Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez stamped his authority over Francesco Bagnaia with a superb opening race victory at the Thailand Grand Prix.
His first race for Ducati couldn’t have gone much better, as he blitzed his opponents and claimed victory in both the sprint and the Grand Prix.
Marquez leads the riders’ championship by eight points over brother Alex and is considered to be the favourite to claim his seventh title in 2025.
After a slow start to the season, Bagnaia is under pressure to respond and remind everyone of why he has been a factory Ducati rider for so long.
Marquez faced a ‘complicated’ issue before joining Ducati and fought to recover from numerous injuries on his way back to rediscovering his blistering form.
His performance left Bagnaia ‘perplexed’ in Thailand, who was impressed by his teammate’s extra gear towards the end of the race.
READ MORE: What Marc Marquez told his mother about his ‘suffering’ at Honda before he joined Ducati
Marc Marquez made ‘this is my team’ statement to Francesco Bagnaia before Ducati debut
Davide Tardozzi told Marquez to hide his tyre issues after suffering a blip with his tyre pressures in Thailand.
It shows that his new team already fully trusts him and is invested in his journey. The tide may be turning away from Bagnaia.
Scott Redding believes that as soon as the Spaniard joined the team, he made a statement with his choice of clothing for the season ahead.
“Marc came in with all red and Pecco Bagnaia was the all red guy,” he said. “Red helmet, red gloves, red boots. Marc came in with the all red boots, gloves, helmet number, and now at testing, Bagnaia shifted away from the red. Black gloves, black boots.
“So it’s a little bit of mind games with Marc in my opinion, whether it was on purpose or not. I would say there is a bit of something there. Like ‘this is my team now’ and I don’t know how Bagnaia is going to take that.”
Why Francesco Bagnaia is in trouble against Marc Marquez at Ducati in 2025
The main problem that Bagnaia faces now is that he needs to beat Marquez in a race as soon as possible, but he’s going to find it difficult to do so.
There are two races left this month in Argentina and the United States, which both suit Marquez’s riding style far more.
Low grip, tricky tracks are where he excels. Temperatures nearly hit 40 degrees Celsius in Thailand and yet again, he was superb.
While those conditions are unlikely to be replicated again in 2025, Bagnaia still faces an uphill task if he doesn’t want to let the six-time champion build too much of a lead in the title race early on.
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