DUCATI DOMINATES THAI MOTIGP WITH MARC MARQUEZ LEADING A PODIUM SWEEP

Apr 12, 2024; Austin, TX, USA; Enea Bastianini (23) of Italy and Ducati Lenovo Team during practice for the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas at Circuit of The Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Ducati asserted its dominance at the 2025 Thai MotoGP with a commanding performance led by Marc Marquez, who completed a flawless weekend by securing pole position, the sprint race victory, and his first grand prix win as a factory Ducati rider. His brother Alex Marquez and reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia completed an all-Ducati podium in the same order, mirroring Saturday’s sprint results.

Marc led the race until Lap 7, when he was overtaken by Alex on Gresini's GP24 machine. However, Marc regained the lead on Lap 23 and created a considerable gap of 1.732 seconds. Although it initially seemed like a mechanical issue had slowed Marc, he quickly regained pace, settling in behind his brother, which appeared to be a strategic move to manage tire pressures. As the race neared its conclusion, Alex struggled with rear grip on the GP24, offering Marc the perfect opportunity to secure victory.

Alex kicked off his 2025 season on a high note with back-to-back runner-up finishes for Gresini at Buriram, while Bagnaia closed the gap mid-race but ultimately settled for third, finishing 0.666s behind. Franco Morbidelli secured fourth for VR46 Ducati, falling three seconds behind the podium battle after briefly challenging Bagnaia for third.

Trackhouse Racing rookie Ai Ogura finished fifth ahead of factory Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi, who trailed by over seven seconds in sixth. Johann Zarco was on the top Honda in seventh, followed by KTM’s Brad Binder, Tech3’s Enea Bastianini, and VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio completing the top ten at the Thai MotoGP.

Marc has been regarded as the favorite for the 2025 season after earning his factory Ducati promotion following a strong campaign with Gresini last year. Paired with Bagnaia, the two multi-time world champions have been identified by TNT Sports MotoGP presenter Neil Hodgson as key contenders set to push each other in the fight for the title. Motorsports On SI reported:

“I think they’re both so talented.

“Obviously Marc’s [Marquez] got more world titles, but I feel like Pecco [Francesco Bagnaia] is still improving, still learning, and he’s an absolute machine.

“You write Pecco Bagnaia off at your peril, don’t you? Quite often on a race weekend, he’ll have a really average Friday, even an average Saturday, and he’ll bounce back and win the Grand Prix on Sunday.

“So, I can see it going on and on.

“I think both riders will push each other extremely hard, obviously they share the data so they can copy each other’s homework. So, I think they’ll both push each other.

“I think we’re going to have a season very similar to last year, where you’ve got two riders pushing each other.

“There’ll be lots of mistakes as well, I think there’ll be crashes, I think there’ll be collisions between them, I do, I really do, which is probably not a big statement because we’ve seen it in the past.”

- Saajan Jogia

DUCATI FACING '50/50' DILEMA ON KEY TWO-YEAR MOTOGP DECISION

Ducati faces a major question mark about its MotoGP engine, with factory riders Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez undecided on which spec is more favourable.

Both Bagnaia and Marquez had crashes during the second day of the Sepang test - Bagnaia's a slow one at the final corner, Marquez's a more violent one (but also with no major repercussions) at the Turn 9 left-hander - but the bigger takeaway from their day was work comparing the available engine specs. These, in effect, are the newer 'GP25' version of the engine and the older 'GP24' unit.

The two riders say they are very aligned in their feedback - Bagnaia described this as being "incredible" and something he had never had to this extent with any other team-mate - but this has not yet given them a conclusive answer.

It is doubly complicated for Marquez, who is new to both engines as he campaigned an older-spec Ducati last year.

And it is a decision that, even more than any other year, cannot be taken lightly by Ducati because not only will it have to spend the full season with the chosen engine spec under the current homologation rules, but the 2026 engine freeze before a switch to new regulations in 2027 effectively makes it a two-year decision.

This isn't the case for the likes of Yamaha and Honda, MotoGP's 'Rank D' manufacturers and thus not bound by the freeze, but the idea of Ducati coming anywhere near 'Rank D' right now is a mathematical absurdity, so whichever engine spec will be raced in the Thailand season opener will be used for the next 40-plus rounds, too.

"We need to be super sure which is the direction," Marquez told MotoGP.com.

"We know that the '24 package is competitive. We need to be super sure - we need to see a clear positive aspect in the '25 - because when you homologate the engine it will be for two years. We need to understand well."

The engine is not the only aspect of the bike being worked on and evaluated - there's also a chassis and a new aero fairing that has earned a good review from Bagnaia, albeit with the caveat that he would like to see a 'hybrid' version combining the elements from this one and last year's version.

But both riders have made it clear that the engine is the most important part and the utmost priority given just four days of testing remain.

The pros and cons

"The power delivery is continuing to give a lot of great things to us," said Bagnaia of the 2025-spec engine. "It's very smooth, and we like that a lot. It's the first time that a new engine is that smooth in terms of acceleration, and that's great.

"But even if we have closed a bit the gap in terms of braking, it's still a bit far from the GP24. For tomorrow we have to close that gap, and try to understand in which way to do it."

Bagnaia went as far as to assess the decision as being "at the moment 50/50".

"Because the thing is... the GP24 is a fantastic base. And we all think that it still has some margin.

"The GP25 is already very fast and very good on the straight and acceleration - you can only do a top speed if the bike is exiting well from the corners, and this is the case, it's very smooth and you can manage a lot with the throttle and the acceleration.

"But in braking the GP24 was out of this world. We were doing something incredible on braking. And this is something difficult to reach at the moment with the '25 even if we close the gap."

On headline times, the GP24s have been a clear step ahead of the newer Ducatis so far at Sepang - but this isn't necessarily reflective of the actual performance levels.

However, according to Bagnaia, the braking performance where the 2024 engine excels is just more of a differentiator than the ride-height-device-aided acceleration, at least at Sepang.

"In this moment what we are gaining on acceleration is a bit less compared to what we are losing on braking."

- Valentin Khorounzhiy

FRANCESCO BAGNAIA HAILS MALAYSIAN MOTOGP POLE AFTER 'INCREDIBLE' JORGE MARTIN BATTLE

“It’s incredible what we did today”

Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin, qualifying, 2024 Malaysian MotoGP

MotoGP title rivals Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin spectacularly slugged it out for pole position at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Both smashed the Sepang lap record as they surged almost one second clear of the field.

Martin landed what looked like a knockout blow with a new official lap record on his first run, pitting with a half-second advantage over Bagnaia.

But with the pressure on, practice leader Bagnaia responded magnificently on his final run, beating Martin's record time by 0.216s!

Delight in the factory Ducati pits was matched by shock in the Pramac garage, but Martin rolled up his sleeves and was equal to Bagnaia through the opening sectors…

However, the title leader was forced to lift his GP24 when the front slid away at Turn 14, ending an epic pole contest.

“It’s incredible what we did today because already the lap time of Jorge was incredible,” said Bagnaia, before underlining the psychological importance of defeating Martin in qualifying.

“Being able to drop this lap time was also super important for the mental side because I know how difficult it is when you are doing your maximum and your opponent is faster.

“So it was very important and I’m very proud of my team because we did a very good again. Super happy.”

Martin, who starts this afternoon’s Sprint race 17 points ahead of Bagnaia, admitted: 

“For sure I thought [my first lap] was enough, but Pecco was incredible today.

“It is what it is. I tried my best. I think the first row was the target so I’m happy.

“The race will be tough, both of us have a really good pace so it will be important to understand where to be stronger.”

Martin can wrap up the title one round early if he holds a 38-point lead on Sunday evening.

A maximum of 12 points are available in the Sprint and 25 in the Grand Prix this weekend.

Meanwhile, Alex Marquez was a commendable, if distant, third on the grid.

“I closed my eyes and pushed in every corner at the limit!” he smiled. “I tried my best and I love this place. We made a really good lap, also in FP2 we were not bad for race pace.”

The Gresini rider paid tribute to the ‘magnificent’ performance of the duo ahead as he ruled out repeating last year’s Sprint victory.

“Looking forward to the race but we are not like last year, we don’t have the chance to win because these two are super magnificent," Marquez said.

“When you are fighting for the title you have like another step more [mentally]. So congrats to Pecco and Martin.

“But we are happy to be here after some difficult races.”

Martin’s team-mate Franco Morbidelli, Alex’s team-mate Marc Marquez and Bagnaia’s team-mate Enea Bastianini (who fell) will form row two of the grid.

KTM's Jack Miller was the top non-Ducati rider in seventh followed by the Yamahas of Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins, who are enjoying their most competitive team performance of the season.

Brad Binder (KTM), Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) and Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) completed the Qualifying 2 riders.

Zarco turned heads by leaping to the top of Qualifying 1 on his final lap, pushing Pedro Acosta out of Qualifying 2 in the process.

Meanwhile, Andrea Iannone enjoyed the best session of his MotoGP comeback with 17th on the grid.

"It wasn't an easy qualifying, but I'm happy," Iannone said. "On a physical level, with the heat, the humidity and considering how these bikes are physical in braking, it's complicated but I’m having fun. 

"It's a shame we had so little time, because we have the potential to be competitive, we're only 0.8 from the first GP23. 

"It will be my first time in the Sprint, I will have to understand how to manage myself, I don't know exactly what to expect, especially in the slipstream with all these wings."

- Peter McLaren