Barcelona is the spiritual home for MotoGP. Though Dorna’s official head office is in Madrid, that is a relatively pokey affair where the executive board meets, supported by a small group of administrative staff. The vast majority of Dorna staff, along with the entire operational side of MotoGP, is based in Sant Just Desvern, on the western outskirts of the Catalonian capital. The working language for most of MotoGP is Catalan rather than Castilian Spanish.
That Barcelona is the home of MotoGP makes sense given that the city and its surrounding regions have been at the heart of motorcycling in Spain for the better part of a century. Bultaco, founded by Don Paco Bultó, grandfather of Sete Gibernau, was based just outside Barcelona, as was Montesa. That continues to this day, with electric motocross bike manufacturer Stark based in Barcelona.
So no surprise that so many of MotoGP’s great riders should come from the region. Dani Pedrosa was born in Sabadell, in the valley behind Barcelona. The Espargaro brothers hail from Granollers, the rather grim industrial town just northeast of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Alex Rins was born in Barcelona itself, while the two riders leading the MotoGP championship, Marc and Alex Márquez, hail from Cervera, 100km west of the city, in the heart of Catalonia.
Busy times
Being at the heart of the Spanish motorcycling (and indeed, automotive) industry has its upsides for the region, but its downsides for the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya (Montmeló to Spanish speakers, after the town it is in, Barcelona to the rest of the world). The circuit gets used intensively outside of MotoGP and F1: national and regional motorcycle and car races, track days, promotional events, bike and car launches, and much more.
That is good for the circuit, as it means a steady source of revenue. But it also means the asphalt is under continuous assault, with tires shining and polishing the surface and wearing it smooth. The track was resurfaced in 2018, which removed a lot of the bumps created over the years, improving safety. But the hard stones in the surface are polished to an almost glass-like consistency.
All this creates the rather unique combination of low grip and high tire wear. Because there is no grip, the rear will spin up at the slightest provocation. And because the bitumen has long since evaporated, the gaps between the aggregate are big enough to chew the tires as they search for grip.
Less grip is safer
That low grip has its uses. “It’s a good place for testing, even if the grip is very, very low. One of the lowest I ever felt,” KTM test rider Pol Espargaro told us at the last round in Hungary, having spent some time over the summer riding at Barcelona. Good for testing, but very unpleasant for racing. “The guys are going to struggle and complain massively,” Espargaro added. Going through what the MotoGP riders said last year in Barcelona, that is absolutely right.
If there is so little grip, is the track still safe? The riders thought it was when they spoke last year. “For me, it’s not a problem. It’s just another track,” Luca Marini said at the 2024 round. “Barcelona is like this. We cannot complain about the grip here every year, because the grip is just like this. You know that here there is no grip and just try to manage it in the best way.”
A lack of grip is bad, but it is manageable. To cope with low grip, you simply have to go slower, just as you would in the rain. It is bumps which cause the real problems for riders, as they can throw riders off line and reduce traction at unpredictable moments, and that can lead to crashes. A lack of grip is entirely predictable. As Luca Marini says, you just have to manage.
The first thing you have to manage is getting safely through the first two corners. The starting line is such a long way from Turn 1 that everyone arrives there at very high speed. And the holeshot devices and launch controls mean everyone also arrives at the same time. Braking becomes crucial, and a mistake is easily made and the consequences can be severe, as we saw in 2022, when Takaaki Nakagami missed his braking marker and took out Alex Rins. Or 2023, when Pecco Bagnaia was spared extremely serious consequences of his mistake at Turn 2 when Enea Bastianini lost the front on the kerb at Turn 1 and wiped out almost every Ducati on the grid.
After lap 1, Turn 1 is still a challenge. The bikes are hitting 356km/h down the front straight, and have to scrub off as much of that speed as possible before flicking the bike hard right. Get sucked into the slipstream, and you can find yourself rocketing toward the gravel at a much greater speed than anticipated.
Once you’ve got the bike stopped for Turn 1 and heeled over right, you immediately have to flick the bike left again for Turn 2. Turn 2 is another place where crashing is easy, especially as it is the first left turn for the best part of 40 seconds. The left side of the tire has had plenty of time to cool off, so go in too hard and either the front washes away or the rear steps out.
Up and over
A little dab of gas and then shift up and lay the bike on its right side again, for the first of many long corners, climbing up a hill that is steeper than it looks. The right of Turn 3 seems to go on forever, speed rising as you wind on the throttle before picking the bike and accelerating to the next right, Turn 4. There is just enough room between the exit of Turn 3 and getting hard on the brakes for Turn 4 to take a look at a rider ahead, but there is still a lot of track left to have a go.
Turn 4 is another long corner, sweeping slightly downhill toward the iconic Turn 5. The corner itself is not iconic, but if you’ve seen a photo of a rider dragging their shoulder through the corner at Barcelona, it was here. It was of course Casey Stoner who first turned that into an art form, and many have followed in his wake.
Pick the bike up out of Turn 5 and accelerate further down the hill, through the left kink of Turn 6 and on towards the first good spot to attempt a pass, the hard left of Turn 7. Hard on the brakes, throw the bike left, then pick it up and over onto the right through the kink of Turn 8, on the exit of 7. Accelerate up the hill to Turn 9, another place to attempt a pass, but more importantly, a place to prepare the long back straight which leads into La Caixa, the very tight left of Turn 10.
Once upon a time, this was a long and sweeping corner, one of the most glorious corners on the calendar. But the run off at the end was always tight, so as the bikes got faster, and partly in response to the tragic death of Luis Salom at Turn 13 in 2016, the layout was changed to adopt the near hairpin used by F1 at the end of the back straight.
It is a tough corner, and another places where riders are braking from over 280 km/h down to around 85 km/h. It is a beloved place for attempting a pass, as it is the last obvious overtaking spot. If you are still behind coming out of Turn 10, you have your work cut out for you.
Out of Turn 10 and up the hill through Turn 11, and you are in the midst of the stadium section, grandstands peering down at the long right of Turn 12. Where Turn 12 is still tight enough to need second, you shift up on the exit and start to gain speed for the two final sweeping corners.
Who dares wins
And very fine corners they are too. You gather speed and sweep majestically down the hill, revs building for the final corner and the run onto the straight. If you brave enough, talented enough, and possibly foolish enough, you can carry speed out of Turn 13 and chase down a rider ahead, diving up the inside of the final corner and leading the short dash to the line. And when I say talented, I mean of the caliber of Valentino Rossi on Jorge Lorenzo in 2009.
It is a wonderful track. Fast, wide, sweeping, worthy of MotoGP. And the surface contributes to the excitement of the racing. It may not have much grip, and it may cause massive tire wear, but that means that the race requires strategy. You can lead an early charge and try to manage your tires when they drop, or you can save your tires early on and let others escape, then hunt them down toward the end as their tires go away from them and you use the rubber you saved.
So who is going to win? The default answer in 2025 is Marc Márquez. But the Ducati Lenovo rider insists that this is one of his worst tracks. He loves the place as it is his home GP, but he always struggles. Too many long right handers, always his weakness.
As ever, you would do well not to take Marc Márquez at his word. The eight-time world champion has ‘only’ won here twice in MotoGP, in 2014 and 2019. But he has been on the podium an awful lot, eight times from eleven MotoGP races. And two of those were in 2021 and 2023, as he recovered from his injured arm on a poorly performing Honda.
For a taste of how good Marc Márquez really is at Barcelona, you only need to go back to the last race of 2024, the Solidarity GP at the circuit as a last-minute replacement for Valencia, which had been ravaged by devastating floods a week prior. Márquez finished second, 1.4 seconds behind Pecco Bagnaia, and ahead of Jorge Martin, in the race where he was crowned champion. But Márquez was on a Ducati GP23, a clearly inferior bike to the GP24s of Bagnaia and Martin. The next GP23 was his brother and Gresini teammate Alex Márquez, nearly 4 seconds slower than him.
Do we really believe that in 2025, on a bike that he now has a complete understanding of, which is light years better than the GP23 (though whether it is better than the GP24 is very much up for debate), Marc Márquez is not going to win at Barcelona? Sure, it’s possible. It’s possible I’ll win the lottery next week (yes, I do have a ticket). But the odds say different.
Take your pick
If anyone is going to beat Marc Márquez, who could it be? The interesting thing about Barcelona is so many different brands have won here. All five current factories have victories in Montmeló: Honda in 2019 with Marc Márquez, KTM in 2021 with Miguel Oliveira, Yamaha in 2022 with Fabio Quartararo, Aprilia with Aleix Espargaro in 2023, and of course Ducati, most recently with Pecco Bagnaia in the final race of 2024.
So take your pick. Barcelona is a very strong track for Alex Márquez, and perhaps a place for the Gresini Ducati rider to take the fight to his brother once again, make Marc’s path to the championship just that little bit tougher again. Alex Márquez has had a tough few last races, so Barcelona is an ideal opportunity to turn his season around again.
Maybe Pecco Bagnaia. This is a strong track for the Italian, and he beat his now Ducati Lenovo teammate here last year. Yes, Bagnaia has struggled so far this year, but a massive change to the setup of his Ducati GP25 in Hungary appears to have paid off. That was not reflected in his finishing position of ninth, but if you look at his race pace, it was on a par with that of Pedro Acosta and Marco Bezzecchi, who ended up on the podium.
What’s more, Bagnaia gets to use the 355mm discs in Barcelona, because of the demands placed on the brakes. Armed with more feel and the confidence of the Balaton Park setup change, Bagnaia might be able to cause an upset.
Watch out also for Fermin Aldeguer. It has not been a great track for him in Moto2, but where the Gresini Ducati rider has stood out in MotoGP has been for his ability to manage tires in the second half of a race. At a circuit which punishes tires, Aldeguer is going to be a factor to contend with, especially on Sunday.
Beyond Ducati, Aprilia is the next logical port of call. Aprilia have traditionally gone well here, the bike well suited to the long flowing corners, and usually managing the declining grip well. Marco Bezzecchi is coming off three podiums in a row, and has clearly made a big step since the Sachsenring.
Jorge Martin is returning to his element too. The reigning world champion is now comfortable on the Aprilia (though they are still tweaking handlebar positions), and regaining the confidence he lost in his string of horrendous preseason crashes. Martin finished fourth in Hungary, and had the pace to do better if he hadn’t had to come through the field. That didn’t affect his expectations, Martin insisted after the race at Balaton Park. “It doesn’t change for Barcelona or Misano at the moment,” he said. But that doesn’t mean he can’t exceed his expectations.
Orange no longer crushed
How about KTM? Like Martin, Bezzecchi, and Aprilia, Pedro Acosta has made a big step forward in recent races, with a third, a fourth, and a second in Brno, Austria, and Hungary. In Austria, KTM brought a new aero package that helps a lot with turning. Neither the Red Bull Ring nor Balaton Park were tracks where the new aero would make much difference, but the many fast and long corners at Barcelona should be the perfect proving ground.
It feels like KTM as a whole is in an upswing, and not just the supremely talented Pedro Acosta. Enea Bastianini has been competitive for the past few races, showing some of his old talent, despite his unfortunate crash in Hungary. Bastianini is another rider who is so much faster on used tires, and so Barcelona is an ideal place for him to shine.
Brad Binder has also started to show some more consistency as he adapts his riding style to the new, smoother KTM RC16. Though he is still having to change, there are signs of progress, and that has been much needed.
Maverick Viñales is back at Barcelona, and will attempt to ride. Whether his shoulder injury is strong enough yet remains to be seen, but there is only one way of finding out.
Hope stirs
What of Yamaha and Honda? Both factories are still struggling with rear grip. The fact that there is none at Barcelona helps level the playing field a little, but the Japanese factories are still the worst performers.
There are signs of hope, however, especially for Honda. Luca Marini’s fifth place in Hungary came on top of Joan Mir’s sixth in Austria, and it is clear the RC213V is making big strides forward. The bike handles, turns, brakes, but it still doesn’t have any horsepower or any rear grip. The new chassis brought at Austria will get another run out in Barcelona, which should be a better test bed.
The good thing about Barcelona, however, is that you never know what is going to happen. Yes, Marc Márquez is almost certain to win. But it isn’t a given. And it isn’t a given that the podium will be an all Ducati affair, with other manufacturers clearly closing the gap. Though excitement over the title fight is waning, the action just behind the championship leader is hotting up. And that gives us all something to look forward to.
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