The 2025 edition of the Motul Grand Prix of Japan is a wrap for us, as we leave Motegi with a returning king, in the name of Marc Marquez, crowned 2025 MotoGP™ World Champion on Sunday, as he became the first rider in MotoGP™ to regain a title after a five year drought. The whole Red Bull KTM Tech3 team would like to congratulate both Marc Marquez and his team for an outstanding campaign! On Tech3’s side, Enea Bastianini made his way through the 11th place in Japan, after a P19-start, and Maverick Viñales finished at the doors of the points, in P16.

Grand Prix of Japan

At lights out, it was pole sitter Francesco Bagnaia who kept his advantage to never look back, to grab his second win of the season. Meanwhile, Enea Bastianini remained in his grid position at the first turns, but then found a way to move past both Takaaki Nakagami and Miguel Oliveira to exit lap 1 in P17. He was then in P16th after 3 laps with Luca Marini retiring on Honda’s home turf. Bastianini settled into his early pace, closely following Jack Miller, until he found a way to move past the Australian on lap 6, into the top 15. Soon enough, he was 14th with Alex Rins making a mistake, and after 10 laps of racing, Fermin Aldeguer was just 0.263 seconds ahead. Six laps to the checkered flag, Enea sat in P12 on the chase for teammate Brad Binder. The Bestia provided the extra effort to close the gap on the South African, until the battle for 11th was on, entering the final lap. Both made moves on each other, but eventually, it was the Tech3 rider who came out on top at the checkered flag! 8 positions gained from the grid and 5 points earned, bringing a positive end to a challenging weekend in Japan. Well done Enea, on to the next one!

From P21 on the grid, Maverick Viñales was expecting a tough race following a difficult qualifying and sprint race. Somehow since the start of the weekend, the number 12 has been feeling quite uncomfortable on the bike, as he claimed wanting to return to his pre-injury setting in Sachsenring. At the race start, ‘Top Gun’ could overtake Somkiat Chantra to P20 to settle behind Takaaki Nakagami. Fighting through some shoulder pain, Viñales struggled a bit with his pace, and was overtaken back by rookie Chantra on lap 20. A regain of energy saw Maverick increase a bit the pace towards the end of the race, and hold his ground over the riders behind who had made mistakes. In the end, he crossed the line in P16, just at the doors of the points.

That’s it for our adventure in Japan, as always, the fans have been incredible with us, it is always a great pleasure to come racing in Motegi. Next for us, Lombok island for the Grand Prix of Indonesia, on October 3-4-5.

ENEA BASTIANINI: "Very tough race for us. When you start from the back, you have to spend at least 7/8 laps to try going through the riders ahead, and you can't push like your rivals. You can't brake where you want, especially us KTM riders as we have different references, and you lose time. Anyway, with 10 laps to go, I had a bit more, so I gave more to finish the race in better conditions, but P11 is not a position I want to be fighting for."

MAVERICK VIÑALES: "It was a very tough race but we kept going, which is good. I felt a lot of pain at some stage, but then I relaxed a bit to smooth things down, and I could push again for the last 5/6 laps. It was a good experience and good training for the next races. However, the way the bike is working does not feel right. I think that we are not pushing the tires in the correct way, which is why we couldn’t be fast in Japan. On paper, the KTM is meant to be super competitive on this track, but this weekend has actually been one of our slowest races, which is not normal, so we have a lot of work to do."

NICOLAS GOYON, Team Manager: "The Red Bull KTM Tech3 team is leaving Japan on a much more positive note after a tough weekend for us. A P11 for Enea Bastianini is obviously not our target, but we can consider it as a good reward looking at the overall weekend. His feeling improved today, his performance with the new tires at the beginning of the race was probably not the best, but he managed better the second half, to finish on a solid 11th place, so I would like to thank his never give up attitude, as we hope that things will be better next week in Mandalika. On Maverick Viñales' side, the weekend was tricky. The shoulder is still a bit weak, and he couldn't really ride the bike as he wanted all weekend. P16 is not what we were looking for, but he finished the race in better conditions, so it is one further step made towards the full recovery. Time to back, and head to Lombok for the next round at the Grand Prix of Indonesia, next week!"

RACE RESULTS

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDING

TRACK RECORDS

All Time Record: 2025 - F. Bagnaia (ITA) - 1'42.911 - 167.9 km/h
Best Race Lap: 2025 - F. Bagnaia (ITA) - 1'44.412 - 165.5 km/h
Best Pole: 2025 - F. Bagnaia (ITA) - 1'42.911 - 167.9 km/h
Top Speed: 2025 - M. Marquez (SPA) - 320.4 km/h