MotoGP previous champions list

Read the full list of every MotoGP champion since the inaugural season in 2002, where it replaced the previous 500cc class motorbike world championship.

Though origins of the motorbike world championship date back to 1949, the MotoGP classification was first established in 2002 where new regulations saw the introduction of four-stroke engines with a maximum power of 990cc; a marked improvement on the previous 500cc motorbike.

Valentino Rossi was the final champion of the 500cc classification and the Doctor maintained his title-winning form into the new MotoGP era. The Italian was victorious four years in a row from 2002 with Honda and Yamaha before his dominance was ended by American Nicky Hayden, who pipped Rossi to the title by five points in 2006.

2007 saw the maximum engine capacity reduced to 800cc and Casey Stoner was triumphant before Rossi reclaimed his crown in 2008 and successfully defended it again in 2009.

It was then the turn of Jorge Lorenzo, who won the first of his three Riders' Championship titles in 2010, and Stoner bagged his second title in 2011.

Bikes were equipped with 1,000cc displacement in 2012 and the more powerful bikes brought in a dominant era for the Spanish. Between 2012 and 2020, every champion hailed from Spain, with Lorenzo winning his second and third title while Marc Marquez, one of the most decorated motorcycle riders, triumphed on six occasions.

Joan Mir continued the Spanish winning streak in 2020 before France's Fabio Quartararo intervened, taking the 2021 championship and becoming the first-ever Frenchman to win the premier class title.

Quartararo had to accept runner-up in 2022 as a new champion was crowned in Francesco Bagnaia, who then successfully defended his title for Ducati in 2023.

In 2024, Jorge Martin made history as he became the first satellite team rider to be crowned world champion in the MotoGP era.

MotoGP World Riders' Champions

Jaquob Crooke

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