MotoGP™ is the world’s premier motorcycle racing championship, featuring the most talented riders on the planet, racing at 22 Grands Prix held annually across the globe. This is the pinnacle of motorcycle racing, governed by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), with the full title of MotoGP™ being the FIM Grand Prix World Championship.
Each year MotoGP™ races are held in Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania, attended by millions of fans, with hundreds of millions more enjoying the sport via live television broadcasts and the live stream available through the motogp.com VIDEOPASS.
MotoGP™ is the most exciting sport on earth, with riders hitting top speeds of over 365km/h and producing incredible lean angles of more than 65º as they become almost superhuman, racing their bikes around the best tracks on earth.
International stars such as Marc Marquez, Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo and Jorge Martin, riding the fastest and best bikes on the planet, from the leading motorcycle manufacturers, make MotoGP™ the world’s top motorcycle racing championship.
A brief history of MotoGP™
The story of the Championship dates back to 1949 when the Isle of Man hosted the first Motorcycle Grand Prix, with 125cc, 250cc, 350cc and 500cc motorcycle classes and 600cc sidecars all featuring in the inaugural competition. The cc is the displacement, aka size of the engine.
Great Britain’s Leslie Graham cemented his name in history that year as the first 500cc World Champion on a British-constructed AJS machine, though it was Italy whose manufacturers would go on to dominate the sport until the mid 1970s.
MV Agusta and Gilera were the leading constructors in the 500cc category, their bikes being ridden to title glory by daring MotoGP™ Legends such as Geoff Duke, John Surtees, Phil Read, Mike Hailwood and Giacomo Agostini.
The last of Agostini’s record eight premier class titles came in 1975 on a Yamaha, marking the start of an era which would extend well into the 2000s, in which the Japanese powerhouses of Honda, Suzuki and Yamaha were the more dominant manufacturers in Grand Prix racing.
After the legendary Briton Barry Sheene won the 1976 and 1977 500cc World Championships on a Suzuki, it was mainly riders from the U.S. who kept their hold on the title through the late 1970s to the mid 1990s, with illustrious American names such as Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey and Kevin Schwantz consistently on top.
In 1987 Wayne Gardner became the first Australian 500cc World Champion, before his compatriot Mick Doohan entered the frame in the 1990s, winning five consecutive titles for Honda from 1994 to 1998.
In 2001, one of the sport’s greatest ever talents and most charismatic riders, Valentino Rossi became Italy’s first 500cc World Champion since Franco Uncini in 1982. Rossi was racing for Honda at the time. Then the modern era of motorcycle racing commenced, as MotoGP™ replaced the 500cc class.
Four-stroke machines came back into the premier motorcycle racing championship and the Czech GP in 2003 marked the end of two-stroke machines in MotoGP™.
From 2002 to 2005 the MotoGP™ crown belonged decisively to Rossi as ‘The Doctor’ racked up five consecutive premier class titles, switching to Yamaha in 2004 and endearing himself to millions of fans with his exciting racing style and flamboyant victory celebrations.
Nicky Hayden was the most recent American to win the title in 2006, riding for Honda, before Australian Casey Stoner secured Ducati’s maiden MotoGP™ title the following year, which was also the first premier class title win for an Italian manufacturer since 1974. Stoner remains the most recent ‘Aussie’ to take the MotoGP™ crown, having won it again in 2011 with Honda.
Rossi added two more championship triumphs to his name in 2008 and 2009 with Yamaha, before Spanish riders exploded onto the scene.
Spain's Jorge Lorenzo won the first of his three titles for Yamaha in 2010, before the brilliant, prodigious Marc Marquez took the first of his six MotoGP™ titles as a rookie in 2013 with Honda.
As injuries began to hamper Marquez his title-winning run came to an end in 2020 when his fellow countryman Joan Mir took the title for Suzuki, before Frenchman Fabio Quartararo ended Spain’s winning run with Yamaha in 2021. Quartararo therefore became France’s first MotoGP™ World Champion.
Francesco Bagnaia delivered glory for Italy in 2022 securing Ducati’s first title since Stoner’s famous 2007 success for the Italian brand, with Bagnaia retaining the World Championship trophy in 2023 and becoming the first back-to-back Champion with Ducati.
Bagnaia’s countryman Marco Bezzecchi, another new Italian rockstar rider on the scene, was the winner of the 2023 French GP at Le Mans, which was the 1000th Grand Prix in history. It also made history off track, with 278,805 fans in attendance over the weekend, a record crowd at the time and only surpassed by the 297,471-strong number of spectators at the 2024 French Grand Prix. Six tracks beat their own attendance records in 2024 and Le Mans set that all-time record!
The 2024 season was a thriller, with the fight for the crown going down to the final round a record third time in a row in MotoGP. This time, Jorge Martin defeated Pecco Bagnaia.
Marquez also returned to winning ways at the Aragon Grand Prix after more than 1000 days without a victory. In one of the most incredible comebacks in sporting history, he won three races after a series of injury woes since 2020.
Other notable landmarks in the history of the World Championship in recent years include the birth of the new Moto2™ class in 2010 to replace the 250cc category and the creation of Moto3™ in place of the 125cc class in 2012, again with four-stroke engines replacing their two-stroke predecessors.
How the MotoGP™ Championship Works
Each year the MotoGP™ season runs from March to November with action-packed Grand Prix weekends providing excitement for a huge international fanbase.
In 2025 the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship calendar includes 22 Grands Prix in 18 different countries across five continents, with the championship visiting iconic motorsports venues such as Assen, Circuit of the Americas, Le Mans, Phillip Island, Sepang, Mugello and Silverstone.
The provisional 2025 MotoGP™ Calendar in full:
- 2nd March | Thailand | Chang International Circuit
- 16th March | Argentina | Termas de Río Hondo
- 30th March | USA | Circuit of the Americas
- 13th April | Qatar | Lusail International Circuit
- 27th April | Spain | Circuito de Jerez-Ángel Nieto
- 11th May | France | Le Mans
- 25th May | UK | Silverstone Circuit
- 8th June | Aragon (Spain) | MotorLand Aragón
- 22nd June | Italy | Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello
- 29th June | Netherlands | TT Circuit Assen
- 13th July | Germany | Sachsenring
- 20th July | Czechia | Automotodrom Brno
- 17th August | Austria | Red Bull Ring-Spielberg
- 24th August | Hungary | Balaton Park Circuit
- 7th September | Catalonia | Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya
- 14th September | San Marino | Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli
- 28th September | Japan | Mobility Resort Motegi
- 5th October | Indonesia | Pertamina Mandalika International Circuit
- 19th October | Australia | Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit
- 26th October | Malaysia | Petronas Sepang International Circuit
- 9th November | Portugal | Autódromo Internacional do Algarve
- 16th November | Valencia | Circuit Ricardo Tormo
Meanwhile, at each Grand Prix the riders in the premier class of MotoGP™ follow this schedule:
- Free Practice 1 on Friday morning (45-minute session)
- Practice on Friday afternoon (60-minute session timed for entry into Q2)
- Free Practice 2 on Saturday morning (30-minute session)
- Qualifying 1 on Saturday morning (15-minute session)
- Qualifying 2 on Saturday morning (15-minute session)
- MotoGP™ Sprint on Saturday afternoon
- Warm-up on Sunday morning
- Race on Sunday afternoon
Each main ‘feature length’ MotoGP™ race on a Sunday afternoon lasts from 40 to 45 minutes, covering total distances of 100 to 130 km, depending on the length and layout of the circuit.
The winning rider is given 25 points for the championship standings, with the second placed rider being awarded 20 points and third placed rider gaining 15 and joining the leading pair on the podium.
Beyond the top three at the finish line, points are awarded for the riders finishing fourth to 15th on the following scale: 13, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 & 1 point.
The MotoGP™ Sprint became a new feature of Grands Prix weekends as of the 2023 season, taking place on Saturday afternoons and covering approximately 50% of the full Sunday race distance.
The Sprint winner gains 12 points, whilst it is nine for second position, seven for third place, six for fourth place, continuing on down with one less point per position, to one sole point for the rider in ninth position. So a rider winning both the GPrace and Sprint on a MotoGP™ weekend takes away a maximum haul of 37 points.
The rider with the most points at the end of the season is declared as the MotoGP™ World Champion. In 2023 Francesco Bagnaia won the world title with a total of 467 points, with his winning margin over second-placed Jorge Martin being 39 points.
In 2024 Martin took the title from Bagnaia with a total of 508 points, the Spaniard outscoring the Italian by a 10-point margin.
In addition to the premier class of the MotoGP™ World Championship there are two additional classes, Moto2™ and Moto3™. The Moto2™ (featuring 765cc three-cylinder Triumph engines) and Moto3™ (250cc single-cylinder engines) categories follow the same racing schedule as the premier class, though there are no Sprints in those classes.
At some rounds the electric Championship, MotoE™, races at MotoGP events too. The sixth season of MotoE™ took place in 2024, with races held at eight European Grands Prix, the riders using electric motorcycles produced by Ducati, on Michelin tyres made from over 50% renewable or recycled materials.
MotoGP™ Teams and Riders: Who's Who in the Championship
As the world’s top motorcycle racing series the competition for a place on the MotoGP™ grid is extremely fierce. 22 riders from Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, South Africa and Thailand feature in the premier class line-up for 2025, with many more nationalities represented in Moto2™, Moto3™ and MotoE™.
There are 11 teams competing in the premier class, with five ‘factory’ teams, who are directly supported by the participating manufacturers: Aprilia, Ducati, Honda, KTM and Yamaha.
There are then also six ‘Independent’ teams who generally purchase or lease motorcycles from the manufacturers, using similar machinery to the factory teams though sometimes without the very latest updates or the same level of technical support.
The current ‘big stars’ of MotoGP™, include recent World Champions such as Italy’s Francesco Bagnaia, France’s Fabio Quartararo, Spain’s Marc Marquez and 2024 title winner Jorge Martin, who is also Spanish.
The aforementioned Italian idol Valentino Rossi was one of the highest profile stars of the sport until his retirement from racing at the end of 2021 and he remains one of the biggest names in MotoGP™, as the team owner of the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team.
Here is the full list of participating Teams and Riders in MotoGP™ in 2025
- Ducati Lenovo Team (Factory): Francesco Bagnaia, Marc Marquez
- Gresini Racing MotoGP™ (Ducati – Independent): Alex Marquez, Fermin Aldeguer
- Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team (Ducati – Independent): Fabio Di Giannantonio, Franco Morbidelli
- Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (Factory): Brad Binder, Pedro Acosta
- Red Bull KTM Tech3 (KTM - Independent): Enea Bastianini, Maverick Vinales (Spain)
- Aprilia Racing (Factory): Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi
- Trackhouse MotoGP Team (Aprilia - Independent): Raul Fernandez, Ai Ogura
- Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™ (Factory): Fabio Quartararo, Alex Rins
- Prima Pramac Yamaha (Yamaha - Independent): Miguel Oliveira, Jack Miller
- Honda (Factory): Joan Mir, Luca Marini
- LCR Honda (Honda – Independent): Johann Zarco, Somkiat Chantra
Technology and Innovation in MotoGP™
The motorcycles used in MotoGP™ are prototypes, meaning that they are bikes constructed solely for the purpose of racing, which are not produced to be purchased for use by the general public. This is what sets MotoGP™ apart from series such as WorldSBK, which also offers great racing for fans, though with the riders on less expensive ‘production’ machinery.
MotoGP™ therefore serves as an elite development environment for the participating manufacturers, with their latest technology being tested out in the most demanding circumstances, before in certain cases becoming used more widely on production motorcycles used by the everyday riders on the road.
Huge advancements in motorcycle technology have been developed in MotoGP™ over the decades, making motorcycles increasingly safer, more reliable, cleaner and more performant.
Manufacturers and suppliers put in huge amounts of work to raise the level of technology each year in terms of aerodynamics, braking power, chassis development, data analysis, electronics, engine performance, fuel consumption and tyre durability, whilst the riders’ helmets and racing leathers also feature cutting-edge technology.
What Makes MotoGP™ the Best in Motorcycle Racing?
A wide array of factors contribute to making MotoGP™ stand out as the world’s premier motorcycle racing championship. The World Championship’s lengthy and colourful history, the highest calibre of past and present riders, the enthralling overtaking and action on track, plus the quality and technical level of the prototype motorcycles used, all combine to make MotoGP™ the most exciting sport on earth.
That status is underlined by the sheer scale of the logistics that go into putting on a truly global 22-race calendar annually, with a growing audience of many millions of fans addicted to the adrenaline and excitement that defines the appeal of MotoGP™.
If you’re ready to join them, follow MotoGP™ on Instagram for the latest updates every day.