The 22-round campaign \u2013 the longest in the sport\u2019s history and one with 44 race starts if you factor in the sprints and feature races at every round \u2013 has been as much a survival of the fittest as a celebration of the fastest.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also one that started \u2013 ominously \u2013 as it was destined to go on. <\/p>\n
At the season-opening Thailand Grand Prix in March, all the teams assembled for the traditional class photo on the Buriram grid with 22 bikes and 21 riders, as Aprilia\u2019s Jorge Martin was at home in Andorra recovering from a pair of pre-season injuries that delayed the first outing in his title defence.<\/p>\n
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Fast-forward 21 rounds and, remarkably, just once \u2013 in Catalunya in round 15 in September \u2013 has a Grand Prix started with the complete grid of 22 full-timers this year. <\/p>\n
MotoGP is unforgiving at any time, but this year has been something else. While 11 riders on the grid \u2013 Australia\u2019s Jack Miller being one \u2013 have started every sprint and Grand Prix, the premier-class infirmary has been inundated with some of the sport\u2019s biggest names, Martin and the rider who succeeded his Spanish compatriot as world champion, Ducati\u2019s Marc Marquez, among them. <\/p>\n
Marquez \u2013 recovering from right shoulder surgery \u2013 will be at Valencia this weekend to watch rather than ride. Martin (right collarbone) and KTM\u2019s Maverick Vinales (left shoulder) will make their returns from long-term layoffs with little on the line for the final round, but with every reason to stay upright for what\u2019s actually the most important day of MotoGP\u2019s visit to the Spanish city for the first time in two years, last year\u2019s season finale shifted to Barcelona after heavy flooding made the Ricardo Tormo Circuit unusable. <\/p>\n
There\u2019s not much left to play for in 2025, which means Valencia this weekend is primarily a bridge to what comes next.<\/p>\n
Marquez wrapped up the world championship with five rounds to spare<\/a>, his brother Alex Marquez cemented the runner-up spot two rounds ago<\/a>, and the younger Marquez\u2019s Gresini Ducati teammate Fermin Aldeguer had the rookie of the year crown in his keeping by Malaysia. <\/p>\n Third in the championship is all but done; after Aprilia\u2019s Marco Bezzecchi won last weekend\u2019s Portuguese Grand Prix<\/a> as Ducati\u2019s Francesco Bagnaia crashed out, Bezzecchi needs only to score two points in two races this weekend to round out the season\u2019s podium, a reflection of Aprilia\u2019s ascendance and a sign of how far Bagnaia has dropped off the pace this season after four straight top-two championship finishes. <\/p>\n For Martin, Vinales and the rest of the grid besides Marc Marquez, Valencia is just as \u2013 if not more \u2013 important for the one-day Tuesday test session that follows Sunday\u2019s Grand Prix, the first time the riders and teams get to try their 2026 bikes in public before the northern winter shutdown. <\/p>\n While there\u2019s still a final race weekend to be run and won, it\u2019ll take place with an eye on what follows, and will be the first time since 2021 that the championship hasn\u2019t gone down to the final day of the season. <\/p>\n Given the rider responsible for that \u2013 Marc Marquez \u2013 won\u2019t race this weekend seems almost appropriate for a bruising season where, at times, the best ability has been availability.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s your Insider\u2019s Guide to the final round of the MotoGP season, with the 27-lap Valencia Grand Prix set for 12am (AEDT) on Monday after the 13-lap sprint race at 1am Sunday (AEDT).<\/p>\n MORE MOTOGP NEWS<\/p>\n BIGGEST MOMENTS <\/a> Improbable wins, sliding doors and champ\u2019s return define 2025<\/p>\n TALKING POINTS<\/a> How stunner exposed baffling reality, star hits ugly new low<\/p>\n The annual pre-season class photo in Thailand – without Martin – was a sign of what was to follow in 2025. (MotoGP Press)Source: Supplied<\/p>\n MILLER CLOSES OUT SEASON AT TRACK WHERE HE LAST LED<\/p>\n The return to Valencia for the first time since 2023 will be a reminder of the one that got away for Jack Miller, the Australian crashing from the lead in the season finale two years ago in a bittersweet end to his first campaign with KTM. <\/p>\n In a final round that doubled as a title showdown between Ducati riders Bagnaia and Martin, Miller took the lead ahead of Bagnaia when KTM teammate Brad Binder ran off track on lap 14, but crashed five laps later at Turn 10 when he had an advantage of over one second; \u201cI had a little cry,\u201d he admitted afterwards.<\/p>\n PIT TALK PODCAST: Renita and Matt are joined by MotoGP writer and broadcaster Neil Morrison to review the Portuguese Grand Prix, and debate the five moments that defined the season ahead of the final round of 2025 this weekend in Valencia. Listen to Pit Talk below.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the only time in Miller\u2019s premier-class career that he\u2019s fallen from the lead of a race, and of the 150 laps across 23 races he\u2019s led in his MotoGP career, Valencia 2023 is the most recent.<\/p>\n Miller, who start his 199th MotoGP race this Sunday, has always been strong at Valencia. He won there in his final Moto3 race in 2014, and has three MotoGP podiums at the track, matching the Red Bull Ring in Austria as his most successful. Since 2019, he\u2019s not qualified or finished lower than sixth in the four races where he\u2019s seen the chequered flag. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big pleasure to be back at a place I thoroughly enjoy,\u201d Miller said. <\/p>\n \u201cValencia is a funny one with a MotoGP bike, because it feels like a bit of a go-kart track, but it\u2019s just a fun place to finish the season out.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of good results here and it\u2019s one I enjoy riding. It\u2019s pretty tight and it\u2019s not crazy fast \u2026 there\u2019s a decent front straight, but fingers crossed we\u2019re able to make up what we lose [with Yamaha] there. The bike itself once it\u2019s going is OK, the issue is just getting it going.\u201d <\/p>\n Valencia is the final stop on a season for Miller where he\u2019s just 18th in the standings, his worst position since his 2015 rookie campaign, and has scored 72 points, his fewest since 2016 when he scored 57 points for Marc VDS Honda well before the series adopted sprint races for points at every round from 2023.<\/p>\n They\u2019re numbers that, without context, look unfavourable<\/a>; Miller, though, is the second-best of the four Yamaha riders in the standings ahead of Alex Rins (66 points) and Pramac Yamaha teammate Miguel Oliveira (38), who competes in his final Grand Prix this weekend before switching to BMW in World Superbikes for 2026. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m happy that my transition over to the Yamaha was what it was and I was able to make it work because on paper, it\u2019s not a bike for my riding style,\u201d Miller said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve made it work \u2026 there\u2019s been some really strong results, some really sh**ty results. When you come to a qualifying lap, you have to push to the maximum because qualifying is absolutely everything in MotoGP nowadays. <\/p>\n \u201cGoing to Q2 or not can make or break your weekend with how hard it is to overtake, and with how hard it is to overtake on the Yamaha.\u201d<\/p>\n Miller had the measure of Bagnaia – and the rest – when MotoGP last raced at Valencia in 2023 before crashing out. (Getty Images\/Gold and Goose\/Red Bull Content Pool)Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n LOWERING TARGETS UNLOCKED ACOSTA\u2019S STEP FORWARD<\/p>\n Pedro Acosta could pile more pain on Bagnaia in 2025 if he\u2019s able to demote the two-time world champion to fifth place in the riders\u2019 standings in Valencia, which looks a distinct possibility given the KTM rider\u2019s red-hot form in the past five rounds. <\/p>\n The 21-year-old has finished on the podium at least once across the sprints and Grands Prix at every round since Japan in September, and \u2013 other than Alex Marquez (83 points) \u2013 has outscored every other rider since Marc Marquez\u2019s season ended after the Indonesian Grand Prix, his 70 points across the past three rounds seeing him draw to within three points of Bagnaia for fourth in the standings.<\/p>\n MORE MOTOGP NEWS<\/p>\n RACE REPORT <\/a> Bezzecchi punishes pack in Portugal as Aussie soldiers on for points<\/p>\n \u2018DON\u2019T HAVE MUCH TIME\u2019<\/a> The rider who holds the key to the MotoGP rider market puzzle<\/p>\n Acosta has demolished highly-regarded KTM teammate Binder 21-0 in qualifying this year \u2013 he still yet to be beaten in qualifying by a MotoGP teammate after eclipsing Augusto Fernandez 20-0 at Tech3 KTM in 2024 \u2013 and played a starring role in arguably the best sprint race of the season last Saturday in Portugal, where he fought ferociously against Alex Marquez before falling just 0.120 seconds short of his maiden win in either race format in the premier class. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of expectations, but it\u2019s true that the last time MotoGP raced here in \u201923 Jack [Miller] was super competitive, also Brad [Binder],\u201d Acosta said. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s true that we find some good consistency in last GPs. It was a first part of the season to forget, we were really struggling without really understanding why, but then after making clear our mind and maybe changing a little bit the target \u2026 we were finding something extra. <\/p>\n \u201cThe bike didn\u2019t improve a lot because we don\u2019t change so much, a fairing was helping and a swingarm was helping a bit, but we still have many problems with tyre consumption, and we find it difficult to be competitive at the beginning of the races because we don\u2019t have grip.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the moment that I started to forget about the championship dream, I started to try to get the 100 per cent with my package. One day that was top five, one day that was struggling a bit more \u2026 maybe my mind is the one thing that has grown the most.\u201d<\/p>\n Bezzecchi, a comprehensive winner of last Sunday\u2019s race in Portimao, has scored 69 points since Australia to almost certainly keep Bagnaia out of the top three; in a season that has swung wildly between occasional highs and a mysterious lack of performance from weekend to weekend, Bagnaia \u2013 a two-time Valencia winner \u2013 has scored just 14 points in four rounds since he won the sprint and Grand Prix from pole at Motegi, his Japanese Grand Prix victory his only points from the past six GPs<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis season is quite difficult to know before the weekend if we have the potential to fight, but \u2026 I think the only way possible to finish this season in a good way is with a podium and a fight for the top positions,\u201d Bagnaia said.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter the last four seasons when a bad result was a third place, I struggle to accept the reality of this season. I did all the season with the best job I could with the team, trying to adapt to the \u201925 bike, but unluckily I didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n \u201cThe bike has a really great potential because looking at Marc [Marquez], he showed it. But I was just struggling. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll learn something from this season, but I always tried to adapt and be competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n Acosta has become a regular front-runner towards the end of his sophomore MotoGP season, but a maiden win remains elusive. (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n MARTIN RETURNS TO DRAW LINE UNDER \u2018SH**TY YEAR\u2019<\/p>\n One rider \u2013 besides Bagnaia \u2013 who\u2019ll be extra keen to turn the page on 2025 is Martin, who\u2019ll race with the world champion\u2019s number 1 plate for the final time as he lines up for just his eighth round in 22 this season. <\/p>\n