Marco Bezzecchi
MotoGP comes out of its summer break at the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix with Ducati stars Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia eyeing somewhat contrasting objectives.
The premier class will regroup at the Red Bull Ring this weekend for round 13/22 in the 2025 MotoGP season after a month-long hiatus. Marquez hit the break with a 120-point lead atop the standings over his Gresini pilot brother, Alex, plus a 168-point lead over Bagnaia in third.
Marquez will now hope he can pick up at the Austrian GP where the 32-year-old left off. But Bagnaia will hope the pause in action let the 28-year-old reset after an underwhelming term to date, ready to show he can challenge his teammate and regain his authority inside Ducati.
The Borgo Panigale natives were firmly Bagnaia’s team prior to Marquez’s arrival at the start of 2025. But Ducati have only seen the Italian win once when Bagnaia won the Americas GP after Marquez crashed in the lead, whereas the Spaniard has eight Grand Prix wins this year.
Marc Marquez takes a ‘special satisfaction’ from winning at Francesco Bagnaia’s best tracks
Marquez also goes to the Austrian GP trying to add to his seven pole positions and 11 Sprint wins so far this year. Bagnaia recorded his first pole of 2025 at the Hungarian GP prior to the summer break after Marquez crashed, and he has not yet finished higher than P3 in a Sprint.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Marc Marquez from net worth to girlfriend
Glory at the Red Bull Ring going the way of the Cervera native would even see Marquez win at another track that Bagnaia dominated at in recent years. Bagnaia has won the past three Grands Prix in Austria as well as the Sprint Races in 2023, when he also took pole, and 2024.
Marquez has never won the Austrian GP in any class, yet the six-time MotoGP champion has shown he can win at Bagnaia’s best circuits aboard his Ducati GP25. And Matt Clayton thinks Marquez also gets a “special satisfaction” from winning at Bagnaia’s best tracks this season.
Clayton said on Pit Talk: “We’ve had a couple of tracks this year that we’ve been to where the past three years it’s been a Pecco procession pretty much, like Assen and Mugello. And who’s won those two races? Marc Marquez.
“So, it’s funny that Marc’s alongside Pecco in the factory team. We know that he’s had some wins at tracks that he hasn’t won at for a while. But it’s almost like he has some sort of special satisfaction in beating Pecco at Pecco tracks. It’s almost become a thing this year.”
Pecco Bagnaia will be desperate to beat Marc Marquez in the Austrian Grand Prix
Bagnaia will be desperate to continue his recent run of dominance at the Red Bull Ring, and thus deny Marquez, by winning the 2025 Austrian GP on Sunday. The success that Marquez has enjoyed so far this year on the same bike has damaged Bagnaia’s reputation with Ducati.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Francesco Bagnaia from net worth to race number
It would have especially frustrated the two-time MotoGP champion to see Marquez end his recent dominance at Mugello and Assen. Marquez won the Italian Grand Prix in June for his first victory at Mugello since 2014, thus ending Bagnaia’s run of three consecutive triumphs.
Bagnaia had also taken three consecutive wins at Assen in 2022, 2023 and 2024, but Ducati saw Marquez win his first Dutch Grand Prix since 2018 this June. Now, Marquez will have his sights set on a first-ever Austrian GP win in 2025, having finished P2 in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
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