At what point do we cease to lament the constant – some would say boring (although they rarely said that when Rossi was winning everything in sight) – success of Marc Marquez aboard the Ducati GP25, and start hoping for the symmetry of his winning streak to continue? Could he really win every race from now until the end of the season and
would it detract from the spectacle? If every race was a fight to the finish, then maybe not.
Let’s face it, the 2025 championship is all but settled: Marc Marquez will be champion with a race or two to still be run so do we now adjust our viewpoint and see how many races he and Ducati can win in a single season?
Austria, which is surely a race that no-one can’t not enjoy, given the setting and the nature of the track, always seems to throw up excellent racing and heart-stopping incidents. Who can forget the Marquez/Dovizioso battles in the late 2010s; Rossi’s miraculous escape from serious injury when two bikes flew in front of him in 2020, or Maverick Viñales bailing off his bike at 210 km/h when his brakes failed that same year; Brad Binder’s audacious wet weather gamble in 2021?
Now, we come to Austria with as much anticipation as we feel when the teams head to Assen and this year’s visit to the Styrian Mountains didn’t disappoint. Even if the two races of the weekend gave us yet another Marc Marquez double, then that is by no means the whole story.
Aprilia has consistently looked like the manufacturer most likely to challenge Ducati’s dominance in 2025, and a pole position for Bezzecchi confirmed this. What was possibly more interesting was the fact that Marc was only fourth on the grid, with his championship rivals ahead of him – Alex second and Bagnaia third.
That hardly seemed to matter as Bagnaia had a shocking, snaking start to the race, that left him down in 14th place. The Marquez brothers took up station at the head of the field, Alex ahead of Marc, and, really, the only question from that point was, when would Marc make his move and disappear into the distance? That happened on lap ten, Marc pouncing on the slightest mistake from Alex.
KTM continued to show encouraging signs of improvement, with Pedro Acosta running third and Binder fifth, with Bezzecchi the Aprilia filling in that sandwich. That’s how they would finish.
In the meantime, Bagnaia was having a dreadful time, his bike snaking down the straights as his rear tyre struggled for anything resembling grip. By lap nine, he’d decided enough was enough and he pulled into the pits to retire. For a seven-time winner at this circuit – two Sprints and five GPs – it must have been a bitter pill to swallow, the more so because it’s not the first time he’s been nobbled by a duff tyre, while Marquez sails serene and untroubled on his way. No-one said life was fair. It’s not even as if he could do any better with a good tyre in the Main race. His start was infinitely better than the Sprint start and he managed to run second for a lap or two, before Marc made a pass stick. From that point it was all slowly downhill for Bagnaia, as he sunk to eighth at the flag.
Meanwhile, there was a proper race brewing at the front, as Bezzecchi was leading comfortably from Marc; was the Ducati rider biding his time or could he really do nothing about the pace of the Aprilia? You’d have to admit that it had all the hallmarks of a waiting game, especially as Marc allowed the gap to widen a little at mid-distance to let his front tyre cool a little before mounting the charge once more. You really had the impression it was when, not if, Marquez would get past and that duly happened on lap 20, after a couple of attempts over the previous couple of laps.
Bezzecchi wasn’t giving up but he, like everyone else, simply has no answer to Marquez’ pace. The Ducati GP25 might not be perfect and it certainly wasn’t designed around Marquez’ riding style but, yet again, it is the happy confluence of the right rider on the right bike at the right time in its development.
What no-one had reckoned with was the furious pace of Fermin Aldeguer. At times half- to one-second a lap quicker than those ahead of him, he quickly despatched Acosta and Bezzecchi and looked to have the pace to catch and pass Marquez, which would have been a proper upset. But Marquez had everything in hand and duly took the win. Second place was nothing to be ashamed of for Aldeguer and neither was third for Bezzecchi.
It was good to see the KTMs performing much better, a development of the front aero helping the bike to turn better. A third and fourth for Acosta and fifth and seventh for both Binder and Bastiannini in the Sprint and Main races, respectively, are reasons to be hopeful for the rest of the season. Michelin had brought a special rear tyre specifically for the Red Bull Ring, with a harder carcass which gave less grip and which enabled Binder to employ his spectacular sideways sliding into corners. For the first time this year, he looked as if he was enjoying his racing. Casey Stoner was a welcome sight in the paddock, taking part in a parade lap alongside Loris Capirossi, Giacomo Agostini, Simon Crafar and others. As usual, Stoner had pertinent comments to make about the current state of MotoGP.
Always an outspoken critic of electronic rider aids, he pointed out that Marc Marquez always seemed to be riding ahead of the bike, whether under braking, cornering or acceleration and that this likely came as a result of more experience with less electronics throughout his career, while younger riders have never known anything other than the full electronic suites now used. When did anyone think of Marc Marquez as one of the ‘old’ guard? He’s still only 32, for goodness’ sake. If he keeps going into his 40s, as Rossi did, is it likely that we will see him smash all the records – race wins and championships?
We’ve got one more year of the current rules, with development now frozen for many aspects of performance, before the new rules come in for 2027, and isn’t that a thrilling prospect? New engines, reduced aero and no shape-shifting suspension. Will that bring performance back into the hands of the riders? If it does, then who is better placed than Marc Marquez to take advantage?
After the interminable summer break, we’ve got two races on consecutive weekends; Austria and the new track in Hungary. Riders who have tried it out on road bikes, including the Ducati riders, have given mixed reports, some saying it’s very – almost too – tight and twisty and others liking it. A new track is always good; it’s new for every team and rider and, just like a wet/dry race, it can throw up an unexpected result.
We can but hope.
