Marc Marquez “tactical genius” overcame “mental hurdle” to take an iron grip
Marc Marquez was "rattled by mistakes" but is now harder to beat than ever in 2025
The “tactic genius” of Marc Marquez has been feted after he took command of the MotoGP championship race.
Marquez is now 93 points - an ominous total - ahead of third-placed Pecco Bagnaia, his factory Ducati teammate.
Gresini’s Alex Marquez is his older brother’s closest competition in the title scrap heading into Mugello next weekend.
But Marc Marquez’s ability to shake off two errors - at COTA and Jerez - earlier this season to control last week’s Aragon MotoGP was a surefire sign that he has an iron grip over the championship, it has been claimed.
“He spoke about it all weekend - I think there’s an element of him being rattled by these mistakes,” Lewis Duncan told the Crash MotoGP podcast.
“He said ‘Ducati understand the mistakes’ but he must not be super sure, because his feeling with the bike was good.
“It was a real mental hurdle to get over, like Jorge Martin in Indonesia last year. He crashed in the sprint, thought about it, and managed to overcome it.
“It feels like a big hurdle has been surmounted here. Aragon is a strong circuit for him but so was COTA.
“As a factory rider he is tight-lipped about what has changed on the bike. It’s very hard to tell. It makes things complicated to understand.
“Fundamentally, they’ve gone back to something which gave him the feeling he had at the start of the season.
“When he’s like that - in Thailand, Argentina, Austin before his crash - he’s two-and-a-half seconds up the road from Pecco.
“If he’s finally over the hurdle of making mistakes on Sundays, it’s another element that his rivals cannot use. They can’t pressure him because he won’t crack.
“We are now entering a new phase in the championship. One where he will probably stretch his legs.
“I don’t think it will look particularly good for anyone who isn’t Marc Marquez!”
'Unpredictable' Marc Marquez a 'tactical genius'
Jordan Moreland added: “He chips away, waits for mistakes for anyone chasing him, then it goes up and up and up…
“He figures it out eventually.”
Lewis Duncan continued: “Part of the problem is that it’s unpredictable what he’s going to do.
“The riders say on Friday that he is a step ahead so we assume he will lead from the front. But we have the sprint, and Alex Marquez is in front. There’s a chance to do something…
“He pushes, he chews up the tyres, and Marc comes through anyway…
“Instead of finishing second, [Alex] finishes third.
“That’s the real tactical genius of Marc. He is able to adapt on the fly, to the point where others think a door has opened so they change how they’re riding completely, then get stung even more.
“It’s a hard one to battle with, and they know that.
“There isn’t much more that they can do.”
A brief problem with front end feeling of his Ducati GP25 at Silverstone was shaken off by Marquez at Aragon.
He has adapted better to this year’s Desmosedici than teammate Bagnaia, whose feeling has been lacking all year despite a slightly resurgence at Aragon.
Marquez is hunting for a ninth world title in total this year, his first with the factory Ducati team.
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