Hands up who wants to finish second?
MotoGP in 2025 had all of the ingredients of being a classic season that could very well come down to a last-round shootout in Spain, as it has for the past three years when Francesco Bagnaia won (2022, 2023) and lost (2024) championships on the final day of the campaign.
Every MotoGP qualifying, practice and race LIVE and ad-break free from lights out to the chequered flag. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >
As it turns out, Bagnaia is a big reason why this year’s title will be decided well before we get to Valencia in November.
Faced with the biggest challenge of his career – having Marc Marquez join the factory Ducati team alongside him in a partnership that would help us reframe where each multiple world champion sits in 2025 – it’s been no contest.
Having the sport’s best rider ride the sport’s best bike has seen us get to the almost halfway stage of 2025 – MotoGP is on its annual four-week sabbatical between last weekend in the Czech Republic, round 12 of a 22-round season, and Austria in mid-August – with Marquez in a class of one.
With a world championship lead of 120 points following his fifth straight sprint/Grand Prix double at Brno, the Spaniard could realistically wrap up this year’s title before MotoGP heads out of Europe for its Asian swing in September, six rounds before the end of the year.
There’s not much intrigue, then, in who occupies number one in Fox Sports’ traditional mid-season rider rankings, but lack of form and lack of track time elsewhere in the field makes the other nine spots on this list harder to determine.
Last year’s mid-season rider rankings – and our end-of-2024 list, too – shows how far some have risen and fallen in the 6-12 months that followed; before we get to those who made our 2025 half-season cut, a word for the honourable (or dishonourable) mentions that didn’t.
Jorge Martin is one, simply because last year’s best rider hasn’t done a lot of riding, hogging headlines for the multiple serious injuries that have kept him to just two Grand Prix appearances from 12 rounds, and for his bitter contract dispute with Aprilia that abruptly resolved itself before Brno last weekend. If he’s fit and firing in the final 10 rounds, Martin will surely make the end-of-season list.
MORE MOTOGP NEWS
TALKING POINTS Marquez ‘playing’ with rivals, title hopeful’s howler, Aussie’s ‘pain in the a**e’
BRNO RACE REPORT Spaniard earns slice of Ducati history in Czech Republic romp
KTM stalwart Brad Binder and newcomer Enea Bastianini, Grand Prix winners both, are languishing well outside of the top 10 and had no business being considered. Ducati rookie Fermin Aldeguer has shown podium speed, but his inconsistency and a growing reputation for being careless in handlebar-to-handlebar combat rules him out. Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez has finally – in his fourth MotoGP season – shown some signs of life, but missed the cut.
Jack Miller is on the outside looking in, too; the Australian has almost certainly ended the MotoGP career of Pramac Yamaha teammate Miguel Oliveira by outscoring the Portuguese rider 52-6 and outqualifying him at every round, but 14th in the world championship standings makes it hard to make a case for the 30-year-old, who’ll gladly take a 2026 contract to stay on the grid that’s surely imminent as a consolation prize.
They’re some of the names who didn’t make the grade; here’s who did.
(Note: head-to-head with teammate statistics below only counts sprint races or Grands Prix where both teammates finished).
10. MAVERICK VINALES (KTM)
The podium that wasn’t: Vinales starred in Qatar before a penalty pushed him back. (Photo by Mirco Lazzari gp/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
2024 end of season rank: Not ranked
Points/championship position: 69, 11th
Best Grand Prix result: 4th (Spain)
Best sprint race result: 4th (Italy)
Best qualifying: 5th (France, Italy)
Points compared to teammate: Vinales 69, Enea Bastianini 49
Head-to-head with teammate in qualifying: Vinales 9, Bastianini 1
Head-to-head with teammate in Grands Prix: Vinales 5, Bastianini 4
Head-to-head with teammate in sprint races: Vinales 8, Bastianini 1
Summary: It was the most Maverick Vinales result of Maverick Vinales results when the Spaniard came from nowhere to finish second – and make Marc Marquez work for the win – in Qatar before copping a 16-second time penalty for breaching MotoGP’s tyre pressure regulations and dropping to 14th place. Quite simply, the mercurial Maverick was too fast for his own good and faster than his team predicted when they set his tyre pressure to run in the mid-pack of that race, not the front.
PIT TALK PODCAST: Marquez’s high-five as Martin (and Brno) returns. Listen to Pit Talk below.
His Qatar starring cameo aside, Vinales has comprehensively been the best of Tech3 KTM’s all-new line-up this year, and has often been KTM’s best rider full stop, much to Pedro Acosta’s barely-concealed annoyance. A left shoulder injury and subsequent surgery after Germany in round 11 brought his first half to a screeching halt, but there’s a strong chance Vinales pushes further into the top 10 of this list by season’s end.
9. JOHANN ZARCO (HONDA)
Home wins don’t come more emotional – or as unexpected – than Zarco’s at Le Mans. (MotoGP Press)Source: Supplied
2024 end of season rank: 10th
Points/championship position: 109, 8th
Best Grand Prix result: 1st (France)
Best sprint race result: 4th (Argentina)
Best qualifying: 2nd (Germany)
Points compared to teammates: Zarco 109, Somkiat Chantra/Takaaki Nakagami 1
Head-to-head with teammates in qualifying: Zarco 10, Chantra/Nakagami 0
Head-to-head with teammates in Grands Prix: Zarco 5, Chantra/Nakagami 1
Head-to-head with teammates in sprint races: Zarco 6, Chantra/Nakagami 0
Summary: For a fortnight in May, Zarco was the second-best rider behind you know who in MotoGP, thanks to his history-making home win in a deluge in Le Mans in round six, and a second place behind Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi in the next round at Silverstone. The sport’s oldest rider has comfortably been Honda’s shining light – there’s not another Honda rider in the top 14 of the standings – but scoring 54 points in two magical rounds while managing 55 in the other 10 makes it impossible to consider placing him higher, especially as he’s almost a one-man band at LCR Honda and comparisons with overwhelmed rookie teammate Somkiat Chantra are useless. At 35, there’s still plenty of fight left in the Frenchman, who’ll be unrepentantly responsible for some of the more robust overtakes in the mid-pack of any race he’s in …
8. FABIO DI GIANNANTONIO (DUCATI)
On his best days, Di Giannantonio has looked at home at the sharp end, but … (MotoGP Press)Source: Supplied
2024 end of season rank: 7th
Points/championship position: 142, 5th
Best Grand Prix result: 3rd (Americas, Italy)
Best sprint race result: 3rd (Great Britain)
Best qualifying: 2nd (Americas)
Points compared to teammate: Di Giannantonio 142, Morbidelli 139
Head-to-head with teammate in qualifying: Di Giannantonio 3, Morbidelli 8
Head-to-head with teammate in Grands Prix: Di Giannantonio 4, Morbidelli 5
Head-to-head with teammate in sprint races: Di Giannantonio 6, Morbidelli 3
Summary: Di Giannantonio was seventh in these rankings last year, is fifth in the world championship this year and has podiums in both race formats and a front-row starting spot on his 2025 mid-season report card. So what is he doing in eighth place on this list? It’s a matter of consistency for the super-talented Italian, who can swing from the highs of a successful late-race podium hunt against Bagnaia at Mugello to a pointless Brno outing before the mid-year break three weeks later, where he somehow managed to finish outside the points on a Ducati GP25 Marquez is dominating the series with. ‘Diggia’s’ good days are absolute quality; to get a pass mark for 2025, he’ll likely need to be ahead of Bezzecchi and inside the top four of the standings by the end of the season.
7. FRANCO MORBIDELLI (DUCATI)
Morbidelli has taken strides on a Ducati GP24 he struggled to tame last year. (MotoGP Press)Source: Supplied
2024 end of season rank: Not ranked
Points/championship position: 139, 6th
Best Grand Prix result: 3rd (Argentina, Qatar)
Best sprint race result: 3rd (Qatar)
Best qualifying: 3rd (Aragon)
Points compared to teammate: Morbidelli 139, Di Giannantonio 142
Head-to-head with teammate in qualifying: Morbidelli 8, Di Giannantonio 3
Head-to-head with teammate in Grands Prix: Morbidelli 5, Di Giannantonio 4
Head-to-head with teammate in sprint races: Morbidelli 3, Di Giannantonio 6
Summary: Morbidelli is three points behind VR46 Ducati teammate Di Giannantonio in the standings but a place ahead of him here, mostly because he’s doing more with theoretically less. Campaigning a GP24 machine for a second straight campaign where Di Giannantonio has the GP25 evolution of the bike that won last year’s title, Morbidelli has at least made a better fist of this year than he did last, an injury-affected largely anonymous run to ninth in the championship on a Pramac Ducati that Martin used to win the title.
MORE MOTOGP NEWS
SPRINT REPORT Marquez overcomes rivals, investigation to continue streak at Brno
MARTIN’S BACKFLIP The five key questions after MotoGP champ’s Aprilia about-face
Morbidelli was excellent early – more than half of his points came in the opening four rounds – but has often underwhelmed since, his massive sprint race crash in Germany seeing him miss Brno with a left collarbone injury. He’s no longer the rider who finished runner-up to Joan Mir for the title in 2020, but this year’s version of Morbidelli is the best one since.
6. PEDRO ACOSTA (KTM)
Acosta’s podiums in Brno were his first since the tail-end of the 2024 season in Thailand. (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing)Source: Supplied
2024 end of season rank: 4th
Points/championship position: 124, 7th
Best Grand Prix result: 3rd (Czech Republic)
Best sprint race result: 2nd (Czech Republic)
Best qualifying: 4th (Americas)
Points compared to teammate: Acosta 124, Brad Binder 68
Head-to-head with teammate in qualifying: Acosta 12, Binder 0
Head-to-head with teammate in Grands Prix: Acosta 5, Binder 3
Head-to-head with teammate in sprint races: Acosta 7, Binder 1
Summary: Acosta’s first year in KTM’s factory squad looks good when you assess the gap in qualifying (12-0) and the points table (124-68) compared to new teammate Binder, who has been the Austrian brand’s headliner for the past five seasons before this year’s precipitous freefall. But it’s not been smooth sailing for the fidgety 21-year-old, whose timeline of wanting to achieve what he feels is his destiny yesterday hasn’t meshed with KTM’s off-season of financial turmoil off-track and scant results on it. A pair of podiums in the final round before the break at Brno – his only rostrum visits in his sophomore season – were a step in the right direction, but unlikely to appease a mega-talented rider who has continually (and sometimes immaturely) flitted his eyelids at Ducati for a quick fix for his immediate future despite being under contract until the end of 2026.
5. FRANCESCO BAGNAIA (DUCATI)
Bagnaia has racked up plenty of podiums, but has had no answer to the riddle posed by Ducati’s GP25 machine or his new teammate. (MotoGP Press)Source: Supplied
2024 end of season rank: 2nd
Points/championship position: 213, 3rd
Best Grand Prix result: 1st (Americas)
Best sprint race result: 3rd (Thailand, Argentina, Americas, Spain, Italy)
Best qualifying: Pole (Czech Republic)
Points compared to teammate: Bagnaia 213, Marc Marquez 381
Head-to-head with teammate in qualifying: Bagnaia 3, M. Marquez 9
Head-to-head with teammate in Grands Prix: Bagnaia 1, M. Marquez 9
Head-to-head with teammate in sprint races: Bagnaia 0, M. Marquez 11
Summary: Where to rank Bagnaia on this list? He’s one of five riders to win a Grand Prix (more of which later), three to take a pole position and has more podiums (and points) than any rider whose surname isn’t Marquez. But Bagnaia has been absolutely demolished by Marc Marquez in every statistical category, his sole victory gifted to him when Marquez crashed out of the main race in Texas, and in a season where Marquez has won 19 of the 24 starts across both formats on the same bike. Bagnaia simply can’t – won’t – access the same feeling and confidence he had on last year’s GP24, when he won 11 Grands Prix and only lost the title because of a propensity to crash too much relative to Martin. He’s done less crashing this season; uncharitably, it could be argued that he’s not going fast enough to, relative to the benchmark on the sister bike.
4. MARCO BEZZECCHI (APRILIA)
Bezzecchi broke through for his first Aprilia win at Silverstone in round seven. (MotoGP Press)Source: Supplied
2024 end of season rank: Not ranked
Points/championship position: 156, 4th
Best Grand Prix result: 1st (Great Britain)
Best sprint race result: 2nd (Germany)
Best qualifying: 3rd (Germany)
Points compared to teammates: Bezzecchi 156, Jorge Martin/Lorenzo Savadori 17
Head-to-head with teammates in qualifying: Bezzecchi 11, Martin/Savadori 1
Head-to-head with teammates in Grands Prix: Bezzecchi 7, Martin/Savadori 1
Head-to-head with teammates in sprint races: Bezzecchi 11, Martin/Savadori 0
Summary: It’s been a half-season of two halves for the lower-profile Aprilia factory team signing of the past off-season, with Bezzecchi scoring just 36 points in the first six rounds before uncorking 120 in the following half-dozen events. Key to that was a win at Silverstone that was fortunate in its inheritance thanks to a Quartararo breakdown, but due to no lack of pace. Improving qualifying pace has meant Bezzecchi is further towards the front at the start of races, where he can turn his combative first-lap calling card into more meaningful results.
MORE MOTOGP NEWS
EXPLAINER Why Miller’s season-best weekend in Germany strengthens his claims to stay
SENNA’S RISE Inside Aussie Moto2 star’s teary moment, and link to Ricciardo
With Aprilia emerging as the grid’s second-best bike – a long way behind Ducati, but still – the second half of 2025 will be fascinating to see who of Bezzecchi or a committed (for now) Martin can make the most of it. Given Bezzecchi has already scored more points in half of this season than he did for all of 2024 (156-153), it’s a question with no easy answer.
3. FABIO QUARTARARO (YAMAHA)
Quartararo’s ragged-edge qualifying heroics have provided some of the most dramatic moments of 2025. (MotoGP Press)Source: Supplied
2024 end of season rank: 6th
Points/championship position: 102, 9th
Best Grand Prix result: 2nd (Spain)
Best sprint race result: 3rd (Germany)
Best qualifying: Pole (Spain, France, Great Britain, Netherlands)
Points compared to teammate: Quartararo 102, Alex Rins 42
Head-to-head with teammate in qualifying: Quartararo 12, Rins 0
Head-to-head with teammate in Grands Prix: Quartararo 8, Rins 1
Head-to-head with teammate in sprint races: Quartararo 10, Rins 0
Summary: Two points – that’s the difference between Quartararo’s points tally (102) and the number amassed by Yamaha’s three other regulars (the desperately-disappointing Alex Rins, plus Miller and Oliveira) combined in 2025, again showing why the Japanese manufacturer’s best asset is the 2021 world champion. It’s been over three seasons since Quartararo, and by extension, Yamaha has won a race, but the fast Frenchman showed he’s lost none of his supernatural one-lap pace with four poles against the Ducati armada that have been among the season’s biggest highlights, before the inevitable fall back into the mid-pack in races for a bike that struggles mightily to overtake with its lack of straight-line grunt. Quartararo’s frustrations have become louder and more public the longer 2025 has gone, and while he’s not at Acosta levels of foot-stamping and pouting, he might get there if Yamaha’s progress, particularly with its nascent V4 engine project that’s supposed to be its bridge back to respectability for the final year of the current regulations set for 2026, underwhelms.
2. ALEX MARQUEZ (DUCATI)
In his sixth MotoGP season, Alex Marquez took his first Grand Prix victory in style at Jerez in round five. (MotoGP Press)Source: Supplied
2024 end of season rank: 9th
Points/championship position: 261, 2nd
Best Grand Prix result: 1st (Spain)
Best sprint race result: 1st (Great Britain)
Best qualifying: 2nd (Thailand, Argentina, Qatar, Great Britain, Aragon)
Points compared to teammate: Marquez 261, Fermin Aldeguer 97
Head-to-head with teammate in qualifying: Marquez 12, Aldeguer 0
Head-to-head with teammate in Grands Prix: Marquez 6, Aldeguer 1
Head-to-head with teammate in sprint races: Marquez 11, Aldeguer 1
Summary: The 2025 version of Alex Marquez is by far the best version we’ve seen in six seasons of MotoGP, and being the second-best rider in his own family has been more than good enough to be the second-best rider for the first half of the year, his performances relative to Bagnaia on a better bike giving MotoGP fans pause when considering what his premier-class ceiling is. It’s been a campaign based on, until very recently, unerring consistency in the quest to be runner-up behind his older sibling; of his 18 podiums across both race formats in 2025, 14 have been for second behind his brother, his breakthrough Grand Prix win at Jerez in round five coming after Marc had crashed out in the early stages. No matter how 2025 ends, Marquez will beat his previous-best single-season finish (eighth last year) by a mile; how he fares relative to Bagnaia (who he leads by 48 points) and other manufacturers who’ll improve relative to the development-frozen GP24 he’ll be riding is a storyline worth monitoring.
Marc Marquez wins while Alex crashes out | 01:09
1. MARC MARQUEZ (DUCATI)
2024 end of season rank: 3rd
Points/championship position: 381, 1st
Best Grand Prix result: 1st (Thailand, Argentina, Qatar, Aragon, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic)
Best sprint race result: 1st (Thailand, Argentina, Americas, Qatar, Spain, France, Aragon, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic)
Best qualifying: Pole (Thailand, Argentina, Americas, Qatar, Aragon, Italy, Germany)
Points compared to teammate: Marquez 381, Francesco Bagnaia 213
Head-to-head with teammate in qualifying: Marquez 9, Bagnaia 3
Head-to-head with teammate in Grands Prix: Marquez 9, Bagnaia 1
Head-to-head with teammate in sprint races: Marquez 11, Bagnaia 0
Class of one: Marc Marquez has shown the field how it’s done for the majority of 2025. (MotoGP Press)Source: Supplied
Summary: Six years since he last won a title, four arm surgeries in the intervening seasons and two switches of team later, Marquez is back to where he once was, but it’s not the same Marquez who has turned 2025 into a runaway success. It’s a 32-year-old version of one of the sport’s all-time greats who has relished rediscovering that winning feeling and never taking it for granted, and one who has remained laser-focused on the small steps needed to reclaim a crown that looked like his for as long as he wanted it until 2020. The highlights are too many to comprehensively mention here, but winning at tracks that had been his kryptonite – Marquez snapped 11-year hoodoos in Qatar and Mugello and a seven-year drought at Assen – provided special satisfaction and were soul-destroying for opponents looking to pick at any perceived weak spots. Completing one of world sport’s most impressive redemption arcs is a matter of time, and the public outpouring of emotion that Marquez has done his best to mostly internalise will be compelling viewing for a rider who has approached his rebirth with a renewed perspective, and who has added subtlety and smarts to his natural speed.