Marco Bezzecchi
Gresini’s Alex Marquez crashed out of the 2025 MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix, yet Ducati ace Francesco Bagnaia still left the TT Circuit Assen trailing the Spaniard by 58 points.
A collision with KTM rider Pedro Acosta saw Marquez retire from the Dutch GP on Lap 6 last Sunday. The 29-year-old was even forced to undergo surgery for a subcapital fracture of the second metacarpal on his left hand, which now raises doubts about him racing in Germany.
Marquez crashed out of the Dutch GP after Acosta brushed his front brake lever, which saw the wheel lock, as the Gresini rider looked to lean on the KTM pilot. Gresini are expected to announce this week whether Marquez will go to the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring.
Bagnaia would only finish the Dutch GP in third place, as Marc Marquez held off Aprilia rider Marco Bezzecchi to win. The Ducati racer also had to sit back and watch the Marquez show in the Assen Sprint, as Marc led Alex home in the brothers’ 10th one-two in a Sprint in 2025.
Marco Melandri laughs at people thinking that Francesco Bagnaia is ‘doing badly’
Assen had been a playground for Bagnaia in recent times. Yet after winning the Dutch GP in 2022, 2023 and 2024, when he also won the Sprint, the 28-year-old could only come P3 this season. Bagnaia also only managed to end the 2025 Assen Sprint in fifth place last Saturday.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Francesco Bagnaia from net worth to race number
But Marco Melandri can only ‘laugh’ at the suggestions he has heard that Bagnaia is ‘doing badly’ in the 2025 MotoGP season. The Ducati rider sits third in the championship after the first 10 rounds on 181 points, but he trails Marc Marquez on 307 and Alex Marquez on 239.
“It makes me laugh a little when people say that Pecco is doing badly,” Melandri told MOW. “Without Marc on the track, Bagnaia would be in a full-blown battle for the title with Alex, who is not a loser and is still someone who has won two world titles, even if he has always been portrayed only as Marc’s brother.
“OK, with ifs it’s all easy. But how can you say that Bagnaia is no longer Bagnaia? The results say that he is still Bagnaia, and that he is also doing better than in other seasons. There are simply those who are stronger now.”
Marco Melandri thinks Marc Marquez ‘makes the difference’ compared to Pecco Bagnaia under braking
Marc Marquez won the 2025 Dutch GP at Assen last weekend for his sixth Grand Prix victory of the season, while also scoring his ninth Sprint win of the campaign in the Netherlands. He has even done the double in each of the past three rounds, as well, for six doubles this term.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Marc Marquez from net worth to girlfriend
Bagnaia, on the other hand, has just one victory in any format and trails Marc by 126 points. The Italian’s 181 points so far this year represent 57 fewer than he scored at this point of the 2024 term, in which Bagnaia eventually lost the riders’ title to Jorge Martin by just 10 points.
But Melandri does not think the Turin native is ‘doing badly’, despite Bagnaia admitting that he ‘can’t’ attack corners how he wants ‘anymore’ having failed to adapt to the GP25. Davide Tardozzi has said that Ducati are focused on helping Bagnaia ‘regain his confidence’, as well.
It is precisely in what Bagnaia cannot do on the GP25 that Melandri believes is making a real difference between the Italian and Marc Marquez this year. He has seen how the two Ducati riders are evidently different under braking, with the Spaniard ‘always’ able to extract more.
Melandri noted: “Watch the replays of Marc Marquez braking, his rear wheel is always glued to the ground. Maybe it goes sideways and slides, but it stays on the ground.
“Then watch the replays of Pecco Bagnaia braking, you can see the front squashing and almost always the rear lifting.
“Come on, those two ride in a completely different way and it’s clear. In this MotoGP, where nothing makes the difference, that one of the two is not finding each other, and we know who that is.”
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