least with the rookie rule being scrapped.

Marquez’s first year in MotoGP saw him become the youngest ever premier class race winner and world champion, as he beat Jorge Lorenzo in a final-round showdown.

He romped to the 2014 title, before winning successive championships between 2016 and 2019. A career-threatening injury in 2020 looked like it may well have ended the reign of Marquez as a champion rider in MotoGP.

But he stormed to a seventh title in 2025 with Ducati, while bringing his total number of career MotoGP wins to 73 as second all-time.

No rider since Valentino Rossi has achieved so much in their MotoGP career following an intermediate class title.

2013 - Pol Espargaro

Pol Espargaro’s title year in Moto2 with the Pons Racing squad saw him win six grands prix, as he locked horns with Scott Redding for the crown.

Coming out on top, Espargaro moved to MotoGP for the 2014 campaign with the Tech3 squad aboard satellite Yamaha machinery. For all of the promise Espargaro showed in the smaller categories, he wouldn’t translate that to a first podium until the 2018 Valencia Grand Prix, at the end of his second season with the factory KTM squad.

He scored five podiums in 2020 with KTM, narrowly missing a maiden victory in Austria. A move to Honda for 2021 proved unsuccessful, as uncompetitive machinery meant he scored just two podiums over two seasons.

A return to the KTM fold in 2023 with Tech3 was hoped to rejuvenate his career. But a serious incident during practice for the Portuguese Grand Prix ultimately ended his time as a full-time racer in MotoGP.

He has been an invaluable member of KTM’s testing roster since, where numerous wildcard appearances have gone a long way to showing just how much speed Espargaro still possesses.

2014 - Tito Rabat

Across 76 starts in the 125cc world championship, Tito Rabat never won a grand prix. But a step to Moto2 unlocked his potential, as he dominated the 2014 campaign with the Marc VDS squad.

He scored seven wins that year on his way to the title. Unlike the Moto2 champions before him, he remained in the class for another year. He only won three times against a dominant Johann Zarco, as injury thwarted him late on.

He stepped up to MotoGP in 2016 with Marc VDS on a Honda, scoring occasional top 10 finishes over two seasons before moving to Avintia Ducati in 2018. He scored what remains his best MotoGP result in Argentina in seventh.

His career was thrown off course when he crashed during a sudden downpour at Silverstone in 2018 and suffered a serious leg injury. He was never quite the same after that, with Rabat staying on satellite Ducati machinery until the end of 2020.

He has since served stints in MotoE, British Superbikes, World Superbikes and the Spanish Superbike Championship.

2015/2016 - Johann Zarco

The only repeat world champion in the Moto2 class, Johann Zarco stayed in the class after his first title-winning campaign and achieved what Tito Rabat before him couldn’t.

Tech3’s decision to promote Zarco to its satellite Yamaha MotoGP squad for 2017 raised some eyebrows. But Zarco stunned from the off, leading his debut outing in Qatar before crashing. He got a maiden podium at the French Grand Prix, scoring six over the next two seasons.

An ill-fated decision to join KTM for 2019 threatened to end Zarco’s career, before Ducati offered him a reprieve at Avintia for 2020. He got back to the podium that year, before taking a first victory in 2023 when with Pramac at the Australian Grand Prix.

A move to LCR Honda for 2024 has seen him become a pillar of HRC’s current recovery, with his efforts rewarded in 2025 with a victory at the French Grand Prix.

2017 - Franco Morbidelli

Franco Morbidelli’s path to being a world champion was unconventional, as he came through the World Superbike paddock before his full-time Moto2 debut in 2014. Taken under Valentino Rossi’s wing, Morbidelli became the VR46 Academy’s first success story.

He won eight grands prix in 2017 with Marc VDS on his way to the world title, before stepping up to MotoGP in 2018 with the Belgian outfit.

He moved to Petronas SRT in 2018, but was humbled by rookie team-mate Fabio Quartararo on an older Yamaha. Those lessons fueled a breakout campaign in 2020, where Morbidelli won three grands prix and was just 13 points away from the world title in runner-up spot.

Ageing Yamaha machinery. followed by injury, followed by more uncompetitive Yamaha machinery, characterised the following three years for Morbidelli. A move to Pramac on a factory Ducati for 2024, which was expected to rejuvenate his career, didn’t pan out, after a pre-season concussion ruined his preparation.

Morbidelli ended 2025 seventh in the points after two podiums on the year-old VR46 Ducati.

2018 - Pecco Bagnaia

The VR46 Academy recorded its second title success in 2018 courtesy of Pecco Bagnaia, doing so in the team’s colours. Going up against Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder, Bagnaia won eight races that year before stepping up to MotoGP in 2019 with Pramac Ducati.

One podium in his first two years didn’t demonstrate the potential he had, but he had done enough to move to the factory Ducati team in 2021. Four wins would follow that year, before scoring seven in 2022 on his way to becoming Ducati’s first MotoGP champion since 2007.

He scored a second in 2023 after another seven wins, while in 2023 he missed the title by just 10 points despite 11 grands prix victories.

Bagnaia’s 2025 season proved disastrous as he struggled for form on the GP25, while at the same time being outclassed by new team-mate Marc Marquez.

But Bagnaia remains one of Ducati’s most important figures in its history and a rider with enough clout from his past mistakes to earn the benefit of the doubt that 2025 will be a one-off.

2019 - Alex Marquez

Alex Marquez won the Moto3 title in 2014 before his Moto2 step the year after with Marc VDS. The younger Marquez brother’s first few years in Moto2 were disappointing. He had no podiums in 2015, one in 2016, before finally getting his first wins in 2017.

He scored three victories that season, but won none in 2018. Alex Marquez may have always had the support of older brother Marc, but pressure was mounting on his shoulders to prove that he was deserving of a seat for more than just his surname.

He did so in 2019, as five wins put him on course for his second grand prix world title. A few weeks later, he signed for Honda to step up to MotoGP in place of the retiring Jorge Lorenzo.

Marquez scored Honda’s only podiums in 2020, but struggled in 2021 and 2022. An opportunity for a fresh start at Gresini Ducati arose for 2023, with Marquez eventually taking his first MotoGP wins in 2025.

Winning three times last season, he finished runner-up in the standings and has earned a factory-spec Ducati for 2026.

2020 - Enea Bastianini

Enea Bastianini’s career before 2020 was an odd one. Making his grand prix debut in Moto3 in 2014, Bastianini displayed immense speed, but only had three victories to show for that before stepping up to Moto2 in 2019.

He prevailed in a tight championship battle with Luca Marini to seal the crown with three victories before moving to MotoGP in 2021 alongside his rival at the Avintia squad.

Bastianini impressed quickly in his rookie season on the satellite Ducati, scoring two podiums before making a winning switch to Gresini in 2022. He scored four victories and maintained an outside title challenge until late in the year.

Ducati promoted him to its factory team for 2023, but injury stunted his progress. He won three times in factory Ducati colours across 2023 and 2024, before moving to Tech3 KTM last season.

2021 - Remy Gardner

Surname pressure always followed Remy Gardner through his grand prix career, but rarely through his time in Moto3 and Moto2 did he ever impress until 2020, when he scored his first win.

In a tight title battle with team-mate Raul Fernandez, Gardner came out on top in the 2021 Moto2 season. He stepped up to MotoGP in 2022 with Tech3 KTM alongside Fernandez, but only lasted one year before being kicked out of the Austrian manufacturer’s fold.

A move to World Superbikes followed in 2023, where he has so far scored just two podiums with Yamaha.

2022 - Augusto Fernandez

Augusto Fernandez showed promise pretty early into his stint in Moto2, with the Spaniard bagging a top four result in Australia in 2018 having missed the first six rounds of the campaign.

In 2019, he tallied up three wins, but wouldn’t do so again until 2022, when he took four on his way to the world title.

He was promoted to the Tech3 KTM squad for 2023, emerging as a consistent points finisher and earning a second year. The 2024 season proved much harder, though, with Fernandez scoring just 27 points as rookie team-mate Pedro Acosta became a frequent podium visitor.

Fernandez took up a role as Yamaha test rider for 2025, and has been a key part of the development of its V4 bike.

2023 - Pedro Acosta

The arrival of Pedro Acosta into the grand prix paddock in 2021 felt like a ground-shaking moment,  following his Red Bull Rookies Cup title in 2020.

Winning his second grand prix in Moto3 from pitlane, Acosta went on to win the championship at the first time of asking before stepping to Moto2. Winning the intermediate class title in his second year was always going to be a stretch, but he continued to impress with three wins.

Seven wins followed in 2023 as he cleaned up in the championship race, while his MotoGP step was guaranteed before this point. In year one, he scored 10 podiums across sprints and grands prix, before adding 12 more in 2025.

He had gone unbeaten in qualifying against both of his team-mates over the last two years, and a first win feels like an inevitability.

2024 - Ai Ogura

Ai Ogura always looked like he had the potential to go far, but never won a grand prix across two seasons of Moto3 and a third in Moto2 in 2021. Things finally started to come together for him in 2022, after he won three times, while a MotoGP future with Honda looked all but certain.

Intriguingly, the main stop in that happening was Ogura. He elected to bide his time, with his opportunity eventually coming midway through 2024 when he inked a deal with Trackhouse to ride an Aprilia for 2025.

He also went on to win the Moto2 world title in 2024, overhauling team-mate Sergio Garcia to seal the crown with three race victories.

His rookie MotoGP year began strongly with a fifth in Thailand, but numerous injury woes contributed to a decline in results in the second half of the season.