2015 MotoGP World Championship

Marc Márquez started the season as the defending riders' champion, having won his second consecutive title in 2014. He had been undefeated in championships throughout his MotoGP career and won a record breaking 13 wins in a season.

Valentino Rossi led the championship for almost the entire season as he chased a tenth world title, but ultimately, the honours went to his Yamaha Motor Racing teammate Jorge Lorenzo,[1] who took his third MotoGP title and a fifth world title overall.[2] Lorenzo started the season quietly with three finishes off the podium,[2] Rossi took wins in Qatar and an eventful win in Argentina, with Rossi chasing Márquez down for the lead before the two riders collided on the penultimate lap.[3][4] Rossi stayed upright but Márquez was unable to rejoin the race, with Rossi calling Márquez voicing his displeasure in the press conference after the race, beginning an estrangement between the two riders that would impact the season and Lorenzo's eventual championship.[5][6]

Thereafter, Lorenzo took four successive wins for the first time in his career to bring himself back into the championship race, before Rossi won at Assen.[7] Lorenzo did not win again until Brno, taking the championship lead on countback,[8] but ceded it back to Rossi, when he won at Silverstone.[9] Lorenzo crashed out at Misano,[2] while Rossi finished fifth ending a 16-race streak of podium finishes after both Yamaha riders were caught out by wet weather.[10]

Rossi and Márquez again collided at Assen on the final lap; Rossi rejoined the circuit through the gravel and went on to win the race, while race direction deemed the incident as a racing incident.[7]

At San Marino, Rossi was given a penalty point on his licence, for impeding Lorenzo in qualifying, an incident that would cause implications later on in the season.[11]

The Australian Grand Prix was won by Márquez, with Lorenzo in second and Rossi finishing fourth, in a race that is considered to be one of the greatest in MotoGP's history.[12] With the top three in the championship, along with Andrea Iannone's Ducati going head to head, with over 50 overtakes between the top four throughout the race, 13 lead changes and Márquez setting the fastest lap on the final lap to ensure victory.[13] Despite the incredible response from fans about the race, Rossi was not happy with how the race unfolded and made comments about Márquez, making accusing Márquez of helping Lorenzo in his title aspirations at Phillip Island in the pre-event press conference at Malaysia, a claim that Márquez refuted, leading up to one of the most infamous races in the sports history one week later.[14][15]

The Malaysian race, was originally at risk of being cancelled due to smoke from fires in Indonesia impacting the track, however the race would go ahead with Rossi and Márquez colliding for a third time during the season. After a series of 18 overtakes and exchanges of positions between the two, during the seventh lap of the race, Rossi made a move on Márquez at Turn 14, pushing Márquez to the outside of the circuit. The two riders made contact and Márquez fell from his bike. He remounted and returned to the pits but had to retire from the race. Rossi maintained the third place that the pair had been battling over until the end of the race.[16] The incident divided fans, pundits and the riders on the grid, with Lorenzo made a gesture showing his disapproval at the move and deemed the penalty as "inadequate" and was booed off the podium, with race winner Pedrosa criticising Rossi's reaction to the incident by calling it a contradiction based on his previous comments on racing incidents.[15][17] Race Direction reviewed the incident and deemed Rossi at fault for the collision, and three penalty points were added to his licence.[18] With this, it meant that Rossi was forced to start the final race in Valencia from the back of the grid, despite appealing the penalty to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the penalty was ultimately upheld; with Lorenzo submitting a statement towards the appeal and later apologised for his actions on the podium.[19] Rossi voiced his regret at his move on Márquez, but did not apologise for the incident occurring while Márquez stood his ground on his riding style in Malaysia.[15][20]

Following the fallout from Malaysia, which included a clash between the Márquez family and Italian television reporters who invaded the family property in Barcelona, Lorenzo being wrongfully accused of storming race direction demanding a penalty for Rossi, which the members of the media would later retract the story and Rossi's protest being overturned being met with hostile reactions from some fans; FIM president Vito Ippolito deemed the events as a "damaging effect on the staging of our competitions and poisoned the atmosphere around the sport", with Ippolito and Dorna Sports boss Carmelo Ezpeleta calling a private meeting for all riders and crew chiefs in Valencia, cancelling the pre-event press conference, also meeting with Lorenzo, Márquez and Rossi privately before the race weekend began.[20][21][22][23][24]

In the final five races, Rossi finished ahead of Lorenzo once, as Lorenzo continued to close the points gap; at a maximum of 23 after San Marino, Lorenzo pulled it back to 7 going into Valencia with the champion to be determined at the final race of the season for the first time in nine years when Nicky Hayden defeated Rossi for the title at Valencia.[25]

At the final race, Lorenzo took his seventh win of the season and won the world title by five points, leading the world championship for the first time all season while Rossi could only finish fourth gaining over 10 positions throughout the race.[1][26][27]

Third place in the final riders' championship standings went to Márquez, who won five races during the season, but six retirements during the campaign stopped him from challenging the Yamaha pair in the championship run-in. The only other rider to win a race during the season was Márquez's Repsol Honda teammate, Dani Pedrosa. Pedrosa missed three races at the start of the season, after electing to undergo surgery to alleviate issues with arm-pump. Upon his return, he did not podium until Catalunya, and ultimately, took two wins in the closing four races at Motegi,[28] and Sepang.[16]

The following Grands Prix took place in 2015:

Round	Date	Grand Prix	Circuit
1	29 March ‡	Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar	Losail International Circuit, Lusail
2	12 April	Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas	Circuit of the Americas, Austin
3	19 April	Gran Premio Red Bull de la República Argentina	Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo, Termas de Río Hondo
4	3 May	Gran Premio bwin de España	Circuito de Jerez, Jerez de la Frontera
5	17 May	Monster Energy Grand Prix de France	Bugatti Circuit, Le Mans
6	31 May	Gran Premio d'Italia TIM	Mugello Circuit, Scarperia e San Piero
7	14 June	Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló
8	27 June ††	Motul TT Assen	TT Circuit Assen, Assen
9	12 July	GoPro Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland	Sachsenring, Hohenstein-Ernstthal
10	9 August	Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix	Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Speedway
11	16 August	bwin Grand Prix České republiky	Brno Circuit, Brno
12	30 August	Octo British Grand Prix	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone
13	13 September	Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini	Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, Misano Adriatico
14	27 September	Gran Premio Movistar de Aragón	MotorLand Aragón, Alcañiz
15	11 October	Motul Grand Prix of Japan	Twin Ring Motegi, Motegi
16	18 October	Pramac Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix	Phillip Island Circuit, Phillip Island
17	25 October	Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix	Sepang International Circuit, Selangor
18	8 November	Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana	Circuit Ricardo Tormo, Valencia
Sources:[33][34][35]

‡ = Night race

†† = Saturday race

As in 2014, the MotoGP class was divided into two categories: Factory and Open. Manufacturers who had not won a dry race since the start of the 2013 season or were new to the class could enter the Factory category with all the Open concessions.

A provisional entry list was released by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme on 23 October 2014.[39] An updated entry list was released on 2 February 2015.[40]

Factory entries Team Constructor Motorcycle No. Rider Rounds Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia[41] RS-GP 19 Álvaro Bautista[42] All 33 Marco Melandri[43] 1–8 70 Michael Laverty[44] 9 6 Stefan Bradl[45] 10–18 Octo IodaRacing Team E-Motion IodaRacing Team[46] ART ART 15 Alex de Angelis[47] 1–15 55 Damian Cudlin[48] 16–17 23 Broc Parkes[49] 18 Ducati Team Ducati Desmosedici GP15 04 Andrea Dovizioso[50] All 29 Andrea Iannone[51] All 51 Michele Pirro[52] 6, 13, 18 Pramac Racing Octo Pramac Racing[53] Desmosedici GP14[54] 9 Danilo Petrucci[55] All 68 Yonny Hernández[56] All Repsol Honda Team Honda RC213V 26 Dani Pedrosa[57] 1, 5–18 7 Hiroshi Aoyama[58] 2–4 93 Marc Márquez[59] All Team HRC with Nissin 72 Takumi Takahashi[60] 15 CWM LCR Honda LCR Honda[61] 35 Cal Crutchlow[62] All EG 0,0 Marc VDS 45 Scott Redding[63] All Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki GSX-RR 25 Maverick Viñales[64] All 41 Aleix Espargaró[64] All Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha YZR-M1 46 Valentino Rossi[65] All 99 Jorge Lorenzo[66] All Yamaha Factory Racing Team 21 Katsuyuki Nakasuga[60] 15 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 38 Bradley Smith[67] All 44 Pol Espargaró[68] All Open entries Team Constructor Motorcycle No. Rider Rounds Avintia Racing Ducati Desmosedici GP14[69] 8 Héctor Barberá[70] All 63 Mike Di Meglio[39] All AB Motoracing Honda RC213V-RS 17 Karel Abraham[71] 1–7, 11–14 7 Hiroshi Aoyama[72] 9 24 Toni Elías[73] 10 64 Kousuke Akiyoshi[60] 15 13 Anthony West[74] 16–18 CWM LCR Honda LCR Honda[61] 43 Jack Miller[75] All Aspar MotoGP Team 50 Eugene Laverty[76] All 69 Nicky Hayden[77] All Athinà Forward Racing Forward Racing[78] Yamaha Forward Yamaha Forward 6 Stefan Bradl[79] 1–8 71 Claudio Corti[80] 9 71 Claudio Corti 11–13 24 Toni Elías[81] 14–18 76 Loris Baz[82] 1–9, 11–18

Key Regular rider Wildcard rider Replacement rider

All the bikes used Bridgestone tyres.

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