There are so many talking points from Jerez, the Marquez brothers providing some, while being overshadowed by an amazing performance from Fabio Quartararo and another lacklustre one from Pecco Bagnaia.
If the Sprint race went the way they all have so far this season, with a Marc Marquez easy victory, the Main race showed that the only person who can take the title from Marc is Marc himself. That’s two unforced errors so far – America was the first, both with huge point consequences.
He could get away with the errors if there was no consistent challenge behind him, but with both his brother and Bagnaia snapping at his heels at every race, these are mistakes he just can’t afford to make. Luckily, both times, he has escaped uninjured, but he, more than anyone, knows how to properly derail a season through injury. He bounced back once from a serious injury, but it took him a few years. He can’t afford to do that again.
Revelation of the weekend has to be Fabio Quartararo; it was a case of “where the hell did that come from” when he took pole position with a new lap record, beating Marc Marquez to the post, which hasn’t happened this year. Marc was no doubt going to lose his pole streak at some point this year, but few would have bet that it would be to a Yamaha.
But it happened, and in the Sprint race, Quartararo duly took the lead, only to throw it down the road at the beginning of lap two.
In the Main race, not only did Quartararo lead off the line but also held the lead for 10 laps before succumbing to an inspired Alex Marquez, who sensed that this was his day after brother Marc crashed. Quartararo’s disappointment at losing the lead would have been tempered by the fact that he then proceeded to keep Bagnaia behind him to the flag. I doubt there’s a crystal ball anywhere in the world that would have predicted that!
As if to back up the result, both Yamaha riders then professed great satisfaction with a revised engine in the post-race test at the same circuit on Monday, claiming a faster top speed with no loss of sweetness of handling. Now, wouldn’t that be something if the biggest challenge to Ducati dominance this year came from Yamaha?
Marc Marquez’s crash was nothing but carelessness on both his and Ducati’s part. Everyone understands that following other riders closely plays havoc with front tyre temperature, changing the profile of the tyre as the pressure increases and, therefore, reducing grip. At Jerez, it seems to be more of a problem than at some other circuits, and Ducati should have known this. So should Marc. By his own admission, he wasn’t pushing when the accident happened, saving his tyres for the end of the race, but, crucially, he was behind other riders for the first time that weekend, and he was caught out, as simple as that.
We are used to Bagnaia complaining that the smaller fuel tank used for the Sprint races hampers his ability to make the bike do what he wants it to. It does rather beg the question (after he has been complaining about it for the whole time there have been Sprint races), why haven’t Ducati and Bagnaia got to grips with that yet? It almost beggars belief. If he doesn’t like the smaller tank, why not fit the larger tank and half fill it? Or maybe it’s not that simple?
There’s also something going on in the Main races as well for the two-time world champion and, after the Spanish race he was complaining of low front end grip, especially when following other riders, which is something he wasn’t suffering on the GP24 last year, which is the bike Alex Marquez is using this year to great effect. He admits that he needs a strong and predictable front end, which he simply hasn’t got this year, and it’s hurting him in the races.
Overshadowing all this was the victor; what a ride that was by Marquez the Younger! He’s had a torrid time in MotoGP since being promoted in 2020, riding a Honda RC213V, after winning Moto3 and Moto2 titles. In 2023, he joined the Gresini team and immediately gelled with the Ducati, taking two podiums and two Sprint wins, although 2024 wasn’t a great year, despite being on the same machinery as brother Marc – a Ducati GP23.
Now on a GP24, he’s clearly a lot happier, and it’s showing in the results; nine podiums from ten races so far this year, including his first MotoGP win. He’s a serious championship contender, if consistency is anything to go by, and if he can be there to pick up the pieces when the factory Ducatis get it wrong, then a tilt at the title is not so far-fetched.
If the Spanish crowd was there to witness another Marc Marquez victory, then they got what was second-best by only a tiny margin; what a way to chalk up your first win, in front of an adoring home crowd. Watch Alex’s confidence surge with that adulation still ringing in his ears.
All the noise at the front of the race drowned out what was happening behind, which was, predictably, KTM, Aprilia, Honda and some Ducatis slugging it out for crumbs.
For the second race in a row, Maverick Viñales was the leading KTM, running a strong fourth throughout the Main race, after finishing seventh in the Sprint, again the leading KTM. There’s nothing suspicious about this; it’s merely the right rider on the right bike. Viñales is clearly much more comfortable with how the RC16 is working than either Binder or Acosta, and he’s using this advantage to the maximum.
In the post-race test, Binder sounded much happier with the bike, after trying several new ideas which improved his edge grip on corners and therefore the drive out of the corners. The RC16 is undeniably fast in a straight line, but that can’t be taken advantage of if drive out of the corners is compromised. It seems as if the first in-season test has come at just the right time for all of the teams, even if holding at a track where there has just been a race weekend meant that the track was unusually grippy from all the rubber laid down, perhaps skewing the progress apparently made.
So, we head to Le Mans in two weeks with a lot of riders and teams feeling a lot better about their chances after either a good Grand Prix or a good test; Alex Marquez, Fabio Quartararo, Maverick Viñales, Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta on the one hand and KTM and Yamaha on the other. All we need now is for Aprilia to get their house in order, and we could be in for a cracker of a season and, hopefully, more competition for the Marquez brothers.
