Neil Hodgson spots the moment Marco Bezzecchi realised he had no chance of beating Marc Marquez at the Czech Grand Prix

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Marc Marquez claimed his eighth double victory of the 2025 MotoGP season at the Czech Grand Prix, beating Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi and KTM’s Pedro Acosta.

Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia took his first pole position of the season at Brno, but could not hold on to his advantage. He and Marquez struggled with tyre pressure issues, but the latter was able to put that aside and collect his 11th Sprint win of 2025.

Marquez may have outsmarted Bagnaia as the Italian fell back to P7 on Saturday. He had another strong launch off the line on Sunday, but it did not take long for his teammate to make his way past for the lead.

Bagnaia again lacked the pace of the championship as he fell behind Bezzecchi and Acosta. He mounted a late charge for P3, but he had to settle for fourth as Marquez’s biggest challenge came from the No. 72 Aprilia rider.

Marco Bezzecchi realised he had no chance against Marc Marquez after setting the fastest lap at Brno

Bezzecchi found his way past Marquez in the early stages, before taking the lead from Bagnaia with a great lunge at turn one. The Italian displayed strong pace as he maintained his advantage until lap eight, where Marquez found his way through.

Bezzecchi continued to mount pressure on the Ducati rider, setting the fastest lap of the race. However, Marquez responded emphatically by breaking into the 1:39s on lap 15 and subsequently extended his lead at the front.

Neil Hodgson saw this as the moment that Bezzecchi realised he did not have a chance in catching Marquez, as he said via TNT Sports 2: “It breaks a rider’s spirit. Just when you think you might have half a chance, you soon realise you’ve not.”

Bezzecchi ended up finishing 1.7 seconds behind the Ducati rider as he collected another strong haul of points for Aprilia. Meanwhile, Marquez extends his lead over Alex Marquez to 120 points, after he crashed into Joan Mir in the early stages.

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Marco Bezzecchi proved Aprilia’s target for 2026 may be realistic after Czech GP podium

It was a strong weekend for Aprilia as Bezzecchi grabbed his fourth podium of the season, including Sprints, while teammate Jorge Martin returned to MotoGP in style with P7.

Having the Spaniard back on the RS-GP25 is huge for the Noale outfit. Martin was ‘really scared’ ahead of his comeback due to the damp patches on the circuit, but he put that behind him to reach Q2 automatically.

Aprilia have gone to ‘incredible’ lengths to improve Martin’s bike, much of it being down to the help of Bezzecchi and Lorenzo Savadori. The former has played a huge role in developing the RS-GP25 into a competitive machine worthy of winning races.

Aprilia aim to beat Ducati in 2026 with Martin and Bezzecchi. Their results at the Czech Grand Prix, as well as Raul Fernandez finishing an impressive P5 for Trackhouse, proves they are on their way to doing just that.