Ducati won another victory by 2025 in Spain GP, but this victory did not come from any superstar of the company. The confused luck of both Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia, as well as the spectacular driving phase of Alex Marquez and Fabio Quartaro, have revealed some harsh truths for the present and future …
There are a number of beautiful symbols expressed for two outstanding riders of the Spanish Formula Auto Race when they celebrate important successes in front of the crowded crowd in Jerez last weekend.
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartaro driver surprised Saturday when he ended Marc Marquez’s dominance in Pole in 2025 with a new race record of all time. This ended the 1134 -day waiting time of both Yamaha and Quartararo to win Pole again, returning to Indonesia 2022.
All of this takes place at a race where Quartararo won the first Pole position in Moto3 in 2015, the first Pole position in MotoGP in 2019 and the first highest victory in 2020.
For Alex Marquez, his first MotoGP victory over the crowd of more than 100,000 fans chanted his name on Sunday, two days after the horrific high -speed accident in the sixth training session, could not go to a better place. Five years ago, he launched MotoGP at the Spanish GP as a genuine Honda racer. At that time, he was an incumbent Moto2 champion, but his value was negligible.
His step forward to MotoGP at that time was considered a prerequisite for Marc Marquez to sign a huge four -year HRC contract in that winter, expected to last until the end of 2024. When he entered the opening season in 2020, he was eliminated from the LCR for 2021. At the end of the Grand Prix, he was inferior to Quartararo 27.350 -second position.
It was also that Alex Marquez that has now become the first Grand Prix champion and once again led the world championship, although only one point ahead of Marc Marquez.
“When I saw Marc had an accident, I said ‘Alex, today is your day. You can’t do it in Austin, where he lost a really great opportunity,” he said. “I have overcome and move in the right place … I know with Marc on the track, I have some opportunities, some possibilities, but without him, I know I’m the strongest person.”
The accident of Marc Marquez in third place in 3/25 finally proved to be the key for Alex Marquez and Fabio Quartaro to achieve the most popular results of the season. The fact that both can beat Pecco Bagnaia, who has the best theoretical position to pick up debris when Marc Marquez drops the ball – as the case in Austin – has raised some unpleasant questions.
Marc Marquez missed a great opportunity in front of the crowd
Throughout 2025, this thought was mostly the only one who could beat Marc Marquez, whom many people described as the most complete, this was this 32 -year -old. Quartararo may have shocked him in the class, but the speed of training showed that the end of the race of Marquez would eventually help him overcome the Grand Prix race.
He quickly overcame the Yamaha in the race to withdraw on Saturday to maintain his 100% achievement in the races of the distance and increase the leading gap in the championship to 20 points compared to Alex Marquez and 31 points compared to Bagnaia.
Finally, Marc Marquez’s Grand Prix was ruined from the beginning. A bad starting phase, initially had difficulty putting Holeshot equipment into operation, causing him to fall behind Bagnaia in third place in the first round.
The couple participated in a short rematch of them in 2024 through bends 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, with the collision between the couple on the road to the posterior bend, increasing the heart rate. Both survived and Bagnaia remained. In the third round, Marquez fell when passing through the 8th left hand bend, the previous part was drifting when he seemed to be eating Bagnaia’s bicycle length. He joined and finishes in the 12th position to keep Alex Marquez’s leading score, while Bagnaia is 19 points slower.
The world champion eight admitted it was a mistake, but he said “I don’t understand” because “I had glided like in the first races” and waited for the opportunity to win when the race took place, like what he did in Qatar.
Looking at the speed of the four leading people compared to Marc Marquez, the way he felt that the Grand Prix will take place exactly. On the broken Ducati GP25, he set up his fastest round – 1 minute 37.544 seconds – in the 18th round. Faster than Bagnaia, who was in the second round, while Alex Marquez, Quartararo and Maverick Vinales made their achievements on the rankings in the fourth race round.
His speed is 0.115 seconds slower than Alex Marquez, a little faster than Vinales and slower than Bagnaia 0.010 seconds per round.
When Marc Marquez cleaned the tire and stabilized the pace from the sixth round to the 24th round, only Alex Marquez was faster than him.
At least today, a glory podium was given, the worst is probably the second after his younger brother. The factory’s Ducati driver admitted that he could not make these mistakes if he wanted to fight for the title. This was his second time in the five rounds and led to suggestions that he was under pressure after their battle.
At his speed, and what we have seen so far this season, that is not entirely true. He thinks that he may have a little more inclined angle or chaotic air from the front bikes that has turned his front upside down in a way he is not ready. Basically, he led the entire sprint in the same conditions and is expected to do so once again on Sunday.
However, with all his speed this year, he could not ignore a group of opponents who had never defeated him to win the pure speed this season.
Achievements won the title of Pecco Bagnaia’s MotoGP 2025 is being re -evaluated
It can be said that the biggest disappointment from the Spanish GP is Pecco Bagnaia. The winner of the three most recent Grand Prix in Jerez, this is expected to be the weekend that everything actually starts to succeed with Bagnaia.
Except, that is also expected to take place in Qatar. And that did not happen as expected. Common problems about fuel tanks in the sprinting water prevent him from gaining any more achievements than the third in Jerez, but his first battle with Marc Marquez – which he took the lead – made Bagnaia really appear.
But that did not happen. He was overcome by Alex Marquez in the last corner in the fourth round and then could not do anything to overcome the weak Yamaha of Fabio Quartaro (the end of the speed trap last weekend).
Bagnaia said he could not do anything in front of his Ducati when he was anywhere near Quartararo – what he could do last year, and Alex Marquez’s data showed that he did so on GP24.
“It was strange that the corners that I was extremely strong last year – the corner of 11 and 12 – this season I had to struggle a lot,” he explained. “Even more than that when I was behind [someone]. And looking at Alex, he was extremely strong like me last year.”
“To be honest, Marc is very good at controlling everything. I can’t do it. I want to feel better, feel good for the front of the car. And in this situation, it is quite difficult because it is new to me. Last year, I never felt that way, and I did things in the fast corners that I could not do this season.”
Speed analysis shows that Bagnaia is only slower than Quartararo 0.001 seconds, so this at least matches what he says. This will be the main focus of the after the race on Monday, although he said he would not just return to GP24 full because the new bike has “more potential”.
But he pointed to a problem he admitted that Marc Marquez could overcome. If he didn’t find a way to fix it, he would be trapped a bit. And if it becomes the case that just continues for the rest of the season, his best performance at Jerez is to finish after a Yamaha and ranked second among the Ducati in a race that Marc Marquez does not participate.
Some people pointed out the consistent title last year as a reason not to eliminate Bagnaia immediately. But it is worth mentioning that in the Bagnaia race without scoring, Jorge Martin defeated him with good results.
In the two races that Marc Marquez had an accident, Bagnaia won and ranked third. So those things are not bad at all. However, he has not been able to take himself to the leading position in the championship, this is worrying, as well as the fact that – if Marquez does not have an accident – Bagnaia may not even finish on the glory podium at Jerez.
Future headaches are coming to Ducati
The stability of Alex Marquez – ranked second in all the sprint races, ranked second in three in the first year of Grand Prix and is currently the winner – what is at least expected in Bagnaia if Marc Marquez starts in 2025 as a bright candidate for the title.
After the Spanish GP, the truth has not changed later. But it is obvious that the Ducati racer number two really wears blue, not red.
Ducati has proved to be quite proficient in managing the battles to win the internal title in recent years, but the real problem that makes them headache in the next few weeks is: How long will they prioritize Bagnaia than Alex Marquez?
The second test at Jerez will tell whether Marquez’s brother will find some new items in his box to try. But now it is important that Ducati must try to strengthen the package of Alex Marquez as much as possible.
In recent races, we have seen KTM and Yamaha move forward to become rivals on the glory podium, while Honda cannot stay too far. In both Qatar and Spain, Bagnaia was defeated by Maverick Vinales (KTM) and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha).
If the situation continues like that, Ducati will need to think again. Of course, putting eggs in another basket is at risk that one racer has proven that he is a world champion twice for this brand to alienate when negotiating the contract by 2027. But time passes very quickly, and success in the past is only valid if it stops production in the present …
