Spaniard strolls to maiden MotoGP title as champ’s final win not enough
Jorge Martin won the MotoGP world championship for the first time with an untroubled run to third place at the Grand Prix of Barcelona on Sunday, the Spaniard’s 32nd podium of the season enough to dethrone reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia, who won from pole position but fell short of a hat-trick of titles.
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Riding a Ducati for Pramac Racing, the 26-year-old Martin needed only to finish inside the top nine to claim his first premier-class crown, and spent all 24 laps inside the top three places to win the championship over Bagnaia by 10 points, 508-498.
Bagnaia took his 11th Grand Prix victory of the season, but paid the price for a series of costly errors throughout the season that saw him fail to finish eight times, while Martin had just three non-finishes in 40 starts to take Bagnaia’s crown and the number 1 plate reserved for the world champion to Aprilia for next season.
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Splitting the title protagonists on the podium was Gresini Ducati’s Marc Marquez, who spent the entire race behind his teammate at the factory Ducati team for 2025, Bagnaia winning by 1.474 seconds, Martin 3.810secs adrift.
“I don’t know what to say, I’m completely shocked,” Martin, who became the fifth Spanish premier-class world champion after Alex Criville, Jorge Lorenzo, Marc Marquez and Joan Mir, said.
“This is for my people, my family, for the people who are supporting me, this is for them. The last laps I couldn’t even ride, I started crying a bit. It was a really emotional race. This is the most important thing, live in the present and enjoy the moment.”
Bagnaia won for the third Grand Prix in succession for his most prolific season yet, the 27-year-old winning eight races in his 2022 and 2023 title-winning campaigns. The Italian fell just short of becoming the fourth rider – along with Mick Doohan, Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez – in the past 30 years to win three consecutive titles.
“I don’t want to remove the sheen to Jorge, I think it’s deserving what he achieved and this day is for him,” Bagnaia said.
“I want to say thanks to my team, they did an incredible job. All the rest is another story. Congratulations to Jorge.”
Sunday’s 24-lap race was a tame affair, Bagnaia leading into the first corner from pole and having the measure of the field.
Martin dropped to third behind Marquez at the beginning of the second lap and was under no pressure from behind, the Spaniard’s close friend Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) spending the majority of his final race in the sport before retirement in fourth place and exerting no pressure on the Pramac Ducati rider.
Espargaro was passed by Alex Marquez (Ducati) late in the race for fourth, the Italian manufacturer locking out the first four places in the final race of a season where they won 19 of 20 Grands Prix, but will lose Martin and the number 1 plate to Aprilia for next season.
Marc Marquez’s second place saw the six-time MotoGP champion claim third place in the championship standings over the rider he’ll replace as Bagnaia’s teammate next season, Enea Bastianini, who finished seventh on Sunday.
Australia’s Jack Miller, on his final race weekend for KTM, finished 13th from 19th on the grid to finish the year in 14th place in the standings with 87 points, his worst campaign since his second MotoGP season for Honda in 2016 (18th).
