Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez in spotlight to tackle Austrian MotoGP brake rule

Francesco Bagnaia’s chances of extending his Red Bull Ring MotoGP win streak rest on solving season-long struggles aboard Ducati’s latest GP25, at one of the most demanding braking circuits on the calendar.

The former double world champion exploited his previous hard-braking prowess to win the last five races at the Austrian track since 2022 - three Grands Prix and two Sprints.

But Bagnaia’s braking strength has been flipped into a weakness this season, leaving him third in the standings, while new factory Ducati team-mate Marc Marquez dominates the title chase.

“I always put all my effort into braking - all my performance was arriving from there - and right now it’s one of the slowest things I have,” Bagnaia said at Brno, where Marquez won again.

Bagnaia and Ducati braking will be tested at Red Bull Ring

Austria’s extreme stop-go layout should offer a clear indication of whether Bagnaia and Ducati have found any tangible braking solutions during the summer break.

Red Bull Ring is one of three tracks (alongside Buriram and Motegi) where it is compulsory to use the largest 355mm brake discs for safety reasons - the size Bagnaia said helped counter some of his corner entry issues at Aragon.

While he reverted to the standard 340mm discs at subsequent, less-braking-intensive tracks, the Italian suggested changes to the master cylinder had mimicked the 355mm effect.

The outcome was “better” but far from a fix.

“We just changed the pump on the lever, and it is doing what the 355s were doing,” he said.

“I could manage [the front locking] better, but it’s very tough.

“I have a lot of movement, a lot of locking and it is difficult to brake as I want.

“Last year I was always braking super-hard and making a lot of slides and the bike was stopping a lot.

“This season I need to be very precise - I cannot have any slide because the rear is not helping to stop.”

How will Marc Marquez brake in Austria?

Perhaps for that reason, Marquez seems to have switched his focus away from all-out braking - at least at some circuits - saying after Mugello that Bagnaia "was braking very hard and very late, while I was focusing more on corner speed."

It will therefore be interesting to see how Marquez approaches this weekend, where the track bias has traditionally favoured braking and acceleration above all else. 

So far, Marquez has read the performance balance needed from circuit to circuit better than anyone, winning nine out of the twelve GPs - and the last ten races in a row, including Sprints.

The eight-time world champion completed his latest double just before the summer break at Brno, when Bagnaia finished fourth and Fabio di Giannantonio, on the other GP25, slumped to 16th.

“Our bike on this track was a bit too difficult to ride. I worked a lot to arrive close to him, but [Marc] was making the difference,” Bagnaia said in the Czech Republic.

“It’s true that, for the first time, our bike was not the strongest – but he was. And we need to understand that.”

With Marc Marquez now 168 points clear of double MotoGP champion Bagnaia, the Italian’s first aim is to try and claw back the 48-point deficit to second in the standings Alex Marquez, riding last year’s GP24 machine at Gresini.

di Giannantonio is fifth in the world championship for VR46, having slipped behind the leading Aprilia of Marco Bezzecchi.