MotoGP Champions 1990 – 2019

Dominating Champions:
In the 1990s, the Australian Mick Doohan made his mark in the motorcycle world championship up to 500 cm³. Two years after his retirement due to injury, MotoGP began to dominate the most successful modern rider to date, Valentino Rossi. In 2013 Marc Marquez took over, who is only missing 1 MotoGP title on Rossi until he caught up with the Italian.

Champions 1960 – 1989

Austrian GP 1971 on the Salzburgring – Angel Nieto (SPA, Derbi) ahead of Barry Sheene (GBR, Suzuki) in the 125 cc race. The Spaniard became the most successful driver of all time in the smaller classes. Barry Sheene the first superstar in motorcycle racing, he won the world championship title in the premier class twice in a row on a Suzuki in 1976 and 1977.

The record world champion and new stars from the 1970s
Giacomo Agostini was the most successful driver in history with 15 world championship titles. In contrast to the period from 1980 onwards, one rider usually drove in several categories at the same time. For this reason, and because in the time of Agostini one brand was in some cases vastly superior to the others, a comparison with later decades is only of limited significance. In the 80s Eddie Lawson and before that his American compatriot Kenny Roberts sen. dominating in the 500 cm³ world championship. Mike “the Bike” Hailwood set the most accents in the first half of the 1960s and won 4 titles in the premier class and 3 in the 250 cm³ category. With a total of 5 world championship titles in the 250 cm³ and 350 cm³ classes, Bayer Toni Mang became the most successful German driver in history.

Champions 1949-1959 in the first 10 years of the World Cup

The title page of the book about the Austrian world champion Rupert Hollaus, who had a fatal accident while training for the GP of Nations in Monza in 1954.

The first years of the post-war period
After the introduction of the motorcycle world championship, there were years in which only four to six races were held per season. In addition, before the 1961 season, with the introduction of the Argentina GP in Buenos Aires, only raced in Europe. Geoff Duke war der erfolgreichste Fahrer in der Königsklasse der ab 1949 ausgetragenen Motorrad-WM. In der Kategorie 125 cm³ wurde der Österreicher Rupert Hollaus nach seinem tödlichen Unfall in Monza 1954 posthum zum Weltmeister erklärt.

Salzburg-Liefering race (not counting for the World Cup) 1955 with the German Hans Baltisberger in the front of the picture. The Swabian from Germany was fifth in the World Cup this year. The following season he had a fatal accident at the Brno GP. See also under “History” – “Hans Baltisberger”