Marc Marquez is 2025 MotoGP World Champion

When Marc Marquez made a barnstorming start to the 2025 FIM MotoGP World Championship, then went unbeaten from rounds 8 to 14, it became a question of ‘when’ not ‘if’ he would be champion again. That question was answered at the Grand Prix of Japan in September, when the 32-year-old from Cervera was crowned the 2025 MotoGP World Champion.

Finishing second in the feature race at Japan gave Marquez an unassailable championship lead of 201 points with five rounds remaining, completing a redemption story that’s six years in the making.

For Marquez to win a seventh premier class world title (and ninth overall) is remarkable enough, but the fact this one came 2,184 days after his sixth MotoGP World Championship is even more so.

Heaven – and Hell

The Spaniard won the MotoGP World Championship on his debut in the class in 2013, then repeated the feat in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019; all achieved with Repsol Honda on the RC213V.

Everyone would have expected Marquez to finish on top again in 2020, but a crash in the opening round resulted in a broken right arm, setting off a chain of events that would stretch out for the next four years. Despite the fracture, Marquez would start the next round of the 2020 season, but this would prove to be too ambitious.

When the plate inserted for the first operation broke, a second surgery was required, then a third after the bone became infected and wouldn’t heal. This wiped out Marquez’s 2020 season, and while he was back in action in 2021, the six-time champion wasn’t the same.

Ending the 2021 season early due to diplopia - a double vision problem he first suffered in 2011 while in Moto2 – Marquez’s seventh place in the championship was his worst since joining the premier class.

A Crucial Turn

While he seemed to be rejuvenated for the 2022 MotoGP season, Marquez wasn’t. The diplopia returned and the fractured arm from 2020 still wasn’t right. In an effort to save his career, Marquez missed six rounds of the season to have a fourth surgery on his arm. At the Mayo Clinic in the US, Marquez had his humerus re-broken and rotated a remarkable 30 degrees, then re-plated and screwed.

Back racing for the final six rounds of the season, the only highlight was second at the Australian GP. Finishing the 2022 season in 13th seemed to be the low point, but things got worse in 2023. Seemingly invincible only a few seasons ago, it was clear that Honda’s RC213V was now well-behind the opposition, with Suzuki, Yamaha and Ducati winning the past three championships.

A Sad Departure – and a New Start

Marquez’s frustration with the RC213V reached boiling point in 2023, leading him to leave the team he’d been a part of since he joined MotoGP, and a Honda contract worth tens of millions, to join Ducati. For Marquez, the decision was simple; the Ducati Desmosedici was a bike he believed he could win with, and the Honda wasn’t.

Joining Gresini Racing – allegedly for no payment – in 2024, Marquez was competitive again, winning three races and finishing third overall in the championship. Before that season was over, he had signed with the factory Lenovo Ducati Team for 2025.

The Greatest Comeback

Moving to the factory Ducati Desmosedici GP25 brought immediate results, with Marquez winning three of the first four feature races and the first six sprints. Ahead of the Japanese GP, had finished off the podium in only one feature race and one sprint, with only one retirement in each format, too. As such, he carried a 191-point advantage over second-placed Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing) that he comfortably converted into the championship with five rounds in hand.

With 2,184 days, four surgeries, three teams and two factories passing between his previous MotoGP crown and this one, Marquez stands on top of the world again.

While his 2025 MotoGP season replicates the dominance he displayed almost a decade ago, this year’s title is also a tale of determination and persistence for Marquez, with many regarding it as the greatest comeback, not only in the history of MotoGP, but sport in general.