The harsh lessons learned by Ducati’s MotoGP superteam at Jerez

There was some nice symbolism on display for two of the Spanish Grand Prix’s standout performers as they celebrated milestone successes in front of of a packed out Jerez crowd last weekend.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo stunned on Saturday to end Marc Marquez’s pole dominance in 2025 with a new all-time lap record. It ended an 1134-day wait for both Yamaha and Quartararo to take pole again, going back to Indonesia 2022. He converted that to a first podium since Indonesia 2023 for himself and the brand on Sunday in the grand prix.

All of this came at a circuit where Quartararo got his first Moto3 pole in 2015, his first MotoGP pole in 2019 and his first premier class victory in 2020.

For Alex Marquez, his maiden MotoGP victory in front of an adoring 100,000-plus Sunday crowd chanting his name, two days after a nasty high-speed crash in Friday practice, couldn’t have come at a better place. Five years ago, he made his MotoGP debut at the Spanish GP as a factory Honda rider. Back then, he was reigning Moto2 champion, but his stock wasn’t considerable.

His step to MotoGP at that time was seen as largely a condition of Marc Marquez signing his massive four-year HRC deal that winter that was meant to run to the end of 2024. Coming into that 2020 season-opener, he had already been cast out to the LCR squad for 2021 by Honda. At the end of the grand prix, he was 27.350s off race winner Quartararo down in 12th.

That same Alex Marquez is now a premier class grand prix winner and is once more leader of the world championship, albeit by just a single point over his older brother Marc Marquez.

“When I saw Marc crashed, I said ‘Alex, today is your day. You cannot make like in Austin where you lost a really great opportunity’,” he said. “I did the overtaking and the moves in the right places…I know with Marc on track I have some opportunities, some chances, but without him I know I was the strongest one.”

Marc Marquez’s crash out of third on lap three of 25 ultimately proved key to Alex Marquez and Fabio Quartararo achieving arguably the most popular result of the season. That they were also both able to best Pecco Bagnaia, the theoretical best-placed to pick up the pieces when Marc Marquez drops the ball - as was the case in Austin - has raised some uncomfortable questions.

Marc Marquez throws away big opportunity in front of home crowd

For all of 2025, the thinking has very much been that the only person who can beat what many are describing as the most complete Marc Marquez is the 32-year-old himself. Quartararo may have stunned him in qualifying, but practice pace suggested Marquez’s late-race speed would have ultimately seen him through in the grand prix.

He quickly dispatched of the Yamaha in the sprint on Saturday to maintain his 100% record in the half-distance races and extended his championship lead out to 20 points over Alex Marquez, and 31 over Bagnaia.

Ultimately, Marc Marquez’s grand prix was doomed from the start. A poor launch, having struggled initially to get his holeshot device engaged, dropped him behind early Bagnaia into third on the opening lap.

The pair engaged in a brief repeat of their 2024 duel through Turns 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, with contact between the pair on the way into the latter raising the heart rate. They both survived it and Bagnaia held firm. On lap three, Marquez went down going through the Turn 8 left-hander, the front washing out as he looked to be eating bike lengths away from Bagnaia. He rejoined and finished 12th to keep Alex Marquez’s points lead at just one, while Bagnaia is 19 further back.

The eight-time world champion admits it was a mistake, but one “I don’t understand” as “I was cruising like in the first races” biding his time to push his way into victory contention as the race wore on, as he did in Qatar.

Looking at the pace of the top four against Marc Marquez’s, the way he felt the grand prix would go looks accurate. On a damaged Ducati GP25, he set his fastest lap of the race - 1m37.544s - on lap 18. That was quicker than Bagnaia’s, who set his on lap two, while Alex Marquez, Quartararo and Maverick Vinales put theirs on the board on the fourth tour.

His pace was 0.115s on average shy of Alex Marquez’s, was slightly quicker than Vinales’ and was 0.010s per lap on average slower than Bagnaia.

When Marc Marquez had cleaned up his tyres and settled into a rhythm again from lap six to lap 24, only Alex Marquez was faster than him.

At the very least, a podium was on offer today, at worst probably second behind his younger brother. The factory Ducati rider concedes he cannot make these mistakes if he is to fight for the title. It’s his second in five rounds and has led to suggestions that he was put under pressure by Bagnaia after their lap one battle.

Given his speed, and what we’ve seen so far this season, that doesn’t full stack up. He suggested he perhaps had a bit more lean angle or the turbulent air from bikes ahead upset the front in a way he wasn’t ready for. He basically led all the sprint in similar conditions and expected to do so again on Sunday.

For all his speed this year, though, he cannot let a set of rivals off the hook that haven’t actually beaten him to a win on pure pace yet this season.

Pecco Bagnaia’s 2025 MotoGP title credentials under re-evaluation

Arguably the biggest disappointment from the Spanish GP was Pecco Bagnaia. Winner of the last three grands prix at Jerez, this was expected to be the weekend where things really started to come together for Bagnaia.

Except, that was also meant to be in Qatar. And that didn’t exactly pan out. The usual fuel tank issues in the sprint kept him from mounting a charge for anything more than third at Jerez, but his early battle with Marc Marquez - which he came out on top of - made it appear as if the real Bagnaia had finally shown up.

But it just didn’t happen. He was passed by Alex Marquez at the last corner on lap four and then could do nothing to overhaul the underpowered Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo (who was bottom of the speed traps last weekend).

Bagnaia said he just couldn’t do anything on the front end of his Ducati when he was anywhere near Quartararo - things he could do last year, and that Alex Marquez’s data showed he was doing on the GP24.

“It's just strange that corners where I was super strong last year - corners 11 and 12 -  this season I was struggling a lot,” he explained. “Even more when I was behind [someone]. And looking at Alex, he was super strong like I was last year.”

“Marc is very good at riding everything, honestly speaking. I cannot do it. I want to feel better, to have a good feeling with the front. And in this situation it's quite difficult because it's something that is new for me. Last year I never had this kind of feeling, and I was doing things in fast corners that this season I cannot do.”

The pace analysis has Bagnaia at just 0.001s slower than Quartararo, so this does at least tally with what he is saying. This will be the main focus of Monday’s post-race test, though says he won’t just go back to the full GP24 because the new bike has “more potential”.

But he’s pointed his finger at a problem that he admits Marc Marquez is able to ride around. If he doesn’t find a fix, he’s a bit stuck. And if it does become a case of simply having to just get on with it for the rest of the season, his best at Jerez was to finish behind a Yamaha and be second-best Ducati in a race Marc Marquez wasn’t involved in.

Some have pointed to last year’s title of consistency as a reason not to write Bagnaia off yet. But it’s worth pointing out that in the races Bagnaia didn’t score, Jorge Martin hammered him with good results.

In the two races Marc Marquez has crashed in, Bagnaia won and was third. So, those haven’t been bad at all. And yet, he hasn’t been able to put himself in the lead of the championship, which is a concern, as is the fact that - had Marquez not crashed - Bagnaia was likely not even finishing on the podium at Jerez.

The future headache coming Ducati’s way

Alex Marquez’s consistency has been - second in all sprints, second in three of the first five grands prix and now a winner - what was at least expected of Bagnaia if Marc Marquez started 2025 as title favourite.

After the Spanish GP, the latter fact hasn’t changed. But it’s clear that the real Ducati number two wears blue rather than red.

Ducati has proven pretty adept at managing intra-marque title battles in recent years, but the real headache coming its way over the next few weeks now is: how long does it prioritise Bagnaia’s charge over Alex Marquez’s?

Monday’s test at Jerez will be telling if the younger Marquez brother finds some new items in his box to try. But surely now it is vital that Ducati tries to strengthen Alex Marquez’s package as much as possible.

In recent rounds we’ve seen KTM and Yamaha stepping up to be podium threats, while Honda can’t be too far away. In both Qatar and Spain, Bagnaia was bested against Maverick Vinales (KTM) and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha).

If that continues, Ducati will need something of a rethink. Of course, putting its eggs in another basket risks alienating a rider who is a proven double world champion for the marque come contract negotiations for 2027. But time moves quickly, and past success only counts for so much if it stops producing in the present…