How do you view Bagnaia’s victory in America? Did he win, or did Marc Marquez lose? Even though they ultimately come to the same thing, there is a distinction.
Bagnaia was having a much better race weekend in the U.S. than at the first two races, but the fact remains that he was still behind Marc Marquez in every practice, qualifying and the races. On the evidence of the first laps in the Main race, it was looking likely that Bagnaia had nothing to offer against Marquez’s pace. Marquez making a mistake was the only opportunity for Bagnaia.
Of course, Bagnaia was in the right place to benefit from such a mistake when it came, but the fact remains that, without that mistake, Bagnaia looked as if he was destined to finish second, and he was the first to acknowledge that; “I know that the win came because of a crash for Marc. He was faster than us, faster than everybody else today. So I was trying to match his pace as best as possible.”
However, displaying a new sense of confidence – and worryingly for his rivals – Bagnaia seems to have a handle on the problems that have been troubling him. “The start of the season hasn’t been easy. From the winter tests to the first two races, I struggled to find my feeling under braking. But this weekend helped me a lot – I finally found what I was searching for,” he said. Of course, that doesn’t mean that he can necessarily match the pace of Marquez, but a confident rider is a fast rider, and Marquez will almost certainly not get things all his way this season.
Bagnaia has traditionally struggled at COTA, finishing eighth and fifth last year in the Sprint and Main races, respectively. He’s never won here, so to do so this year will be a big boost, especially as the next round in Qatar is at a track where he has excelled in the past.
Another consequence of the Marquez crash is that a huge points advantage has been wiped out in one fell swoop; Bagnaia now sits only eleven points behind Marc, while Alex Marquez takes over at the top of the table, 1 point clear of his brother.
The start of the Main race was chaotic. A shower of rain right before the start prompted most riders to head to the grid on wet tyres, only Binder, Bastiannini and Ogura opting for slicks. But it was too dry for full wets and so, with three minutes to go before the warm-up lap, Marc Marquez made the decision to swap to a dry set-up bike in pit lane. Others quickly followed, with a gaggle of riders waiting to start the race from pit lane.
Now, the rules state that if there are ten or more riders wanting to start from pit lane, then the red flag will be shown, and a new start procedure will take place. Marquez knows the rule book back to front and realised that if he went, then so would many others, triggering the red flag. However, it now turns out that they hadn’t quite got the interpretation right.
According to the rules, should a rider leave the grid to swap bikes before the warm-up lap, they can take their place on the grid but will have to serve a ride-through penalty during the race, a point that Marquez and his crew weren’t clear on. If riders come into the pits after the warm-up lap, they have to start from pit lane when all the riders have passed the pit exit and still serve a ride-through penalty.
So Marquez gambled that enough riders would follow him into the pits to swap bikes, and luckily for him, they did, the ensuing chaos forcing a red flag and restart. Naturally, there were a few angry riders, some of whom had gone to the grid on slicks and who, perhaps rightly, thought that if you abandon your place on the grid, then it is forfeit. And so it would be if only one or two riders did that. Expect a clarification of the rules in the future.
From lights out, Marquez was in a league of his own, but Bagnaia was enjoying himself, battling with Alex Marquez for second place. The top ten was looking interesting, with Di Giannantonio, Miller, Morbidelli, Quartararo, Binder, Acosta and Aldeguer running in close formation. The plight of the Yamahas was there for all to see, as they lost out on the straights to the faster Ducatis and KTMs.
Marquez’ progress looked inexorable, leading by 2.2 seconds by lap nine. But that’s where it stopped as he slid gracefully out at turn four after taking too much kerb, which was still wet. He rejoined, but with a broken right foot peg, there was no carrying on, and the flawless start to 2025 was over.
That left Bagnaia with a comfortable lead over Alex Marquez, who couldn’t relax with Di Giannantonio right behind. If brother Marc’s 100% record was in tatters, then Alex’s would remain intact, with six second places from six starts.
Behind all this, both factory KTMs were out, Acosta crashing and Binder stopping with a technical issue. Zarco was running well but also crashed, as did Aldeguer and, surprise, surprise, Joan Mir, although Jack Miller went against form to get to fifth place and stay there, rather than falling down the order like fellow Yamaha rider, Quartararo.
For once, there were only four Ducatis in the top ten, even if they were in the top four positions. Completing the top ten were two Yamahas, two Aprilias, a Honda and a KTM. Encouraging as this may be, none of them are capable of mounting a serious challenge to the Ducatis, although it makes the midfield racing a lot more interesting than what’s happening at the front, unless, of course, you are a Marquez or Ducati fan!
At the end of the two races in Argentina and the U.S.A., Marquez hasn’t left with the points advantage many were predicting, given that both those tracks are Marquez strongholds. But they also prove that the pace is very much there and, barring mistakes, expect normal service to resume in Qatar, although Bagnaia and Alex Marquez will certainly have something to say about that.
