Marc Marquez disadvantage? Five key talking points at Qatar MotoGP

The 2025 MotoGP season continues this weekend with the fourth round of the championship, the Qatar Grand Prix.

For just the second time since 2007, the grand prix paddock comes to Qatar not for the opening round of a season. Usually the first stop on the schedule and the scene of the final test, this year’s Qatar GP will take place in baking temperatures in early April.

A dramatic Americas Grand Prix has reset the table coming to the Lusail International Circuit, with Marc Marquez’s DNF leaving his younger bother Alex Marquez to take a one-point lead in the championship.

Pecco Bagnaia got his first win of the season last time out and is only 12 points off the lead as he comes to a circuit Ducati management have been eyeing as the place where the double world champion really gets his campaign going.

With first practice just around the corner, here are five key storylines to watch out for at the 2025 Qatar GP.

The return of the world champion

Arguably the biggest storyline surrounding the 2025 Qatar GP is the return of reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin, after an extended period on the sidelines with injury.

Martin’s debut with Aprilia really couldn’t have gone any worse. As of FP1 on Friday, he will have completed just 13 laps on the RS-GP in 2025 having crashed early on the opening day of pre-season testing in Malaysia at the start of February.

Suffering multiple fractures then, he hasn’t been seen on a bike since, having injured himself again in a training accident prior to the Thai GP.

The bike Martin comes to is said to be quite different to what he initially tested last November in Barcelona. Trackhouse rookie Ai Ogura currently sits sixth in the standings with a best finish of fifth in the first three rounds, while Martin’s factory team-mate Marco Bezzecchi has cracked the top six twice.

So, Martin comes to a project moving in the right direction. But expectations will be non-existent for his Aprilia race debut this weekend. Martin has even said he’s not sure if he is physically capable of finishing the grand prix in Qatar.

Coming into the fourth round of 22 87 points off the championship lead, his already underdog hopes look pretty remote at this stage and will likely only look worse when the paddock leaves Qatar on Sunday evening.

If Martin can get through the whole weekend incident-free, making small steps along the way and seeing the chequered flag on Sunday, that will be counted as a major victory in his adaptation to the Aprilia.

Can Alex Marquez strengthen his championship lead?

For the first time in his MotoGP career, Alex Marquez starts a new round leading the world championship. While only by a point, the Gresini rider’s ultra-consistency on the GP24 in the first three rounds has seen him capitalise on Marc Marquez’s crash out of the lead of the Americas GP two weeks ago.

Alex Marquez maintained his 100% second-place record in 2025 at COTA, which was significant given his previous best Americas GP result was a 12th in 2021. Now coming to a track in Lusail where he has better form and the Ducati works incredibly well, there’s little to doubt that Alex Marquez’s strong start to the year won’t continue.

In America he was outclassed by Pecco Bagnaia and relegated to third-best Ducati in the grand prix in terms of pure pace. Whether that trend continues will be one of the key arcs from the Qatar GP.

But, with Qatar not being one of Marc Marquez’s strongest venues and Bagnaia’s step forward still shrouded with question marks, Alex Marquez is in the best position to perhaps spring a full-on assault for the victory.

Will Pecco Bagnaia’s 2025 season transform in Qatar?

Pretty much since the pre-season, Ducati management have had the Qatar Grand Prix circled in their calendars as the date when Pecco Bagnaia’s 2025 campaign really gets going.

Prior to the Americas GP, nothing was looking particularly bright for Bagnaia. Outshone by his team-mate Marc Marquez, nowhere near even challenging Alex Marquez to be best of the rest, Bagnaia’s championship hopes had taken a pretty big hit.

Making a step forward with his feeling under braking on the GP25 at COTA, Bagnaia was able to bounce back into podium form. Able to get the better of Alex Marquez on pace, he was still set to finish well behind team-mate Marc Marquez before the latter’s crash on lap nine of 19.

Bagnaia didn’t hesitate to pounce on the opportunity and closed a 36-point championship deficit after the sprint down to 12 with his first win of the season.

It’s true that Bagnaia does have a good record in Qatar, but not standout enough to warrant the hype Ducati has built up around it. He has one win to his credit, which came last year, and podiums in 2023 and 2021.

Even with Marc Marquez’s record of one win and four podiums at Qatar, it’s hard to look past him as the favourite coming into the fourth round despite his Americas GP crash. That tumble came from his own error, as he ran too much onto a damp kerb, than being pressured by Bagnaia.

Certainly, Bagnaia has an opportunity to get closer this weekend, but the step he still needs to make is significant.

Could a Qatar return boost another Ducati rider after COTA podium return?

Following on from the previous point regarding Bagnaia, it’s worth pointing out that the rider who beat him at the 2023 Qatar GP was a certain Fabio Di Giannantonio. The Italian also happens to be on the same spec of GP25 that Bagnaia and Marc Marquez ride.

For someone who missed the entirety of the pre-season due to injury from a silly crash on his way back to pitlane at the end of day one in Sepang, Di Giannantonio has not disgraced himself in the slightest.

Still feeling the effects from his collarbone injury at COTA, he was riding at least to a season-best fourth on his VR46 Ducati before being boosted to third by Marc Marquez’s crash. Perhaps more encouraging for Di Giannantonio was the fact he was well within that leading group at just 3.5s off the win and around seven seconds clear of the rest of the field.

His pretty rapid turnaround on the GP25 could cause a headache for the leading three Ducatis of Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez and Bagnaia in Qatar. Scene of a maiden win on the Gresini-run GP22 that basically saved his MotoGP career, the Qatar GP holds special memories for Di Giannantonio.

He was even a decent seventh on the underwhelming GP23 package in Qatar last year. Armed with a bike he now knows he capable of at least reaching the podium with, Di Giannantonio could be on for some big things at Lusail.

A rules clarification after COTA chaos

The desert setting of Qatar should hopefully mean a repeat of the weather-induced COTA start chaos two weeks ago is avoided.

It will remain a major talking point, however, as the championship is more than likely to quickly review the regulations in the event of a repeat in future. Race director Mike Webb, who took the decision to abandon the original start at COTA on safety grounds - and therefore sparing quite a few riders, including race winner Pecco Bagnaia, a penalty - told Motorsport.com this week that the rules will be tightened up and simplified.

That may well come as early as Thursday when race direction issues its notes for the coming weekend, though given that a similar start isn’t likely to be a problem at Lusail, there is no need to rush the process.

The way Marc Marquez played the rulebook and knew a start delay would be triggered if enough riders followed him off the grid at COTA, however, will have caught the attention of his rivals. Others will now surely be doing their homework ahead of the Qatar GP to see if they can work the rulebook in their favour should the opportunity arise.