Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia outqualified Marc Marquez for just the second time this season at the Dutch Grand Prix. Marquez looked a little out of sorts in qualifying after a bruising Friday.
Bagnaia missed out on his first pole position of 2025, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo pipping him. But he appears to have made progress with the GP25 over a single lap – P2 in Mugello was his best showing so far, and he matched it here.
Marquez, meanwhile, failed to make the front row for the second time in four races. He was just over two-tenths off the pace.
The championship leader suffered two heavy crashes on Friday and still appeared to be feeling the effects in qualifying. Marquez avoided fractures, but is moving somewhat gingerly.
Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez went different ways with Ducati bike at Assen
TNT Sports pundit Sylvain Guintoli agreed that Marquez was struggling physically. That led to some highly uncharacteristic mistakes.
But Guintoli also wonders if Marquez went in the wrong direction with the aerodynamics on the GP25. Bagnaia has stuck with the older specification, and the Spaniard may have to follow suit for Sunday’s race.
“He’ll be battered,” Guintoli said. “Those two crashes yesterday were massive.
“He was running the new aero as well. That’s the difference. Pecco is running the older aero, the standard aero, and he was running the new aero with the big diffuser. Maybe he’s going to come back to the standard one for the race as well.
“Physically battered, making a few mistakes and not able to extract the best from the Ducati. I’d say that’s his worst qualifying so far.”
After Bagnaia’s interview in parc ferme, Guintoli welcomed a change in his demeanour. He pointed out that the two-time world champion hasn’t been complaining about the Ducati’s front end, a consistent gripe all season, this weekend.
“He looks pumped up, doesn’t he?” Guintoli said. “We’ve not seen him as positive as this since the start of the year. This is clearly the best he’s felt.
“That front feeling that he’s been complaining about, we’ve not heard that in that interview. We’re seeing him happy, positive and looking to go for the win.”
Pedro Acosta shows how much respect MotoGP riders have for Marc Marquez’s toughness
After practice, Bagnaia insisted that Marquez was not ‘in difficulty’. But he may have underestimated the scale of his impacts.
Marquez’s injuries are unlikely to have a lasting effect, so if he is compromised for the remainder of this weekend, it’s a rare opportunity for his rivals. Of course, they’d sooner beat him while he’s fully fit, but that’s been extremely difficult this year.
Pedro Acosta says Marquez may be the toughest MotoGP rider ever, able to absorb seemingly endless blows ‘without complaining’. His ‘guts’ are on show this weekend.
Marquez hasn’t finished on the Dutch Grand Prix podium since 2019, the last year he won the world championship.
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