2025 Czech MotoGP: Marc Marquez dominates for fifth win in a row
Marc Marquez eased to Czech GP win
Ducati’s Marc Marquez has run away with the 2025 MotoGP championship lead after dominating the Czech Grand Prix for his fifth win in succession.
Brushing off a tyre pressure issue to win his 11th sprint of the opening 12 rounds on Saturday, Marc Marquez came into Sunday’s 21-lap grand prix as firm favourite despite starting second on the grid.
Though shuffled back in the opening laps, Marquez rallied to grab the lead on lap eight from Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi and quickly cleared off.
Unchallenged through to the chequered flag, Marquez secured an eighth grand prix win of the season by just under two seconds having eased off in the final laps.
It makes him the first Ducati rider in history to win five grands prix in a row, while also marking his fifth 37-point weekend in succession.
With nearest title rival Alex Marquez crashing out early on, Marc Marquez is now 120 points clear in the standings going into the summer break.
Pecco Bagnaia converted pole to the holeshot once again on Sunday to lead team-mate Marc Marquez, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and Aprilia’s Bezzecchi.
Marquez made an attempt to take the lead at Turn 3 but ran wide and was repelled by Bagnaia, with Bezzecchi capitalising to take second from the championship leader at Turn 5.
At the end of the opening lap, Bagnaia ran wide going through Turn 13 and killed his momentum out of Turn 14 onto the pit straight to allow Bezzecchi to get a run.
The Aprilia rider eased into the lead at Turn 1, with Marquez coming into second on Bagnaia at Turn 3 on the second tour.
The top two quickly pulled away from Bagnaia, while Bezzecchi held the lead until the eighth lap when Marquez got close enough to mount a challenge into Turn 3.
Though running slightly wide on the change of direction into Turn 4, Marquez was able to hold Bezzecchi at bay and quickly established a lead of over half a second.
Bezzecchi tried to run with Marquez’s pace, but the Ducati rider had his lead out to over 1.5s come the start of lap 13 and was two seconds in front on lap 16.
Marquez got to the chequered flag 1.753s in front of Bezzecchi, whose podium lifts him to fourth in the standings, while Pedro Acosta grabbed his first grand prix rostrum of the season for KTM.
Acosta resisted late pressure from Bagnaia, who had dropped off the lead battle in the early stages, but had his third-place safeguarded when the Ducati rider made a mistake on the last lap trying to line up a move.
Bagnaia is now 168 points off the championship lead.
Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez took his joint-best MotoGP result in fifth ahead of Quartararo, while the returning world champion Jorge Martin came from 12th on the grid to seventh.
He was only 15.820s off the victory in his first grand prix since Qatar in April and his first full distance Sunday race since last year’s Solidarity Grand Prix, when he was crowned champion.
Gresini rookie Fermin Aldeguer was eighth after pipping KTM’s Brad Binder late on, while Tech3 stand-in Pol Espargaro rounded out the top five.
Pramac rider Jack Miller was 11th ahead of Honda’s Luca Marini, LCR’s Johann Zarco - who was the only one on the soft rear - Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura and Yamaha’s Alex Rins.
Enea Bastianini (Tech3) crashed out on lap seven having just worked his way into the top four, while Alex Marquez collided with Honda’s Joan Mir on lap two at Turn 12.
The incident is being investigated by the stewards.
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