Winning just one race in MotoGP is hard enough, but to match your race number in race wins is something else again. At Mugello, Marc Marquez notched up another milestone in his incredible career to win his 93rd Grand Prix across all classes. Oh, and he scored his 100th pole position as well, the first rider ever to reach that milestone in the history of motorcycle Grand Prix World Championship racing.
Given his domination of the 2025 season, it’s easy to forget that in 2020, 2021 and 2022, it looked likely that his career was over as he struggled to recover from a badly broken arm. To not only come back but lead the championship, giving every impression that the 2025 title is his for the taking, is a measure of his skill and determination and must rank among the most impressive of sporting comebacks.
That the Mugello round would fall to a Ducati was, of course, never really in doubt, but the likelihood of Pecco Bagnaia standing on the top step in 2025 as he had done the previous three years was remote. The first nine laps told a different story, however.
This was the battle we’ve been looking forward to for a long time: Bagnaia vs. Marquez, head-to-head, and it was fantastic. Throw Alex Marquez into the mix, and there was a humdinger of a fight, with no holds barred and no punches pulled. It was great stuff, with all three riders leading at some point, but you couldn’t escape the fact that Bagnaia looked as if he was skating on thin ice.
Indeed, while he looked like his old self during the first five laps, as soon as the front tyre dropped off around lap five, he knew his chances of maintaining the fight at the sharp end were done, confirmed by a near-crash at the end of lap five when the front threatened to wash out from underneath him. To make matters worse, he was then passed on the final lap by DiGiannantonio, losing out on a second podium of the weekend.
Bagnaia was understandably despondent after the race: “I just gave my maximum, trying to at least fight for this win, but after six or seven laps I needed to slow down because with the first drop of the front I was understeering everywhere and I just tried to control. Every time I was 0.3s/0.4s behind Alex Marquez, I was understeering again a lot, the front was not helping me like all the rest of the season, and it’s the same situation as always. Till this moment, we are not able to understand what to do.”
Conversely, Marc Marquez understands that he has to wait for the rear tyre to wear a little and reduce its grip before he can make the most of his devastating speed, so while he was fighting with Bagnaia and his brother in the early stages, it really was a matter of being patient and waiting for the bike to come to him. Mugello isn’t necessarily his best circuit; the fast, flowing corners not entirely suiting his super-hard braking skills that work so well on tighter track layouts, so he knew that to take victory at a track where he expected to struggle would not only increase his points lead – he is now 40 points clear of his brother – but also sow seeds of demoralisation in his championship rivals.
If the remainder of the race was business as usual, then it did nothing to dull the memory of that initial fight, but don’t you wish it had continued throughout the whole race? When was the last time we had a fight to the line?
Despite the relative boredom of the last thirteen or so laps, the producers saw fit to ignore what was happening further down the running order and concentrate on the top three. Maybe the thought of yet another Ducati victory on home soil was too good to miss, but it really didn’t make for scintillating viewing. Having said that, there really wasn’t a lot going on further down the order.
Yet again, it was Maverick Viñales who was the best KTM on track, running in fourth for a while and enjoying a tussle with Morbidelli, only for the latter to barge into Viñales and send him skidding into the gravel, his race run. Acosta and Binder might have at least finished in eighth and ninth, but they were 19 seconds away from the winner. At least Binder got to the chequered flag; his Sprint race was over before it had really begun, being nudged off by one of the VR46 Ducatis and taking Zarco with him at the first turn on the first lap.
But, aside from that, there really wasn’t much to recommend the Mugello race as one for the history books, apart from the aforementioned pole position and race-win numbers for Marquez.
Up next is the Cathedral of Speed, Assen, another super-fast and flowing circuit, but, as ever, who would bet against Marc Marquez coming out on top? Nothing is ever certain, of course, and weather can always play a part in that part of the world, but Marc is proving himself proficient at any circuit, while Bagnaia is incapable of getting his GP25 to work for him, and Alex is becoming known as Mr Second Place.
While the Yamahas are hampered by top speed, they are supremely nimble, so that could bring Quartararo into the mix, while Viñales on the KTM and the Aprilias could spring a surprise. Of course, I’d love to say that Binder and Acosta will be up there, but they’ve really got to sort out their qualifying to stand any chance. Still, never say never!
