Marc Marquez bounced back strongly in the opening practice session for the 2025 Qatar MotoGP at Lusail after his crash from the lead at the Americas Grand Prix. Despite Qatar being one of his historically weaker circuits, Marquez quickly topped the timesheets in FP1 and remained there for much of the session, showing impressive speed and control.
His early pace put him over half a second ahead of his younger brother and current championship leader, Alex Marquez. However, as the session progressed, 2023 race winner Fabio Di Giannantonio and COTA victor Francesco Bagnaia improved their times to split the Marquez brothers. Alex was eventually pushed down to fourth.
Bagnaia had predicted that Marc would be fast right out of the gate, especially given the dusty conditions, but he remains hopeful of closing the gap as the weekend progresses and grip improves.
Maverick Vinales gave KTM a promising start by finishing as the top non-Ducati rider in fifth place.
Jorge Martin, the reigning world champion, made his competitive debut for Aprilia after passing a medical check. He had been sidelined for months due to multiple injuries sustained during both MotoGP pre-season testing and Supermoto training. Martin completed 14 laps and finished 20th, gaining valuable track time in his comeback despite being 1.824 seconds off Marquez’s pace.
The MotoGP grid remains incomplete for this round, with Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez once again standing in for the injured Miguel Oliveira at Pramac Racing.
Due to Qatar’s unique schedule, MotoGP sessions are split between sunny afternoons and cooler, floodlit evenings. Michelin introduced changes to the soft rear and hard front tyres, aiming to give riders more viable options. However, most of the grid stuck with medium compounds for both front and rear tyres during the dusty FP1 session.
