On 28th of February, MotoGP kicked off its 2025 Grand Prix season at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, Thailand. QJMOTOR as well took the first step of its fourth year in the MotoGP championship.
Through the past three seasons, QJMOTOR strived to gain racing exposure and collect critical race data, which afterwards facilitated the evolution of QJMOTOR's sport bike series. For the 2025 season, QJMOTOR entered into a brand new collaboration with the well-known MSi team from Spain. The in-depth industry background of QJMOTOR and unique racing expertise of MSi will definitely arouse more inspiration.
However, one of the team's key riders, Sergio Garcia fractured his right hand during the Jerez pre-season test just one week before the opening round and was forced to miss the Thai GP. He has gone through a successful operation and is currently doing recovery exercise at MSi's Bio Performance Centre. The centre represents one of MSi's core competitiveness besides racing technology innovation and rider training systems. We believe that Sergio will make a soon come back since Marc Marquez has benefitted from a similar recovery enhancement program here in this dedicated sports rehabilitation centre.
QJMOTOR collaborated with MSi to source a replacement rider who was chosen and brought in-place in a highly tight schedule for euro-asian logistics. The new rider, Oscar Gutierrez who finished third in MotoE last season will be paired with Team regular Ivan Ortola, in the first round race of the year.
The opening race took place during the hottest and most humid season in Thailand. Although wet races were successfully avoided, the extreme temperatures became a test of endurance to both riders and machines. For QJMOTOR this is a rare opportunity to gather race data of extreme working environment. So both the riders opened full fire and spared no effort during the race weekend.
Rookie Moto2 rider Ivan quickly found his rhythm on Friday's opening practice and ranked 5th in Q1, missed out on Q2 with a minor gap of 0.075 second. He qualified 19th on the starting grid while his new teammate Oscar qualified in 28th.
Ivan undertook a very successful start during the race on Sunday, overtook 3 riders in the first lap and rose up to P16. He battled with other riders proactively in the 22-lap race. However the track temperature reached as high as 57 degrees Centigrade! This resulted in an early exhaustion of tyre grip. He then maintained a controlled rhythm, to preserve what little grip he had left till the end of race. Ivan finished in P22 while Oscar took P25 for the opening Thai GP.
It is particularly worth mentioning that, besides the full collaboration in Moto2, QJMOTOR also went into race data sharing with MSi regarding their Moto3 bikes. Therefore full dimensional race data from 2 Moto2 and 2 Moto3 bikes will be shared after each race, which will be crucial for the evolution of QJMOTOR's development of future sport bike lines.
Next up, the championship will move from Asia into South America for the Argnetina GP during the weekend of 14-16 March. Sergio Garcia is highly expected to make his come back in time for Round 2.
Please stay tuned to QJMOTOR's racing news update.