Francesco Bagnaia won the Qatar GP and, as a result, was the winner of the first main race of the MotoGP season. The Ducati rider left Losail leading the championship, so even though there are still 20 rounds to go, at this moment it only depends on himself to be champion again.
But what has happened to the first winner of the season at the end of the year? We can already say that, in the last decade, only twice has the winner of the inaugural Grand Prix been the champion in the end – Marc Márquez in 2014 and Francesco Bagnaia last year.
Before that, since the MotoGP era began in 2002, the same thing happened seven times – in four of them the protagonist was Valentino Rossi between 2002 and 2005 consecutively. Casey Stoner started by winning and was champion in 2007 and 2011, as did Jorge Lorenzo in 2012 and 2013.
This means that from 2022 onwards, only five riders have managed to start a year with a win and, at the end of the season, become champions. Usually, the winner of the first race has finished in the top four of the World Championship. However, there have been three exceptions – Maverick Viñales finishing tenth in 2017 and 2021; and Fabio Quartararo finishing eighth in 2020.
Winners of the first race of the season:
- 2002: Valentino Rossi (champion)
- 2003: Valentino Rossi (champion)
- 2004: Valentino Rossi (champion)
- 2005: Valentino Rossi (champion)
- 2006: Loris Capirossi (3rd)
- 2007: Casey Stoner (champion)
- 2008: Casey Stoner (2nd)
- 2009: Casey Stoner (4th)
- 2010: Valentino Rossi (3rd)
- 2011: Casey Stoner (champion)
- 2012: Jorge Lorenzo (champion)
- 2013: Jorge Lorenzo (2nd)
- 2014: Marc Márquez (champion)
- 2015: Valentino Rossi (2nd)
- 2016: Jorge Lorenzo (3rd)
- 2017: Maverick Viñales (10th)
- 2018: Andrea Dovizioso (2nd)
- 2019: Andrea Dovizioso (2nd)
- 2020: Fabio Quartararo (8th)
- 2021: Maverick Viñales (10th)
- 2022: Enea Bastianini (3rd)
- 2023: Francesco Bagnaia (champion)
