Motegi 2024: Who’s Ready to Shock in 2025

Before we dive into this weekend’s Japan­ese GP, let’s take a quick trip back to Mote­gi 2024. Why?
Because know­ing what hap­pened last year gives us clues about what to watch for in 2025, and who
might sur­prise us this time around.

Sprint Race Recap (2024)
Bag­na­ia stormed the Sat­ur­day sprint, tak­ing the win like he owned the track. Bas­tian­i­ni and Márquez
round­ed out the podi­um, but the big dra­ma came from Pedro Acos­ta, the rook­ie super­star who looked
unstop­pable until he crashed out. Twice. Yep, he had the speed, just not the luck.

🏁Sprint Podi­um 2024:

1. Francesco Bag­na­ia
2. Enea Bas­tian­i­ni
3. Marc Márquez

Main Race Recap (2024)
Sunday’s main event was clas­sic Mote­gi — close, intense, and full of title dra­ma. Bag­na­ia dou­bled up,
tak­ing both sprint and GP wins, while Jorge Martín held onto 2nd and Márquez nabbed 3rd. Sev­er­al
rid­ers, includ­ing Acos­ta, Mir, and Viñales, didn’t fin­ish, mak­ing it a week­end of heart­break for some.

🏁Top 5 Fin­ish­ers 2024:

1. Francesco Bag­na­ia
2. Jorge Martín
3. Marc Márquez
4. Enea Bas­tian­i­ni
5. Fran­co Mor­bidel­li
   

DNFs: Pedro Acos­ta, Mav­er­ick Viñales, Joan Mir, Álex Márquez

What This Means for 2025
Look­ing at last year, Bag­na­ia dom­i­nat­ed Mote­gi, but this year he’s yet to win a GP, so can we expect
him to repeat that mag­ic? It’s hard to say. Jorge Martín has had a tough sea­son with April­ia, so a
podi­um looks unlike­ly this time.

That could leave Marc Márquez as the only rid­er capa­ble of fin­ish­ing in the top five again?
Or maybe there’s room for a sur­prise. Enea Bas­tian­i­ni has been show­ing strong pace late­ly, and KTM
has been improv­ing steadi­ly, (except for their chains fly­ing off). Could Mote­gi be the week­end where
Enea and KTM shake things up?