48 Fun Facts About MotoGP

Who remains the only person to have won world championships on both two wheels and four?

John Surtees won seven motorcycle world titles, switched to cars in 1960 and took the Formula One crown with Ferrari just four years later, in 1964.

What distinction did the top two in the 2025 riders' standings share, a first for the premier class?

They were brothers, and the pair had set the tone early by finishing first and second in each of the season's first ten sprint races.

Which American group bought the championship's Madrid-based promoter, Dorna Sports, in 2025?

Liberty Media already owned Formula One, so the deal closed only once the European Commission had cleared it in June 2025; Dorna has since been renamed MotoGP Sports Entertainment Group.

Which number was retired at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix to honour the rider who had used it for his entire career?

46 was Valentino Rossi's number because his father Graziano had raced with it, and he kept it even as world champion rather than switch to the number 1.

Which rookie won the 2013 premier-class title aged 20, the youngest champion in the class's history?

Marc Márquez could go straight into a factory team only because the rule keeping rookies out of them was relaxed for 2013, and no debutant had won the title since 1978.

Which Australian, who braked with a left-thumb lever, won five straight 500cc titles from 1994?

Mick Doohan switched to a left thumb-operated rear brake after a 1992 crash left his right foot unable to work the pedal, and he then dominated the class until 1998.

Which circuit has held a Grand Prix motorcycle race every year since 1949 except 2020?

Assen, 'the Cathedral of Speed', hosts the Dutch TT, the oldest event on the calendar, and its only gap came in 2020, when the pandemic cancelled the race.

Which manufacturer's run of 22 straight Grand Prix wins was ended at the 2025 French round?

Ducati's 22 wins in a row only equalled a record first set in 1997–98, and the streak was broken by a home rider in the wet.

Which company returned as the premier class's sole tyre supplier in 2016 after Bridgestone withdrew?

Michelin had been losing its top riders to Bridgestone, Valentino Rossi switching for 2008 and winning the title, before the class moved to a single Bridgestone supply in 2009.

Which Spanish rider, a triskaidekaphobe, insisted his 13 world titles be counted as '12+1'?

Ángel Nieto won 90 Grands Prix, all in the small-capacity classes, and after his death in 2017 the Jerez circuit that hosts the Spanish round was renamed in his honour.

Which Yamaha rider became the first French premier-class world champion, in 2021?

Fabio Quartararo, nicknamed 'El Diablo', sealed the crown with two rounds to spare when his closest rival crashed out of the lead at Misano with five laps left.

Which Suzuki factory rider won back-to-back 500cc world titles in 1976 and 1977?

Barry Sheene raced in a Donald Duck helmet and kept his own number 7 even as world champion, rather than take the number 1 plate a champion can claim.

Which former dirt-track racer became the first American to win a Grand Prix world title, in 1978?

Kenny Roberts was sent to Europe by Yamaha's US importer once it could not build a dirt-track bike to beat Harley-Davidson, and his sliding style changed how Grand Prix bikes were ridden.

Which circuit, owned by Ferrari since 1988, hosts the Italian motorcycle Grand Prix?

Mugello, in Tuscany, has staged one Formula One race, in 2020, when a calendar rewritten by the pandemic let Ferrari mark its 1,000th Grand Prix at its own track.

Which circuit won the Australian Grand Prix back from Eastern Creek in 1997 and kept it until 2026?

Phillip Island staged the first Australian round in 1989, lost the race to Sydney in 1991 and won it back in 1997, only for a street circuit in Adelaide to take it from 2027.

Which rider won premier-class titles in 2010, 2012 and 2015 after two 250cc crowns?

Jorge Lorenzo took the 2015 crown by five points at the final round, where teammate and title rival Valentino Rossi had to start from the back of the grid as a penalty.

Which American won the 2006 premier-class world championship, ending Valentino Rossi's run of five straight titles?

Nicky Hayden, 'the Kentucky Kid', was knocked off by his own teammate at the penultimate round, yet took the crown when Rossi crashed in the Valencia finale.

Which desert circuit staged the first night race in the championship's history, in March 2008?

Lusail, in Qatar, was floodlit for night racing, but riding in the wet under the lights was then ruled out, and a desert rainstorm pushed the 2009 race back a day.

Which rider won four consecutive 250cc world titles from 1994 to 1997?

Max Biaggi never won the premier-class crown despite three runner-up finishes, but he switched to World Superbikes and took two titles there, the second in 2012 by half a point.

Who came back from 91 points down at mid-season to win the 2022 premier-class title?

Francesco Bagnaia trailed by 91 points with ten of the twenty races gone, then won the next four in a row and sealed the title at the Valencia finale.

Who won the 2024 title with a satellite team, the first independent-team champion of the MotoGP era?

Jorge Martín won with Prima Pramac Racing after being passed over for a factory seat, and by then had already signed to race for a rival manufacturer in 2025.

Who took the 2020 world title with a single race win and seven podiums all season?

Joan Mir's only victory came at the European Grand Prix, in a season thrown open when the reigning champion broke his arm at the opening round; it was Suzuki's first title since 2000.

Who won the first title of MotoGP's 800cc era, in 2007?

Casey Stoner took the crown in the first season of 800cc engines, a limit that lasted only the five seasons it had been guaranteed before 1,000cc engines arrived in 2012.

Which British manufacturer has supplied Moto2's 765cc three-cylinder racing engines since 2019?

Triumph's triples are based on the Street Triple RS, replacing the 600cc in-line fours the class had used since it began in 2010.

Which penalty arrived in 2019 for riders who exceed track limits or ride moderately recklessly?

Long lap penalties were added as a lighter sanction for small offences: the rider loses time on a longer marked line around one corner instead of being sent through the pits.

Which Spaniard retired in 2018 with 31 premier-class wins and three runner-up finishes but no title?

Dani Pedrosa, runner-up in 2007, 2010 and 2012, became a test rider, and the bike redesigned around his feedback gave its maker a first premier-class win in 2020.

Who became the youngest world champion in the sport's history by winning the 1990 125cc title at 17?

Loris Capirossi was 17 years and 165 days old, and later sealed the 1998 250cc title by colliding with his own teammate at the last corner of the final race, after which the team let him go.

Who is the only rider to have won the 250cc and 500cc world titles in a single year, in 1985?

Freddie Spencer never won another Grand Prix after that double season: wrist injuries cut his career short, and some blame the strain of racing two classes at once.

Which American won three straight 500cc titles from 1990 for a team run by a fellow ex-champion?

Wayne Rainey was leading the 1993 championship when a crash left him paralysed from the chest down, yet in 2022 he rode his title-winning Yamaha again at Goodwood, using hand controls.

Which American's racing number was retired by the FIM after his 1993 world championship?

Kevin Schwantz wore 34 because his uncle Darryl Hurst, 'the original 34', had used it, and the FIM retired the number after he walked away from racing early in the 1995 season.

Who won the 2021 Moto3 title as a rookie, having won only his second Grand Prix from the pit lane?

Pedro Acosta started that race from the pit lane as a penalty for irresponsible riding in practice, and he took the title just one day older than the youngest champion in history.

Who won the 2024 Moto2 title, the first world championship by a Japanese rider in fifteen years?

Ai Ogura switched to a Boscoscuro chassis for his title season and was promoted to MotoGP by Trackhouse Racing for 2025.

Which rider won a record 14 Moto3 races on the way to the 2024 title?

David Alonso was born in Madrid but races for Colombia, his mother's country, and he wrapped up the crown with four races to spare by winning in Japan.

Whose 2025 Moto2 title was the first world championship for a Brazilian in any Grand Prix class?

Diogo Moreira wiped out a big points deficit with late-season wins in Austria, Indonesia and Portugal, then moved up to MotoGP for 2026.

Which chassis maker took its thirteenth straight Moto2 constructors' title in 2025?

Kalex kept the run going even in 2024, when the riders' champion rode a rival Boscoscuro; in 2016, 2020 and 2021 its bikes had won every race of the season.

Who won the inaugural 500cc world championship in 1949 as a member of the AJS factory team?

Leslie Graham led the opening round, the Isle of Man TT, by 90 seconds until his magneto drive sheared a few miles from the finish, and he had to push the bike home.

Which Italian marque, funded by its count's helicopter fortune, won 17 straight 500cc world titles?

MV Agusta's racers were built with the casting and machining techniques of its helicopters, which the firm had made under licence from Bell since 1952.

Which manufacturer's factory team had Repsol as principal sponsor for 30 years to 2024?

Honda's Repsol colours carried six different riders to 15 premier-class titles from 1995, and since the Spanish oil firm left the factory team has raced as Honda HRC Castrol.

Which manufacturer took its first MotoGP win with Aleix Espargaró in Argentina in 2022?

Aprilia's breakthrough came from pole position and was also Aleix Espargaró's first win in any Grand Prix class, putting him top of the standings.

Which manufacturer took its first premier-class win as a constructor with Brad Binder in 2020?

KTM's breakthrough came in Binder's rookie season, in a factory seat he held only because Johann Zarco had walked away from his contract a year early.

Which circuit, home of the Japanese Grand Prix since 2004, saw the 2025 title clinched with five races left?

Motegi hosted the Pacific Grand Prix from 2000 to 2003, and in 2025 the champion sealed his first title in six years there, after a broken arm that needed four operations.

Which circuit lost the Japanese Grand Prix after 2003, criticised for its short run-off areas?

Suzuka, a figure-of-eight track whose back straight crosses the front section on an overpass, has not been on the calendar since Daijiro Kato's fatal crash there in 2003.

Which circuit hosted MotoGP's 2024 final round after floods cancelled the Valencia race?

Barcelona-Catalunya staged the 'Solidarity' Grand Prix under the motto 'Racing for Valencia', with proceeds going to the flood victims, which gave the season two rounds at Montmeló.

Which tyre maker, in Moto2 and Moto3 since 2024, becomes MotoGP's sole supplier from 2027?

Pirelli, sole supplier to World Superbike since 2004, replaced Dunlop in the two smaller classes, so from 2027 one firm will equip every Grand Prix class, on a deal running to 2031.

MotoGP's 2027 rules cut engines to 850cc and ban which technology outright?

Ride-height devices go in 2027 along with the holeshot devices used at the start, as the smaller 850cc engines are meant to cut top speeds and make the racing safer.

Who became the first Australian premier-class champion in 1987, clinching the title in Brazil?

Wayne Gardner scored points in every race that year, won seven of the fifteen and sealed the title with victory in the penultimate round, at Goiânia.

Which circuit returned to the calendar in 2025, having last hosted a Grand Prix in 2020?

Brno came back on a contract running to 2029, and the eventual champion marked the return by winning both sprint and Grand Prix for a fifth weekend in a row.

Which circuit drew a record crowd of more than 311,000 across its 2025 Grand Prix weekend?

Le Mans's Bugatti Circuit packed in the biggest crowd the championship had then seen, and the fans got the first French winner of their home Grand Prix since 1954, in the rain.