MotoGP rival empathises with Francesco Bagnaia: “It happened to me”

Alex Marquez has suggested the swing in performance experienced by Francesco Bagnaia in recent MotoGP races is not unique to the Italian.

Bagnaia has struggled for most of the 2025 MotoGP season aboard the Ducati Desmosedici GP25, and in the final European round before the Asian leg of the season, which this weekend is in its second instalment in Indonesia, Bagnaia scored no points, finishing 13th in the Sprint and crashing out of seventh in the race.

The post-race test in Misano seemed to offer Bagnaia a technical breakthrough, with the controversial assistance of the VR46 team and Franco Morbidelli, and it was this which was deemed the reason for his victory at the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi last weekend (26–28 September).

In Indonesia, however, Bagnaia’s difficulties have returned. He has not finished a single session this weekend inside the top-10 after the close of Saturday’s action in Mandalika, and he finished last of the 14 classified runners in the Sprint, 29 seconds behind race winner Marco Bezzecchi.

Bagnaia himself has been unable to explain his drop in form from winning in Motegi to qualifying 16th and finishing last in Mandalika, but Alex Marquez, whom Bagnaia trails by 66 points in the riders’ standings, thinks that his up-and-down form is not necessarily entirely unique.

“It happened to me in Motegi,” Marquez said after the MotoGP Sprint in Indonesia. 

“I was coming from Misano and Montmelo that I was super-fast, flying, also in the test in Misano I was super-fast, and then I arrived Friday in Motegi and I was [15th in Practice].”

Marquez explained that the non-European races offer different conditions to those that make up the bulk of the season on the home continent of most of the riders and teams.

“At the end, we came to tracks that are really different compared to Europe, that you have more or less the base more or less under control in other circuits,” he said.

“Here [in Asia], when you arrive in Motegi or here [Mandalika], always it’s like a really strange feeling, you never know where is the feeling, where is the limit, and it’s so difficult.”

The Gresini Racing rider also thinks the tyre and track combination found in Indonesia – where the characteristics of the layout mean Michelin bring a harder, heat-resistant rear tyre construction – is something that affects Bagnaia in particular.

“Also that rear tyre I think didn’t help his [Bagnaia] riding style,” Marquez said.

“We saw it also in 2023 and 2024, Pecco suffered quite a lot here, and in the end he arrived, but late, or not enough. 

“Like in 2023 he was starting from the back, like 12th or I don’t know where, and Martin was flying. 

“So, it depends on the riding style. In Hungary I was slow. 

“So, at the end, during a season of 22 races, you just need to survive in the circuits that you are not great.”