2015 MotoGP World Championship

In the other championships, the eleven wins for Rossi and Lorenzo were enough for Yamaha to take the teams' title by over 200 points ahead of Repsol Honda,[14] and the manufacturers' title by 52 points ahead of Honda.[15] Amongst the class of rookies, Suzuki rider Maverick Viñales took the IRTA Cup, finishing in twelfth place overall,[16][17] while Héctor Barberá of Avintia Racing was the best-placed Open class rider, in fifteenth.[16][17]

The 2015 season also saw several moments of controversy between the main championship contenders. In Argentina, Rossi chased Márquez down for the lead before the two riders collided on the penultimate lap.[4] Rossi stayed upright but Márquez was unable to rejoin; Rossi later spoke of Márquez as an "all or nothing" rider.[18] 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.[5] At Misano, Rossi was given a penalty point on his licence, for impeding Lorenzo in qualifying.[19] Rossi accused Márquez of helping Lorenzo in his title aspirations at Phillip Island, in the pre-event press conference at Sepang, a claim that Márquez refuted.[20]

The most significant of the clashes came during the Sepang race; Rossi and Márquez collided for a third time in 2015 on the seventh lap of the race.[13] After a series of 18 overtakes and exchanges of positions between the two, 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.[13] After the race, race direction reviewed the incident and deemed Rossi at fault for the collision, and three penalty points were added to his licence.[21] With this, it meant that Rossi would have to start the final race in Valencia from the back of the grid. On the podium, Lorenzo made a gesture showing his disapproval at the move and deemed the penalty as "inadequate".[22] Rossi appealed the penalty to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), but the penalty was ultimately upheld; Lorenzo submitted a statement towards the appeal and later apologised for his actions on the podium before the Valencia weekend.[22] Rossi voiced his regret at his move on Márquez,[23] while Márquez stood his ground on his riding style in Malaysia.[20] Following the fallout from Sepang, FIM president Vito Ippolito deemed the events – which included a clash between the Márquez family and Italian television reporters "Le Iene"[24] [25] as having a "damaging effect on the staging of our competitions and poisoned the atmosphere around the sport",[26] with Ippolito and Dorna Sports boss Carmelo Ezpeleta calling a private meeting – cancelling the pre-event press conference – for all riders and crew chiefs in Valencia.[23]

• The British Grand Prix had been scheduled to return to Donington Park for the first time since 2009, ahead of a planned move to the brand-new Circuit of Wales in 2016.[30] However, Donington Park pulled out of hosting the event on 10 February 2015, citing financial delays.[31] The following day, it was announced that Silverstone would host the British Grand Prix in 2015 and 2016.[32]

• Suzuki returned to MotoGP as a constructor after a four-year hiatus.
• Aprilia made an official return to the championship entering two factory-supported bikes with Gresini Racing. The Italian team ended its long partnership with Honda, having raced their bikes since 1997.
• Marc VDS Racing expanded its operations to enter a Honda bike in the MotoGP category, having taken on the Factory class bike previously run by Gresini.
• LCR Honda entered a second bike in the Open category.
• Avintia Racing left its Kawasaki-based machinery to switch to Ducati bikes.
• Paul Bird Motorsport left MotoGP at the end of the 2014 season to concentrate on their British Superbike Championship campaign.[77]

• Stefan Bradl left the LCR Honda team and moved to Forward Racing. After the German Grand Prix, Bradl moved to Gresini Racing.[39]
• Cal Crutchlow left the Ducati Team to take Bradl's place at LCR Honda.
• Andrea Iannone filled the seat vacated by Crutchlow with the Ducati factory team.
• Scott Redding left Gresini Racing and returned to Marc VDS Racing for their MotoGP campaign.
• Moto3 rider Jack Miller moved directly into MotoGP, with LCR Honda.
• Colin Edwards retired from racing at the end of the 2014 season and became a Yamaha test rider.
• Loris Baz made his MotoGP debut with Forward Racing.
• After competing in the final half of the 2014 season with Forward Racing, Alex de Angelis replaced Danilo Petrucci at the IodaRacing Project.
• Danilo Petrucci moved from the IodaRacing Project to join Pramac Racing.
• Aleix Espargaró moved from Forward Racing to join the factory Suzuki team, with Maverick Viñales making the move from Moto2 to partner him.
• Eugene Laverty returned to the championship – having last competed in 2008 in the 250cc class – racing with the Aspar Team.
• Marco Melandri returned to MotoGP with Gresini Racing, the same team he competed with during his last appearance in the category in 2010. Before the German Grand Prix, Melandri left Aprilia, and was replaced by Michael Laverty.[38] Bradl replaced Laverty afterwards.
• Hiroshi Aoyama moved from the Aspar Team to become a test rider for HRC. Aoyama returned to the series on two occasions during the 2015 season, to replace injured riders.

• Hiroshi Aoyama replaced Dani Pedrosa for the races in Austin, Texas and Argentina, as Pedrosa elected to undergo surgery to alleviate issues with arm-pump.[52] This was extended to include the Spanish Grand Prix, as Pedrosa's recovery took longer than expected.[78] Aoyama also replaced Karel Abraham at the Sachsenring with AB Motoracing.
• Claudio Corti replaced Stefan Bradl for the German Grand Prix,[74] after Bradl fractured his right scaphoid at Assen. Corti was replaced by Toni Elías prior to the Aragon Grand Prix.[75]
• Forward Racing did not compete at the Indianapolis Grand Prix following the arrest of team boss Giovanni Cuzari. Bradl terminated his contract with the team, and joined Gresini Racing,[39] to replace Michael Laverty.
• Toni Elías replaced Karel Abraham at the Indianapolis Grand Prix, as Abraham recovered from injuries sustained at the Catalan Grand Prix.[67] Elías later replaced Claudio Corti at Forward Racing, prior to the Aragon Grand Prix.[75]
• Alex de Angelis suffered serious injuries in a crash during free practice at the Japanese Grand Prix. He was replaced by Damian Cudlin for the Australian and Malaysian races,[42] and Broc Parkes in Valencia.[43]
• In order to aid his recovery from injuries sustained at the Catalan Grand Prix, Karel Abraham stepped down from his AB Motoracing ride. He was replaced by Kousuke Akiyoshi in Japan, and Anthony West for the remainder of the season.[54][68]

Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top fifteen finishers. A rider had to finish the race to earn points.

Pos Rider Bike Team QAT AME ARG ESP FRA ITA CAT NED GER INP CZE GBR RSM ARA JPN AUS MAL VAL Pts 1 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 4 4 5 1 1 1 1 3 4 2 1 4 Ret 1 3 2 2 1 330 2 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Movistar Yamaha MotoGP 1 3 1 3 2 3 2 1 3 3 3 1 5 3 2 4 3 4 325 3 Marc Márquez Honda Repsol Honda Team 5 1 Ret 2 4 Ret Ret 2 1 1 2 Ret 1 Ret 4 1 Ret 2 242 4 Dani Pedrosa Honda Repsol Honda Team 6 16 4 3 8 2 4 5 5 9 2 1 5 1 3 206 5 Andrea Iannone Ducati Ducati Team 3 5 4 6 5 2 4 4 5 5 4 8 7 4 Ret 3 Ret Ret 188 6 Bradley Smith Yamaha Monster Tech 3 8 6 6 8 6 5 5 7 6 6 7 7 2 8 7 10 4 6 181 7 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati Team 2 2 2 9 3 Ret Ret 12 Ret 9 6 3 8 5 5 13 Ret 7 162 8 Cal Crutchlow Honda LCR Honda 7 7 3 4 Ret Ret Ret 6 7 8 Ret Ret 11 7 6 7 5 9 125 9 Pol Espargaró Yamaha Monster Tech 3 9 Ret 8 5 7 6 Ret 5 8 7 8 Ret Ret 9 Ret 8 9 5 114 10 Danilo Petrucci Ducati Pramac Racing 12 10 11 12 10 9 9 11 9 10 10 2 6 Ret Ret 12 6 10 113 11 Aleix Espargaró Suzuki Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 11 8 7 7 Ret Ret Ret 9 10 14 9 9 10 6 11 9 7 8 105 12 Maverick Viñales Suzuki Team SUZUKI ECSTAR 14 9 10 11 9 7 6 10 11 11 Ret 11 14 11 Ret 6 8 11 97 13 Scott Redding Honda EG 0,0 Marc VDS 13 Ret 9 13 Ret 11 7 13 Ret 13 12 6 3 12 10 11 11 15 84 14 Yonny Hernández Ducati Pramac Racing 10 Ret Ret 10 8 10 Ret 14 12 12 11 Ret Ret 10 14 17 12 13 56 15 Héctor Barberá Ducati Avintia Racing (Open Entries) 15 12 13 14 13 13 16 Ret 13 15 16 13 18 16 9 16 13 16 33 16 Álvaro Bautista Aprilia Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Ret 15 19 15 15 14 10 17 14 18 13 10 15 13 16 14 15 14 31 17 Loris Baz Yamaha Forward Forward Racing 22 17 14 Ret 12 12 13 15 19 15 16 4 17 Ret 18 Ret 19 28 18 Stefan Bradl Yamaha Forward Forward Racing 16 Ret 15 16 Ret Ret 8 Ret 17 Aprilia Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 20 14 Ret 16 18 18 21 10 18 19 Jack Miller Honda LCR Honda (Open Entries) Ret 14 12 20 Ret Ret 11 Ret 15 Ret 19 Ret 12 19 Ret 15 17 21 17 20 Nicky Hayden Honda Aspar MotoGP Team (Open Entries) 17 13 16 17 11 Ret Ret 16 16 16 17 12 17 15 13 Ret 16 17 16 21 Michele Pirro Ducati Ducati Team 8 Ret 12 12 22 Eugene Laverty Honda Aspar MotoGP Team (Open Entries) 18 16 17 18 14 15 12 Ret 17 19 Ret 17 19 14 17 19 19 Ret 9 23 Katsuyuki Nakasuga Yamaha AB Motoracing (Open Entries) 8 8 24 Mike Di Meglio Ducati Avintia Racing (Open Entries) 19 Ret 18 22 Ret 16 14 18 Ret 17 18 14 13 20 15 20 18 Ret 8 25 Hiroshi Aoyama Honda AB Motoracing (Open Entries) 11 Ret Ret Ret 5 26 Takumi Takahashi Honda Team HRC with Nissin 12 4 27 Toni Elías Honda AB Motoracing (Open Entries) 22 2 Yamaha Forward Forward Racing 21 20 22 14 20 28 Alex de Angelis ART Octo IodaRacing Team 20 18 22 21 17 Ret 15 Ret 18 21 Ret 15 Ret Ret DNS 2 Karel Abraham Honda AB Motoracing (Open Entries) Ret Ret 21 Ret Ret 17 DNS 21 19 21 Ret 0 Marco Melandri Aprilia Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 21 Ret 20 19 18 18 Ret 19 0 Claudio Corti Yamaha Forward Forward Racing Ret 20 18 20 0 Kousuke Akiyoshi Honda AB Motoracing (Open Entries) 19 0 Anthony West Honda AB Motoracing 23 20 22 0 Michael Laverty Aprilia Aprilia Racing Team Gresini 20 0 Damian Cudlin ART Octo IodaRacing Team Ret Ret 0 Broc Parkes ART Octo IodaRacing Team Ret 0 Pos Rider Bike Team QAT AME ARG ESP FRA ITA CAT NED GER INP CZE GBR RSM ARA JPN AUS MAL VAL Pts

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap Light blue – Rookie

Scoring system

Points are awarded to the top fifteen finishers. A rider has to finish the race to earn points.

• Each constructor gets the same number of points as their best placed rider in each race.

Pos	Constructor	QAT	AME	ARG	ESP	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	INP	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN	AUS	MAL	VAL	Pts
1	Yamaha	1	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	3	2	1	1	2	1	2	2	2	1	407
2	Honda	5	1	3	2	4	4	3	2	1	1	2	5	1	2	1	1	1	2	355
3	Ducati	2	2	2	6	3	2	4	4	5	5	4	2	6	4	5	3	6	7	256
4	Suzuki	11	8	7	7	9	7	6	9	10	11	9	9	10	6	11	6	7	8	137
5	Aprilia	21	15	19	15	15	14	10	17	14	18	13	10	15	13	16	14	10	14	36
6	Yamaha Forward	16	17	14	16	12	12	8	15	19		15	16	4	17	20	18	14	19	35
7	ART	20	18	22	21	17	Ret	15	Ret	18	21	Ret	15	Ret	Ret	DNS	Ret	Ret	Ret	2
Pos	Constructor	QAT	AME	ARG	ESP	FRA	ITA	CAT	NED	GER	INP	CZE	GBR	RSM	ARA	JPN	AUS	MAL	VAL	Pts