This really is the season that keeps giving, isn’t it? After Bagnaia’s double victory in Japan from out of nowhere, attempting to steal a bit of Marquez’s thunder on the weekend, the latter lifted the championship, the circus headed to Indonesia, and no one really had an idea of how it would go. I’d like to bet, however, that no one predicted what eventually came to pass.

It all started in Friday’s practice sessions. When last were there only three Ducatis – one factory and two satellite Ducatis at that – in the top ten of the time sheets after Free Practice, nowhere near the top, and when last did a Honda lead the way? When last did we see Alex Rins in fourth place?

The disbelief continued into the second practice session. Both factory Ducatis had to go through Q1? Where did that come from? Both factory Hondas and both factory Yamahas straight through to Q2; who was writing this script? The only thing that was familiar was Bagnaia languishing way down the order, Japan seemingly forgotten.

After qualifying, the top ten on the grid had an unfamiliar look to it; Aprilia, Gresini Ducati, Aprilia, Yamaha, KTM, Gresini Ducati, Yamaha, factory Ducati and Yamaha. Little did we know that this was only the beginning of the surprises.

With Bezzecchi having taken pole position and looking very fast, we could have been forgiven for thinking he was going to run away from the start. But he made a dreadful start and was down to seventh or eighth as the pack streamed out of the first corner. Marc Marquez made a hash of going inside Rins, who was pushed wide and dropped way down the field, while Marquez got a long-lap penalty.

Meanwhile, Aldeguer was having fun running out in front, with Acosta and Fernandez snapping at his heels. Bezzecchi was making progress towards the front, but Aldeguer was building a two-second lead over Fernandez, helped by Acosta throwing himself down the road. That put Bezzecchi in third but still 2.6 seconds behind Aldeguer. Mind you, his pace was impressive and, if he took a while to get past Fernandez, once he had made the move, he wasted no time getting right up behind Aldeguer, taking the lead on the last lap! Brilliant stuff.

Fernandez took third place and, again, where did that come from? Aldeguer has been threatening to take a podium for a while, so I get his second place, but Fernandez has been a little anonymous on the Trackhouse Aprilia this season.

Marquez had recovered to seventh, but spare a thought for Bagnaia, who crossed the line 30 seconds behind the winner. In a 13-lap Sprint race! Did last weekend really happen?

Bezzecchi once again fluffed the start of the Main race, while Acosta made a lightning getaway to lead. However, the obvious talking point was the fast crash between Bezzecchi and Marquez that saw them both tumble through the gravel, Marquez holding his right arm and clearly in pain. It transpired that he had damaged the collar bone and ligaments, and it raises the question of how quickly he will try to return, given that the championship is sealed in his favour. He’s rushed to come back before with disastrous results, so you have to think that he will take his time this time. Late on Monday came the announcement that he would miss the next two races – Phillip Island and Malaysia – before even thinking about returning.

Up front, meanwhile, Acosta was defending brilliantly from Marini and Aldeguer, with Rins, Quartararo, Binder, Miller and Oliveira close behind. Aldeguer had a few attempts at passing Acosta before finally making it stick on lap seven, and then he simply disappeared off into the distance, building a lead of almost ten seconds over the course of the remainder of the race. Not even Marc Marquez has managed that this year.

Marini and Acosta were enjoying a brilliant battle for second place, and we had the incredible sight of the entire field running nose-to-tail, in one camera shot. Mind you, there were only 14 riders left, Bagnaia having mercifully slid off at the last corner, bringing his dreadful weekend to an end.

Things were so close that on one lap, Marini was second, and the next, after the slightest mistake, he was down to eighth! Alex Marquez was hounding Rins for third, while Rins himself was hounding Acosta for second. What a remarkable turnaround for Rins, who hasn’t seen a podium since his victory in America in 2023. With the chasing pack so close behind, the battle for second place effectively involved eleven riders!

Almost inevitably, however, Rins had overcooked his rear tyre and was starting to struggle, while Alex Marquez had passed both Acosta and Rins to run second. While all this was happening, Brad Binder was having a brilliant race and was running fourth after qualifying only 15th. The KTMs were really going well.

And still it wasn’t finished, Acosta getting second back from Alex Marquez, and that’s the way they finished, Aldeguer way up the road to take his maiden win. With two positions on the podium, it was yet another memorable weekend for Gresini.

After the race, Bagnaia was notable by his absence from any media duties, Ducati saying that they were keeping him away to “protect his emotions.” No need to read between any lines there, but what must be going through his mind right now? A week ago, he must have thought that his troubles were behind him, only to sink even lower at the very next race. With his experience, he has to have built up resilience in the face of difficult times, but how long until that resilience runs out and he implodes? The bike is a winner, as Marquez has proven, so is the problem solely within Bagnaia himself? That has to be preying on his mind, even if logic tells us that not every rider will suit every bike, and vice versa. Logic, however, will be in short supply on his side of the garage at the moment.

Next race is at the fantastic Philip Island circuit, and who is going to dare write a prediction for that? Bezzecchi is ultra-fast, but Aldeguer will have renewed ambition and confidence. The KTMs are fast but unpredictable from one track to the next, and the grid is certainly not short of thrusting young riders out to prove a point in the absence of the King. Who knows, Bagnaia might see the cards fall into place once again and be unstoppable!

It just goes to show that having the championship decided so early can sometimes give us even better racing in the closing rounds.

Just when you thought the season couldn’t throw up any more surprises, the circus landed in Motegi, Japan, where absolutely everything was turned on its head, even without the long-predicted outcome of the championship title by race’s end.

First, there was Francesco Bagnaia, who has, as you may be aware, been in the depths of a disastrous slump in fortune this season. Then, all of a sudden, he turned it around to take a Japanese pole position, Sprint win, and Main race win, leading every lap. Where did that come from?

Then you have Joan Mir on the Honda, after another disastrous season, albeit a season that has shown slow but definite improvement of the RC213V, taking second on the grid, with a fourth in the Sprint and a fine third in the Main race, at Honda’s home track. Again, where did that come from?

There was Pedro Acosta, who qualified fourth, when his teammate could qualify no better than 18th, the other KTMs further down than that. He then finished a brilliant third in the Sprint, but sank to the back of the field before recovering to 17th in the Main race, after a braking problem sent him through the gravel trap while running strongly at the front in the opening laps. It happened once and not again, which must be difficult to live with.

And let’s spare a thought for poor Jorge Martin, who royally c*cked up the first corner in the Sprint and took his team mate with him into the gravel. Martin broke his collarbone in the process, likely putting him out for the remainder of the season. Ironically, he capped a dismal season with a crash at the race where his title was finally taken away from him.

Whatever was going on throughout the race, it has to be said that, barring the attention that Bagnaia’s incredible turnaround received, all eyes were on Marc Marquez. 2,184 days since he last lifted the championship trophy; multiple operations; battling his own demons as he faced the end of his career; dozens of crashes after he returned to the fray, first on the recalcitrant Honda and then on the Ducati; the first Ducati victories in 2024 and, finally, total domination of the championship in 2025. I’ve written about the status of his comeback in relation to other sporting comebacks previously, so no need to go into it again here, but it does bear repeating that we’ve just witnessed history.

Marquez now has the longest championship-winning history of any rider, ever; 13 years between his first MotoGP title and this year. No other rider has won a championship after five years without a title. This all adds to the debate about who is the greatest of all time, or GOAT. I suspect that few Rossi fans will ever admit in public that Marquez is a challenger for that title, but Marquez’s credentials are impossible to ignore. Once again, Mat Oxley, writing in Motor Sport magazine, puts the argument in favour of Marquez much more convincingly than I ever could. You can read his article here.

What Japan also gave us was a glimpse into 2026. With the rules changing in 2027, it is unlikely that many manufacturers will be spending much on developing a completely new bike for 2026 – indeed, development of the engines has been frozen. So, should the breakthrough Bagnaia made in Japan not be a flash in the pan, we’ll have two riders at the top of their game fighting for victory at every race next year, on a well-developed, championship-winning bike that both factory riders are familiar with and have won on. Now, that’s a prospect to savour.

Bagnaia’s Oil Leak

Inevitably, Bagnaia’s sudden reversal of fortune has got the conspiracy theorists getting their knickers in a twist. Had Ducati been holding their two-time world champion back in favour of Marc Marquez? Were there nefarious deeds happening in the background, behind closed doors at the Borgo Panigale in Bologna? On the surface, despite the outlandish nature of the theories – anything is possible, after all – is it really likely that a team would deliberately do such a thing? I can’t allow myself to believe it would. Marquez’s domination has been excellent for Ducati, but how much better would both factory riders battling it out for the title have been?

Even though by running second in Japan, Marquez had the title sewn up, was the smoke coming out of Bagnaia’s GP25 in the closing laps a result of sabotage, in order to allow Marquez to win the title from the top step of the podium? If it was, then it didn’t work: Bagnaia’s Ducati refused to stop running, and neither was it trailing a line of spilt fluid, which would certainly have resulted in a black flag. One can only imagine Bagnaia’s reaction had his Ducati failed or he had been ordered to stop, after such dominance. Could he have stood another cup being dashed from his lips?

True, Marquez’s title challenge and success has gained millions of column inches in the media, a lot more than a third title for Bagnaia would have done, but a factory is not driven by public or media reaction, and a tight title battle between arguably the top two riders in MotoGP at the moment would have been a dream story, no matter the outcome. Therefore, it was in Ducati’s interest to give Bagnaia a motorcycle that worked for him.

No, for whatever reason, Bagnaia couldn’t get the GP25 to work, and Marquez could. It’s as simple as that, and there is no conspiracy theory.

If there is one good thing about the title being sewn up with five races still to run, it is that we can now witness everyone riding with nothing to lose for the rest of the season, at some brilliant tracks – Philip Island and Portimao, in particular. Who knows, we might see five on the trot for Bagnaia, if his “fix” is proven to be permanent. We might see more victories for Aprilia, more podiums for Honda, perhaps a race win for Acosta, maybe Quartararo making hay one last time on an inline-engined Yamaha swansong. Marc Marquez might now be so relaxed that he’ll simply have fun and wipe the floor with everyone else, just to rub his dominance in.

It has been an incredible season, but it’s not over yet!

I know that, a couple of race reports ago, I wondered if we wanted to see the symmetry of Marc Marquez’s wins to be continued to the end of the season. Well, that still stands, but I might be regretting what I wished for as his continued dominance doesn’t exactly make for much to write about.

True, last time out, brother Alex took the victory in the Main race, and this time, Marco Bezzecchi took the Sprint victory as Marc, atypically, crashed out. Then the Aprilia rider properly took the fight to Marc in the Main race, and if Marc eventually prevailed, then Bez certainly wasn’t going to make it easy for him, the mistake that allowed Marc past notwithstanding. It was a race for the true MotoGP fan; not much action but palpable tension as the two rode around nose to tail, both of them soaking up and applying pressure at the same time. That neither of them buckled is a testament to the level at which these athletes are performing.

Combine Bezzecchi’s recent form with Bagnaia’s continuing woes, and it’s more than likely that he’ll steal third place in the championship from the beleaguered Ducati rider. Bagnaia can’t buy a result on the GP25 at the moment (that’s getting as boring to write as it is to say that Marc Marquez won…!) and it must be killing him inside; the only surprise is that he continues to turn up for race weekends. Quite how he hasn’t exploded at anyone and everyone around him, including his team, the management or the media, is beyond me, although maybe the fact that Marc is winning consistently on the same machine tempers the outburst as the problem is essentially within himself and not with the bike.

If Bagnaia was left frustrated yet again, then so, clearly, was Pedro Acosta. After Brad Binder’s dreadful practice and qualifying, when he had technical problems with his preferred bike and then the virtually unheard-of incident of two drive chains snapping, Acosta could have been forgiven for thinking that that was all the bad luck out of the way for the weekend.

Apparently not; a third snapped drive chain put him out of the race, to his evident disgust. How does that happen in modern motorsport, where reliability is largely bulletproof, certainly when compared to the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s? It’s most likely that it was a faulty batch of chains, but that will be of little consolation to Acosta.

More and more, it’s obvious that, in order to be competitive in MotoGP in 2025, you need a Ducati or, if none are available, an Aprilia. The Sprint top ten had three Aprilias, two KTMs and a lone Honda, while the Main race had an Aprilia, a Honda, a KTM and two Yamahas in the top ten. In neither of the races did KTM, Honda, or Yamaha look remotely like getting in the mix with the leaders.

The VR46 team put on a good show at Rossi’s home track, with a third and fourth in the Sprint, DiGiannantonio ahead of Morbidelli and, in the Main race, a fourth and fifth, Morbidelli ahead of Diggia.

But none of them could live with Marc or Marco. Even Alex Marquez had to settle for a distant third place, seven-plus seconds down the road in the Main race. Let’s rephrase what I said two paragraphs ago: unless you’re Marc Marquez riding a Ducati, then you’re nowhere. If you stop to think about it, it’s an incredible resurrection; there can be very few sportsmen who have come back after three or four years in the doldrums through both injury and, in Honda’s case, a struggling manufacturer, to be a dominant force in their chosen sport.

In fact, the only rider to have done anything similar is Mike Hailwood, who returned to the Isle of Man TT after an 11-year break, during which time he had raced in Formula One, Formula 2 and sports cars, retired with a mangled right foot after a particularly nasty crash at the Nürburgring in 1974 and settled first in South Africa and then New Zealand.

Think about it; eleven years – 1967 to 1978 – during which time racing bikes had changed out of all recognition, progressing from drum-braked four-strokes to disc-braked two-strokes, that were as different as chalk and cheese, never mind advances in chassis and tyre technology and the level of the competition. And yet, Hailwood not only returned but won what was then known as the Formula 1 TT race riding a Ducati, and he only missed out on a victory in the Blue Riband Senior TT that same year thanks to a faulty steering damper. The next year, he returned and, riding a two-stroke Suzuki 500, won the Senior TT, riding against the TT stars of the day, including seven-time TT winner Mick Grant. Now that’s innate skill.

And that’s what Marc Marquez is doing today. Yes, the bikes now, compared to those at the time of his accident in 2020, are largely similar and the circuits remain largely the same, but a rider can’t stare down the barrel of the very real prospect of his career being over and come back to all-but win the championship and not understand that it’s a similar feat, demonstrating innate skill and a desire that still burns bright. Mick Doohan did it, although in a much-shortened time frame in the 1990s, but Rossi never managed it, and he’s often cited as the Greatest of all Time. Marc Marquez is now a member of that elite.

Yamaha debuted the great hope of the new V4 engine in Misano, but while race time is a valuable element of development, the pressure and spectre of under-performing under public scrutiny is always there, and that’s how it transpired at Misano. That it failed to impress in both the races and the post-race test should be taken as nothing more than it is; the first tentative steps of a new concept for a tradition-bound manufacturer. Anyone who expected Yamaha to arrive and blow everyone into the weeds was excessively naïve, but conversely, anyone who thinks Yamaha won’t get the concept right in time is also deluding themselves.

We’ve always needed at least two manufacturers to be capable of winning races at any one time to keep things interesting; it hasn’t always happened, but when it does, the racing – and the rivalries – are memorable. We should enjoy the dominance of Ducati at the moment, as we did the dominant eras of Norton, MV Agusta, Suzuki, Yamaha, Honda, Yamaha again, and Honda again, but let’s also acknowledge the times when racing was at its best through fierce competition.

History has told us that there are rarely times when two – let alone three or more – manufacturers are at an equal level and capable of winning, but the hope that it will be so is what keeps us coming back at the beginning of every new season. Therefore, the inevitable rejuvenation of Yamaha and Honda, and the continuing development of Aprilia and KTM into the new rules era of 2027 onward, is brilliant news for us all. Ducati will be toppled at some point, but let’s hope they don’t suffer the precipitous fall of Honda or Yamaha and remain close to the top, for the benefit of the sport.

There was always a nagging doubt at the back of the mind that Marc Marquez was going to defer to brother Alex in Barcelona. Had Marc outscored Alex by three points in Spain, he would have had the chance to wrap up the championship at the next round in Misano.

But Marc didn’t really want that to happen, as it would mean that little brother would have been having less-than-perfect weekends in recent weeks. Marc’s killer instinct is intact, but it seems that blood is thicker than water. Or more important than championship titles. Possibly.

Having said that, Alex was looking imperious in Spain. The pace was there, as well as the mental fortitude to resist the fastest rider on the planet at the moment. Also, there was similar mental flexibility.

He knew, for example, that Marc would be weaker in the long, fast, right-hand corners of the track, thanks to the right arm that had been damaged in his near career-ending crash back in 2020 and which still isn’t what it used to be.

Show Marc Marquez a left-hander and he is all but unbeatable. Right-hand corners are a different matter, especially ones that are fast and long. And that’s where Alex made the difference.

Practice was, for South Africans and KTM, an encouraging affair, with Brad Binder topping the time sheets on Friday overall, team mate Pedro Acosta hot on his heels. The top ten on Friday practice showed how much Ducati’s rivals have closed the gap, with three KTMs, two Aprilias and two Hondas in the mix; Joan Mir even topped Saturday morning’s practice.

Further evidence was the fact that there were only three Ducatis in the top fifteen at the end of the Main race. Sure, two of those were on the top two steps of the podium, which is what really counts, but Ducati’s near-total dominance feels like it may be, if not over, at least being challenged.

Spare a thought for Francesco Bagnaia, however; 21st in Friday practice, only 17th on Saturday and a dreadful 21st in qualifying. Which leads to the pathetic spectacle of some fans saying, “Oh, he’s lost it…” Idiots. He’s a double world champion – not ten years ago but 2022 and 2023 – and he won eleven Grand Prix last year; if he lost the championship to Jorge Martin, it was only by dint of Martin’s consistency in the Sprint races, in which Bagnaia seemed to struggle.

No, Bagnaia has not lost it, but the continuing struggles he is having in bending the GP25 to his will are having a huge effect on his mental stamina. Every rider has a dip in fortune; they can cope with two, three, maybe four races with bad results, but a whole season, while your team mate on the same bike is making hay? That’s got to hurt.

14th in the Sprint race seemed to confirm Bagnaia’s worst fears, but then, in the Main race, he rose all the way up to seventh at the flag, helped with his feel on the bike by the larger fuel tank used for the longer races, and a longer swing arm. Encouraging, perhaps, but then what works one weekend for him sinks him even lower the next, meaning he never has a baseline upon which to build.

What his struggles are going to do, though, is make him even stronger and more determined to fight back to the top and, when he does, the rest of them better watch out. If he can make the GP26 work, then we could be in for a humdinger of a season next year.

Then there’s Fabio Quartararo; nowhere one weekend and then second on the grid, second in the Sprint and fifth in the Main race the next weekend. How confusing must that be? Even Yamaha wasn’t quite sure how that happened, especially as Barcelona is known to be a track with low grip, and one thing Yamaha has been suffering from all year is low rear grip. Go figure.

Talking of Yamaha, there are rumours that the new V4 engine might make a race appearance before the end of the season, which makes sense if it is ready to go; testing is all very well, but there comes a time when it has to be tested in anger in a racing situation and it makes sense that that happens before the beginning of 2026.

KTM had a brilliant race weekend; 4th, 5th and 6th in the Sprint (Acosta, Bastiannini, Binder) and 3rd and 4th in the Main race (Bastiannini, Acosta), with Binder unlucky to crash out. KTM seems to be turning things around, but the problem seems to be that they press reset too hard at the beginning of a season, and it takes the team too long to sort things out, so that the championship is beyond them before they get their act together. If they can turn this around and start strong, maintaining that strength consistently throughout the season, then things might be different.

Other news around KTM in the build-up to the race was around the fact that notably sweary ex-F1 team principal Gunther Steiner had led a consortium buying the Tech3 team, which is, of course, running KTM machinery. Bastiannini’s first GP podium in KTM colours with Steiner present was a bit of fortuitous timing, and overall, Steiner’s interest in MotoGP follows a trend of the sport becoming ever more mainstream, something that is likely to continue thanks to Liberty Media’s acquisition of a majority of the sport from Dorna.

Naturally, some of the questions posed to Steiner addressed concerns that Liberty would use a copy-and-paste approach to MotoGP from F1 in order to grow the sport.

“What we should not adapt from Formula 1, I will not go into specifics because every spot has got its own story to tell or its own way to go,’ he said. “And I don’t think, because a lot of people are now maybe thinking that because Liberty took over, it will copy/paste Formula 1: I don’t think they will do that, because Dorna is still running this place and they know what is important to MotoGP.

“They don’t need to go and copy someone else because they can write their own story.
“There are enough ingredients here to make your own story, and enough people here to make your own story. “You don’t have to go out there and say, ‘let’s do it how they do there’. You always have to look at what other sports are doing, but not only Formula 1.
“There are other sports you can learn from. I learned a lot from entertainment in sports in America, from the stick and ball sports, and how to bring the fans closer.

“You have to look everywhere. But it’s not like you can go ‘let’s take this from Formula 1 and do it here’ because there’s no need for that. “MotoGP can do its own thing and be very successful. It is already successful.”

And long may that continue. We’re off to Misano this weekend; the championship isn’t won yet, and the big question is, how long can Alex Marquez keep his title hopes alive?

Anyone who was hoping for a change in the pecking order due to the effects of a brand-new track might have come away from Balaton Park in Hungary disappointed, but if we look closely, there were plenty of positives to take away, alongside some obvious negatives.

While another race-weekend double for Marc Marquez might have been inevitable, at least the Main race gave us an all-too-rare sight of Marquez having to fight for the win, even if it had all the appearances of a cat toying with the mouse it has caught before delivering the coup de grâce. Yet again, the Aprilia RS-GP was the bike that seemed to be able to give the Ducati GP25 a run for its money and, if it weren’t for a certain M. Marquez, an Aprilia rider would surely be right up near the top of the championship table.

Then there was the Balaton Park circuit itself; is the track suitable for 300-horsepower racing motorcycles? Narrow and tight, one couldn’t help feeling that the bikes couldn’t really get out of their own way. On the one hand, it was great to watch the riders get to grips with a new track, but on the other, there was very little flow, and it all appeared very stop-and-go and, to be honest, boring.

And stop-and-go leads to more accidents. Look at Quartararo’s accident at turn one in the Sprint race. Then, Enea Bastiannini was insanely lucky to avoid being hit by a following rider as he crashed entering one chicane and then slid across the track, with his bike, into the oncoming traffic. Even though the traffic was moving slowly, being hit by a bike is always going to hurt, at best, or break bones, at worst.

The average speed for the Grand Prix was also rather pathetic, 92.6mph. Moto3 bikes manage a better average speed at nearly every other track on the calendar. As a poster-circuit for the magnificence of MotoGP, it was an abject failure, but it’s on the calendar for the foreseeable future, so we might as well get used to it.

You can never be sure if Ducati’s rivals are making big strides and catching up or whether the nature of the track did the likes of KTM and Aprilia – and even Honda – more favours than it did Ducati.

Yes, Marc Marquez won both races, but a second place for Pedro Acosta in the Main race, alongside a third and fourth for Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi (who lead convincingly for a while) and Jorge Martin, and a season-best fifth place for Honda’s Luca Marini, following a fourth and sixth for Marini and Joan Mir in the Sprint are indications that Ducati might not have it all its own way for the remainder of the season, no matter how circuit-specific those results might be.

If Marc Marquez carries on at this rate, he will seal the Championship in two races’ time, at Misano, with six races left to run. If he leaves Misano with a 222-point lead, then the title is his; it really is a question of when and not if at this point in the season. His brother Alex is his nearest challenger, but that challenge has dropped off in the past couple of races, with some pretty poor results, including an eighth and fourteenth in Hungary.

And spare a thought for poor Francesco Bagnaia, who can’t buy a good result this year. His third place in the championship, despite the dire results, is remarkable, but he must be tearing his hair out with frustration at his lack of ability to bend the GP25 to his will; frustration that has to be amplified by his team-mate’s achievements on the same bike.

It’s not even as if he can look to any race that has been run as the lowest point from where he can start to rebuild, as the lowest point keeps moving weekend after weekend. In Hungary, he never once troubled the top ten in any practice or qualifying session or, for that matter, in the Sprint race. Quite how the Ducati engineers are keeping track of all the changes they are making to the GP25 to find a solution for him is beyond me, but they seemed to find something for the Main race, which Bagnaia finished in ninth place.

The only problem is that this has happened before to Bagnaia this season; a supposedly game-changing breakthrough turns out to be a damp squib; a larger front brake disc seemed to give him the stopping stability he had been lacking, only for that idea to go out of the window at the very next race. There’s nothing wrong with Bagnaia’s talent – you don’t become a double world champion simply by being on the best bike; you have to have the skill to use it, and let’s not forget that he won 11 Grand Prix last year in his title fight with Martin. No, there’s nothing wrong with his talent, and MotoGP needs him fighting at the front again, if only to give us a bit of variety on the podium!

The KTM RC16, in the hands of Pedro Acosta, at least, is starting to show some progress, even if Brad Binder is still struggling a little. The fact that Pol Espargaro, KTM test-rider currently standing in for injured Maverick Viñales, was able to get directly into Q2 after practice speaks volumes not only for his ability and familiarity with the bike, but also for the potential of the bike that is very close to being unlocked. Acosta hailed a development in Austria that made him much happier on the bike, and the results are backing that up.

But over everything lies the shadow that Marc Marquez is casting with his relentless superiority. He’s now won seven races on the trot – 14 if you count Sprint victories – and no other rider has done that since Marquez himself achieved the same thing on the Honda in 2014. You could argue that his task has been made easier by the relatively lacklustre challenge set up by his rivals, whether in his own team or up and down the pit lane. To put it bluntly, they keep shooting themselves in the foot.

In Hungary, Pedro Acosta looked to be lining up a serious challenge during Friday practice, but then he crashed heavily during the opening minutes of Q2 and could only end up seventh on the grid, on a bike that didn’t have his preferred suspension specification. Bezzecchi, for his part, realised he wasn’t fast enough on the preferred medium rear tyre, so ran the soft, banking on building up an early lead and managing tyre wear from there. It didn’t work that way, we now know, but it was a sound strategy against anyone other than Marquez! Even Marc’s brother Alex, until recently Mr. Second Place, has gone off the boil. You just can’t afford to give Marc those kinds of breaks, with the form he’s in.

I loved the fact that Jorge Martin won the title in 2024 on a satellite Ducati and thought that Ducati’s treatment of him was really off, although, with the benefit of hindsight, the team’s decision to sign Marquez has paid huge dividends.

The combination of Martin and Aprilia looked great on paper, but that’s how it remained for a large chunk of the first half of the season – on paper – with Martin out through injury.

His subsequent treatment of Aprilia and his attitude towards his contract left a very sour taste in the mouth, and it might be fair to say that he lost a lot of respect in the paddock and with fans.

But I can’t help liking him, and his spectacular run to fourth place in the Main race was an indication of what we have been missing this year. On a track that everyone said made overtaking tricky, he made it look easy. It’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to feel that the championship table might look a bit different had he contested every round from the start. If his decision to remain with Aprilia through to the end of his contract in 2026 came far too late, then at least he did the right thing by the team and, as Aprilia seems closest to Ducati right now, it could very well be the right decision.

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.

With the racing in 2025 being rather predictable – or, at least, the results are predictable – we really need something to offer alternative entertainment over the course of a Grand Prix weekend. No one, however, wanted the farce that played out in the Sprint race.

The tyre pressure rule has never been anything other than controversial, and it has already derailed one rider’s achievements this season, when Maverick Viñales was denied a stunning podium in Qatar with a post-race penalty for running under pressure for too long.

But that pales into insignificance in light of the ridiculous situation we saw in the Brno Sprint race, both factory Ducatis slowing dramatically, their riders sitting up and allowing the rider behind to pass, in order to follow that rider closely and get some heat back into their front tyres to avoid a penalty. Marquez was able to recover to win, but Bagnaia’s race was completely ruined.

Cheating – perhaps it’s better to call it “creative interpretation of the rules” – has been part and parcel of motor racing since the very dawn of the sport. Some have got away with it, others haven’t. But it’s part of the fabric of motorsport and, even if you cannot condone it, you can’t deny that it adds colour and intrigue.

Running under pressure in a MotoGP race is not cheating; however, it’s a lottery surrounding getting the calculations right before a wheel has turned in the race, trying to guess what position your rider will be riding in, and therefore the temperature the front tyre will be subjected to. It’s a thankless task for both riders and engineers, none of whom have a crystal ball. Too low pressure and there’s a penalty; too high and there’s dangerously reduced grip, the rider either plummeting down the order or crashing with who-knows-what consequences, often for other, innocent, riders sharing the same piece of tarmac.

The tyre-pressure rule is the enemy of clever strategy and interesting racing; it is merely rolling the dice and seeing if the gamble pays off. Maverick Viñales’ stunning result in Qatar was exactly what the season needed; the subsequent penalty was the complete opposite.

There is another factor in the dissatisfaction. It’s disgusting that race results can be decided after a race, and after the podium has been celebrated. Not only does it deny the fans a definitive result, but it also denies the racers themselves the opportunity of standing on what could possibly be their only podium in their career; a retrospective podium is meaningless and also disrespectful to the rider himself.

It’s easy to point the finger of blame at Michelin, whose fears about the safety of its front tyre under increased downforce-induced loads were a factor in the introduction of the minimum tyre pressure. But the teams also had a say. There always was a minimum tyre pressure rule, but it was never enforced; teams were suspected of running very soft front pressures, but no one complained, and the MotoGP world was a happy place. But obviously, there was some behind-closed-doors dissatisfaction within some teams, who possibly drove the tyre pressure initiative more than other teams. That is, of course, conjecture, but not entirely implausible.

What is inexcusable is that Michelin has failed to come up with a tyre solution that would negate the need for pressure monitoring in the face of concerns about safety. Now, with the company due to bow out of MotoGP at the end of the 2026 season to make way for Pirelli, there is little or no incentive to invest time and money in creating a new front tyre that will be obsolete in 18 months’ time.

And so, we live with a sword of Damocles hanging over each race result. Through luck, not judgement, there have been no race victories taken away through low tyre pressure, although the 2024 championship title finale was marred slightly when the two protagonists – Bagnaia and Martin – went into the final championship-deciding round with a penalty apiece; one more infringement from either would have resulted in a time penalty and the title outcome being decided in a board room, not on the race track. Pathetic.

There is one possible positive outcome of the Sprint race debacle, and that is that the new majority owner of MotoGP, Liberty Media, will not at all like the negativity around the issue, in which case we’re likely to see the back of it sooner rather than later. MotoGP is shooting itself in the foot, and something is needed to put it off its aim. The 2027-on reduction in aero will go some way to doing that.

In the meantime, there were two races over the weekend, and Marc Marquez had to work harder for the double than for a long time. The main takeaways from the whole weekend, outside of Marquez’ fifth double in a row – the first time Ducati has won five GPs in a row – were the performances of the KTMs and the Aprilias, Acosta and Bastiannini taking second and third for a double KTM podium in the Sprint and then Bezzecchi (Aprilia) and Acosta second and third in the Main race.

Bagnaia took an impressive pole position after suffering the indignity of having to go through Q1, and managed to lead into turn one, but Marquez soon disposed of him, and that was that. Marquez was pulling away before we had the bizarre sight of both Bagnaia and Marquez allowing other riders to pass. If Acosta thought all his Christmases had come at once, then it was clear that Marquez was simply biding his time, a point he duly proved with an easy overtake for the lead on the penultimate lap.

While Marquez had performed the let-by task with precision, Bagnaia wasn’t so lucky and managed to be passed by Quartararo and Bastiannini as well, after which he was powerless to do anything and would finish an angry seventh.

Bagnaia repeated his quick start in the Main race and actually managed to lead lap one, despite a passing attempt by Marquez, but at the start of lap two, Bezzecchi passed Bagnaia, as did Marc Marquez and Acosta. Meanwhile, Alex Marquez wasn’t doing his championship hopes any good by crashing out, taking the unfortunate Joan Mir with him.

Bastiannini was looking good as he passed Bagnaia for fourth, but then he crashed out, while Marquez got past Bezzecchi for the lead and simply sailed off into the distance, lapping so much quicker than his rivals that it was a bit of a joke, really. Bagnaia wasn’t letting up on Acosta, but just couldn’t get close enough to make a pass. And that’s how it ran out: Marc Marquez, Bezzecchi, Acosta, Bagnaia, Fernandez, Quartararo, Martin, Aldeguer, with Binder and Pol Espargaro rounding out the top ten.

With all the hoo-ha going on at the front, Jorge Martin made a quiet but still impressive return to the grid, having seemingly patched things up with Aprilia to the point where he has committed to seeing out his contract with the team to the end of 2026. Eleventh in the Sprint and seventh in the Main race are results not to be sniffed at after such a long lay-off; lap times that were 0.6 seconds a lap slower than Marquez were also nothing to be ashamed of, given the amount of track time he’s had this year.

Of more concern was the plight of Brad Binder. Qualifying 19th, finishing behind the KTM test rider Pol Espargaro in the Sprint (10th) and then one place ahead of Espargaro in the Main race (8th) was nothing to write home about. When other KTMs are finishing in the top three, it’s just not good enough. Yes, there will be mitigating circumstances for Binder’s performance, but it can’t go on forever; he has to either make the bike work for him or alter his riding style to suit the bike’s strengths, of which there may be few, but they are there. Contracted to the end of 2026, he may be, but a future on the grid beyond that isn’t built on mediocre results, no matter if they are the bike’s fault. Of course, the paddock insiders will know the real story – the KTM’s faults and Binder’s strengths – but any professional sport is always looking for the Next Big Thing, and it is the weakest performers – for whatever reason – that will make way.

We head into the mid-season three-week break with a Marc Marquez title all but confirmed; 120 points ahead of his brother, 168 points ahead of his teammate in third. In reality, it is only Marquez himself who can lose the championship now. If he can hold his concentration and not make any mistakes, then the title is his. As he all too well knows, however, one slip and it’s all over; at this age, that means really all over, not just taking a year or two to recover. The big question that remains is, can he defend that title successfully in 2026 and overtake Valentino Rossi’s tally of seven MotoGP championships? As usual, who’s willing to bet against it?

It was Mick Doohan who famously commented on his dominance during the mid-1990s, “What do they want me to do, ride slower?” or words to that effect. This was in response to the accusation that his dominance, which saw him leading often by over half a minute or more, to the point where he was literally cruising at the end of a race, was becoming boring.

Which, of course, it was. But who was to blame? Doohan and Honda for being so dominant, or the rest of the field for being unable to catch up? Any race team comprising hundreds of personnel is responsible for the success or otherwise of a team, but it is the rider who bears the brunt of the criticism for dominance, as he does for the failure to perform. Life isn’t always fair.

Racing has always thrown up era of domination, be it on two wheels or four; MV Agusta, Hailwood and Agostini in the 1960s, McLaren/Williams/Senna Prost in the late 1980s, Rossi/Honda/Yamaha in the 2000s, Marquez/Honda in the 2010s; Vettel/Hamilton/Verstappen, Mercedes and Red Bull also in the 2010s. It’s inevitable – the natural order of things.

In MotoGP, Ducati has been dominant in the first half of the 2020s, but who’s to say how long this will continue into the future? And, if it does, who’s to say that it will be boring? Come the rule changes in 2027, it’s likely that one team will get it more right than the others, but it’s also likely that more than one team will get their sums right and produce a winner. We can but hope.

I have always tried not to tie an allegiance to a particular rider or team. Naturally, I have my favourites, but I try not to let them interfere with my passion for good racing. Unfortunately, as much as I respect what Marc Marquez is doing at the moment, it’s not making for particularly exciting racing. However, that has as much to do with the rules as one rider’s talent. But still, we’re back to the blame being heaped on one particular rider, not the other riders or the teams.

Marc Marquez has his fair share of critics, but sometimes it feels as if he is hated for not only beating Valentino Rossi – the fans’ darling – but for not being Rossi. Marquez’s dominance through the 2010s was no different to Rossi’s in the 2000s, but he’s frequently reviled for it, whereas Rossi was loved. Yes, Rossi worked his charm with the fans, but Marquez hasn’t exactly been a recluse.

Now, in 2025, the Marquez dominance is back, with devastating effect; a remarkable achievement after a near career-ending injury. 10 Sprint wins and seven GP victories out of eleven, giving him an 83-point lead over Alex Marquez and a frankly ridiculous 147-point lead over his teammate. Bagnaia proved that it is possible to overturn a large deficit when he beat Quartararo to the title in 2022, but Alex Marquez simply hasn’t got the pace to deal with big brother and close the points gap, not while Marc stays on the bike and finishes each race, at any rate.

The Sachsenring has been a happy hunting ground for Marquez over the past 15 years. Put simply, when he has raced there, he has won, by and large. That’s 12 victories – one in the 125cc class, two in the Moto2 class and the rest in MotoGP. Did anyone really think it was going to be any different this year? And that is Marquez’ secret weapon; he has the competition beaten before they even get to the circuit on a Thursday. Even the tracks he wasn’t expecting to do well at this year, he’s won at. That’s a huge psychological advantage.

Germany 2025 was the first race since 2011 to have only ten finishers. The starting grid for the Main race was already looking depleted, Maverick Vinales and Franco Morbidelli withdrawing through injuries sustained during practice and the Sprint race, Enea Bastianini being signed off work due to illness, and Somkiat Chantra recovering from surgery.

Then the race saw an unprecedented number of fallers; Joan Mir, Ai Ogura, Marco Bezzecchi and Fabio DiGiannantonio, who both crashed out of podium positions, Lorenzo Savadori, Johann Zarco, Pedro Acosta and Miguel Oliveira. Many of the crashes were at turn one, which has a downhill braking area, following a small crest, so the rear tyre goes completely light and throws all the weight onto the front tyre.

Normally, that’s not a problem, as that is exactly what happens under braking. The problem on Sunday was the fact that A) the track had been washed clean by the rain the previous day so there was already reduced grip and B) the temperature was too cool for the hard tyres that all runners were using in order to go the full 30 lap distance, so they could hardly get up to the correct temperature.

For two riders, the number of crashes was a positive bonus. Alex Marquez was riding with injuries sustained at Assen, and he doubted he could have challenged for the podium, but the crashes made him more cautious, which suited his physical condition, and he was in the right place to benefit. Similarly, Pecco Bagnaia, who started tenth and wasn’t likely to trouble the podium had it not been for the crashes, was promoted to third. A fat lot of good it will do him in the championship race, and he can’t claim any significant improvement in his feel on the bike, so it was a hollow third, even if it was still a podium.

There was something else that occurred to me as I watched the race: what has happened to Alex Rins? It doesn’t seem that long ago that he was challenging for race victories, but he’s all but dropped completely off the radar in 2025.

Yamaha has been in the news for all the wrong reasons for the past two or three years. This year, the team is in the news for more positive reasons – the development of its new V4 engine. The team has also been in the news thanks to the efforts of Fabio Quartararo, taking pole positions and the very occasional podium, as well as leading the British GP convincingly before dropping out with mechanical issues. He finished third in the Sprint race and fourth in the Main race in Germany.

But Rins has been completely invisible this season; can you remember when he was last mentioned in the commentary for any race? In Germany, he was 39 seconds behind Marquez at the flag, 18 seconds behind the next rider up the road. That’s not slow, that’s glacial in MotoGP terms.

I don’t think it will be the end of his career, performing like that, as it might well be for some other riders, but what can it be doing to his confidence? Likewise, MotoGP teams will be looking to Moto3 and Moto2 for the next star rider, and when they spot them, they’ll be looking for ways to make room for them in MotoGP. The underperformance of the Yamahas might have nothing to do with Rins, but that will have little weight when it comes time to finalise the line-up for the following season.

There’s only a week to wait for the next round, Brno in the Czech Republic. Anyone brave enough to bet against Marc Marquez?