Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia has already conceded the Austrian Grand Prix to his Ducati teammate, Marc Marquez, following one comment he made after the chequered flag in Saturday’s qualifying session.
Bagnaia out-qualified Marquez in Spielberg for the second consecutive race of the 2025 season. The Italian will line up in third place for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Marquez found himself with the fourth fastest time of qualifying, leaving a lot to be desired after the Spaniard took a tumble off his bike on the exit of turn three in the last few laps of the session.
Marco Bezzecchi ended up taking his first pole position of the season, showing Jorge Martin what the Aprilia really is capable of as he focuses on getting race experience under his belt following an injury-ridden 2025 campaign.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Francesco Bagnaia from net worth to race number
Francesco Bagnaia has tipped Marc Marquez to ‘surely’ be leading the Austrian Grand Prix by turn one
Despite starting ahead of Marquez in Sunday’s Grand Prix, Bagnaia is pessimistic about his chances of being able to keep the championship leader behind him as the grid enters turn one.
Speaking to journalists after securing third place in qualifying, the two-time world champion rated his overall chances in the race, stating, “I think we have a good chance, but we have to see if I can follow others closely and be able to overtake.
“Because this season, the difficulty has always been this. Marc will start fourth and will surely be ahead by the first corner.
“We’ll see if I can do what I did last year when I got ahead and start pushing hard, or not.”
It’s an interesting choice of words from the rider who sits third in the championship standings. Bagnaia stated that he doesn’t have ‘any confidence at all’ in himself to take the title fight to his teammate on the same machinery.
READ MORE: Everything to know about Marc Marquez from net worth to girlfriend
Marc Marquez has dominated the teammate battle against Francesco Bagnaia at Ducati
Bagnaia has had to match himself up against the toughest teammate on the grid following Ducati’s successful pursuit of replacing Enea Bastianini with eight-time world champion Marquez for the 2025 season.
Marquez could break his own MotoGP record in his debut season with the factory Ducati team. The Ant of Cervera currently has eight wins in the ongoing campaign, which could be nine if Bagnaia’s prediction comes to fruition.
Due to the Spaniard’s dominance in this year’s championship, Marquez is thrashing Bagnaia in the teammate battle.
The Italian rider has only beaten Marquez twice on Sundays, due to the struggles he has faced in trying to eke out the same performance of the GP-25 as his championship-leading garage-mate.
The Red Bull Ring is a track that Bagnaia has done well at in the past, winning the last three Grands Prix to take place there. Paired with the fact Ducati fitted his favoured diameter of brakes to the GP-25 ahead of it, his disappointment with his performance so far in the weekend is understandable.
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