The first European Grand Prix of the 2025 MotoGP season brought quite a few surprises. Between immense joy and disappointment, here’s how our riders from Maralpine performed.
The first European Grand Prix of the 2025 MotoGP season is held in Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. After a lackluster Qatar Grand Prix for the two French riders, they are eager to regain the momentum they have successfully built since the beginning of the season.
1134 Days of Hope
It’s a very good weekend kickoff for Fabio Quartararo, who immediately shows a lot of pace by finishing third in free practice 1. Despite a fall during testing, he maintains the fifth-best time, directly propelling him to Q2. He once again ends up third in free practice 2.
Despite these promising results, no one expected what was about to happen in qualifying. After a few laps, Fabio Quartararo clocks the fastest time, closely followed by Ducati rider Marc Márquez. In his final lap, he makes a slight error in the last corner, but it is enough to once again secure the fastest lap, at 1:35.610. Thus, he clinches the pole position, his first since the Indonesian Grand Prix in 2022. He’s also the first rider to outqualify Marc Márquez this year. The Nice native is more than delighted to regain this top spot: “The downside of last year was the qualifying. We were twentieth, today we are first. We know we still have quite a bit to improve in race pace, but we have already made significant progress.”
In the sprint race, he makes a good start and, although Marc Márquez surpasses him on the straight, he manages to retake the lead during the first corner braking. He holds onto it for the first lap. Unfortunately, the race ends there for him as he crashes trying to fend off his opponent’s attack. He brakes harder, losing the front of his bike. This mistake is, however, according to him, a good learning opportunity for the main race: “I wanted to be a bit of a leader, it’s been a few years since I’ve been at the front, so from the first corner I wanted to attack, but we know very well that when we have a lot of fuel, when we have to do more laps, unfortunately we are really on the edge. I tried, I pushed, but it didn’t work out. Tomorrow, we’ll start with a bit more calm. […] It did me good mentally and I know we have the ability to ride very fast. Today we had the pace, maybe not to win, but to finish second or third.”
Hence, filled with hope, Fabio Quartararo lines up on the starting grid. He keeps the lead and battles with Francesco Bagnaia. A fierce fight between the two teammates from the official Ducati team allows the Nice native to break away and open up a gap of 0.5 seconds. Álex Márquez has a good pace and dangerously closes in on the Frenchman, managing to pass him on the eleventh lap. Behind him, Francesco Bagnaia gradually narrows the gap, almost bringing it to zero. Fabio Quartararo holds on and finishes on the podium in second place.
He explains that no improvements were made on the bike but “mentally, this weekend changes a lot.”
New Efforts Ahead
The weekend is more challenging for Johann Zarco. He finishes eighth in free practice 1. During testing, he qualifies directly for Q2 as well by clocking the seventh-fastest time. He exits the top 10 for free practice 2, finishing sixteenth. Nevertheless, he qualifies in tenth place, which sets him up well for the two races. His manager, Guillaume Valladeau, confirms on Canal+ that a discussion is indeed underway with Honda to extend his contract, which ends at the end of the year.
Johann Zarco gets off to a fairly good start in the sprint race, despite losing one position. He is the only rider on the grid with a medium rear tire. The rider from Cannes finds himself in a small pack of riders and struggles to maintain his eleventh position. A minor battle erupts between him and Brad Binder for this spot. The South African manages to pass, but Jack Miller’s fall allows the LCR Honda rider to retain this eleventh position. On the sixth lap, Johann Zarco crashes at the second corner, marking the end of his race as well.
Regarding the main race, he gets an excellent start, taking sixth place, but dropped back three positions by the end of the first lap. He continues to lose positions at the beginning of the second lap and finds himself in thirteenth place. Joan Mir crashes on the fifteenth lap, allowing the Cannes native to take the twelfth place. Franco Morbidelli also falls two laps later, putting Johann Zarco in eleventh. He finishes in this position.
