Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez may now be two Grands Prix without a win for the first time for Ducati, yet he still took his lead in the 2025 MotoGP riders’ standings to 22 points at Le Mans.
Crashes for title rivals Alex Marquez of Gresini plus Francesco Bagnaia of Ducati ensured the 32-year-old gained 23 and 31 points over the French Grand Prix weekend. Le Mans also saw Marc Marquez uphold his run of winning every Sprint Race since joining the Bologna Bullets.
Victory in Saturday’s short-distance race also yielded a new MotoGP record for the Spaniard. Marquez is the first MotoGP rider to win six Sprints in a row, and his P2 in the French GP was the six-time premier class champion’s fourth rostrum through the first six rounds of the year.
Fabio Di Giannantonio rubbishes rumours Ducati built the GP25 only for Marc Marquez
His old Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa feels Marquez is making winning MotoGP races look easy after dominating the Le Mans Sprint, too. But a rumour that floated around the French GP paddock about Marquez and Ducati has not gone down well with Fabio Di Giannantonio.
VR46 rider Di Giannantonio has rubbished claims that emerged at Le Mans that Ducati built the GP25 in such a way that just Marquez can win with the Borgo Panigale crew’s 2025 bike. Di Giannantonio is the sole non-factory Ducati rider to have the GP25 in the 2025 campaign.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Marc Marquez from net worth to girlfriend
So, the 26-year-old is certain his GP25 is the same as the bike on which Marquez has won three Grands Prix plus six Sprints and Bagnaia won the Americas Grand Prix. He even claims anyone who suggests otherwise should ask Ducati MotoGP general manager, Luigi Dall’Igna.
Di Giannantonio said, via quotes by AS: “The bikes are all the same, but you’d have to ask Gigi. [My bike] is the one that wins because it’s the same one as Marc’s.
“This is a bike that has been developed over the last few years by Pecco, alongside the test team and all the various factory riders we’ve had.
“Marc has only just become an official rider, so I don’t think he’ll have revolutionised the bike in two races and suddenly we’ll all have to ride like Marc Marquez.
“This is a bike that won the world championship last year with Jorge Martin and two years earlier with Pecco. It’s a bike that makes you win. We even won with it two years ago.”
Francesco Bagnaia is performing below Ducati’s expectations after failing to match Marc Marquez
Marquez is certainly extracting more of the GP25’s potential pace than Di Giannantonio and Bagnaia have so far managed to get from Ducati’s 2025 MotoGP bike. But that is more down to the Spaniard’s skill and Ducati’s engineers feel Bagnaia is performing ‘below expectations’.
Also, Bagnaia has struggled to adapt to the GP25 and feels he cannot do what has made the Italian a two-time MotoGP champion on it. He is now seeking a better rhythm to extract the speed Marquez finds, with Bagnaia not yet enjoying the feeling required with the front tyre.
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Di Giannantonio has also enjoyed largely consistent results, with P3 in the Americas GP plus fifth in the Argentina and Spanish Grands Prix. The only time he has finished outside the top 10 so far in the 2025 MotoGP season was in Qatar with P16 after being hit by Alex Marquez.
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