Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia managed his most encouraging race of the 2025 MotoGP season so far at the Dutch Grand Prix after finishing third.
That may sound strange, given that he has already won a race this year, but he earned his result on true merit this time.
He finished within three seconds of Ducati teammate Marc Marquez and battled for the lead in the early stages of the race, before managing to stay with the lead group.
Bagnaia has struggled to prevent his tyres from degrading an alarming amount at most events, but Assen was a sign of progress in his journey.
Marquez is ‘making the difference’ over Bagnaia by choosing the right time to take risks, according to Luigi Dall’Igna.
Bagnaia has a Ducati trick to avoid ‘mistakes’ and has been able to adapt his riding style rather than his bike, helping him to stay on the road in 2025.
Ducati may need to remind Francesco Bagnaia of his duties after walking out of press conference
Bagnaia disagreed with Marquez at the Dutch Grand Prix and turned out to be right. He predicted that two big crashes on Friday wouldn’t hurt the Spaniard’s confidence, and he showed no signs of vulnerability after winning two races on Saturday and Sunday.
Davide Tardozzi is ‘sure’ Yamaha wants to sign Bagnaia and believes it is an honour to have such a talented two-time champion within their ranks.
However, his recent performances have left him a little dejected. Even though his pace in Assen was positive, he was still frustrated post-race and left a press conference early. Ducati may need to remind him of his duties.
“His body language after the press conference, I mean after the press conference finishes, all the riders hang around to do a little debrief with the journalists in their native language,” explained Neil Morrison in the Paddock Pass Podcast.
“And you know, obviously Bezzecchi had the first call for the Italian journalists, and Pecco didn’t even wait for the journalists to be finished there. He walked straight out, which I think gave a kind of an indication as to what his mood really was. Tough times.”
Francesco Bagnaia left feeling guilty after what he’s seen Ducati mechanics do in 2025
After 10 races last year, Bagnaia had earned six victories. This year, he has just one to show for his efforts, which came only because his teammate made a big mistake at one of his favourite tracks.
He’s now 126 points behind Marquez, and there’s a real chance that at the current rate, he ends up finishing the campaign with around half the points that the 32-year-old earns.
It has been a frustrating season for his side of the garage, and the team have tried about everything they can to help him fuse with the GP25 bike.
Bagnaia is guilty after seeing what his Ducati crew have done, and wants to be able to reward them for all their hard work.
However, he might have to wait until next season, when he will be able to make some more mechanical and direct adjustments to his machinery, rather than just the setup of the bike.
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