Marc Marquez anger justified, rivals "not going to go gung-ho"

Marc Marquez hit back at critics who have claimed his MotoGP rivals have not been racing him hard enough in 2025 following his Dutch Grand Prix win.

The factory Ducati rider has taken control of the 2025 championship after three successive sprint/grand prix doubles have put him 68 points clear in the standings.

At the Dutch Grand Prix, he was pushed hard in the sprint by Alex Marquez and then again in the grand prix by Marco Bezzecchi.

After the race, he responded to critics of his rivals, who - particularly Alex Marquez - have been accused of not racing Marc Marquez the same way they do others.

Marc Marquez demanded “respect” for his rivals and said he was “angry” about what he was reading.

In the latest Crash MotoGP Podcast, Senior Journalist Lewis Duncan argues that the criticism of Marquez’s rivals isn’t taking into account the nature of racing with modern bikes.

Download the Crash MotoGP Podcast here

“There’s only so much you can do,” Duncan began.

“And I think one thing that isn’t taken into account with this criticism of Marc’s rivals not racing him as hard, is these bikes are really difficult to race with.

“All the aero, the front tyre pressure, it is harder to make cleaner overtakes.

“We saw that when this sprint era came into being that you had so many crashes from that because everyone was panicked about tyre pressures, knew that it was difficult to overtake.

“So you had lots of people doing crazy things at the start of races. It’s calmed down a bit because they’ve realised there’s not much you can do.

“So much of it hinges on qualifying, if you get ahead of a rival you are in the best position possible.

“Assen is maybe a circuit that highlights the trouble with overtaking on these bikes the most.

“Think back to 2018 when you had 150-plus overtakes - you can’t have that anymore because it’s a tight fast track and with the way these bikes behave, it’s really difficult to race.

“And therefore it’s really difficult to set up a clean overtake.

“Alex Marquez is going to approach racing Marc Marquez differently because there’s a dynamic there, but he’s not giving Marc an easier time because Alex is also a championship challenger.

“So, if he makes a mistake overtaking Marc, hits him, crashes himself, Marc stays up, Alex loses points. So, you can’t make risky overtakes.

“You can say Alex can take risks, but when you had a 40-point gap coming into the weekend and we’ve seen already how quickly a gap for Marc can evaporate because of mistakes, Alex is smart enough to know that to be in a position to remotely beat Marc you have to be consistent and then when the time comes to maximise your speed, you’ve then built up the ground work to capitalise on that.

“And conversely, when Marc makes a mistake, you’ve built up the ground work to capitalise on that.

“So, of course he’s not going to go gung-ho and throw the bike up the inside. Same with Bez as well in the grand prix.

“He pushed Marc really hard, but that’s a second place for an Aprilia team under a lot of pressure right now that you’d be stupid to throw away a big haul of points just for the off-chance that you might be able to possibly get an overtake done on Marc Marquez.

“I think people have maybe forgotten a little how racing works.”

Podcast host Jordan Moreland argues that Marc Marquez is simply able be tactically better than his rivals when leading, because he knows how difficult it is to overtake on these bikes.

“That ability to reset and get on with the job [after crashes].

“He just battered Bagnaia again this weekend, which I think Bagnaia - that was probably his best weekend of the year from start to finish.

“Obviously he had the sprint race woes with the fuel tank. I thought Bagnaia would be closer in the race but Marc dealt with him no problem in the early phase.

“Bez was the one who kept him honest, and that for Marc was just the impressive thing because you could see visually in the sprint with Alex [Marquez] he was so much faster in the last sector but Marc placed his bike so Alex couldn’t overtake him in the fast bits.

“He tactically had them beat, and it was particularly impressive given the comments about people not attacking him - especially Alex - but how can you when he’s just in this mode?”