Marc Marquez’s good 2025 victory streak virtually got here to an abrupt finish with an enormous second throughout a dramatic opening lap of the COTA MotoGP Dash race.
Ranging from pole place, the manufacturing facility Ducati rider instantly discovered himself underneath assault, with team-mate Francesco Bagnaia launching from sixth to first into Flip 1.
Marquez shortly responded, chopping again on the exit, just for Bagnaia to combat again at Flip 3.
The Spaniard regained management, however simply as he tried to drag clear by way of the high-speed right-handers, his Desmosedici slid violently sideways, practically launching him into an enormous highside.
“It felt just like the slide would by no means cease!”
“It was a tough first lap,” Marquez advised MotoGP.com. “Pecco attacked me within the first nook, then I got here again at Flip 3, then I attempted to push to open a spot – as a result of I had the tempo – however I had that huge second on the lengthy proper nook.
“I began to open the gasoline after which I began to slip, slide, slide and it was like it will by no means cease! Possibly I used to be with an excessive amount of lean angle. However yeah, it was a scary second!
“I mentioned ‘OK, I’ll lose…’ However I might get it again underneath management in a great way.”
Marc Marquez leads, 2025 Americas MotoGP Dash
Though the incident allowed Bagnaia and Alex Marquez to overhaul, Marc immediately regrouped and stamped out their victory hopes by re-taking the lead.
“A very powerful for me is that already within the subsequent nook I used to be capable of assault and to return again to main the race,” he mentioned.
“Then on the following lap, I rode in a smoother manner. I had already opened a spot and from that time on I attempted to regulate.
“The plan was to guide the race from the start, open a spot of 1 second and management. I imply, it would not matter in case you win by half second or three seconds.
“So once I had that hole of one-second, I simply tried to regulate and was finished.”
Marquez’s race-winning time of 20m 29.509s was slower than Maverick Viñales’ 2023 dash victory (20m 27.825s).
It was additionally solely fractionally faster than his personal 20m 30.119s time as a runner-up for Gresini on final yr’s GP23, regardless of a partial monitor resurfacing to take away the remaining bumps.
“The monitor modified, it was hotter,” Marquez defined. ”That [lap one] warning gave me the possibility to know the monitor circumstances, after which once I opened a small hole it was sufficient to regulate the race.”
Marquez crossed the road 0.9s forward of his youthful brother Alex to make it 5 wins from 5 begins as a manufacturing facility Ducati rider, with Bagnaia finishing the rostrum 1.9s behind.
The Spaniard will intention to proceed his win streak with an eighth COTA grand prix victory on Sunday – which might match his Sachsenring document – when a shift from the tender to medium rear tyre might upset the order.
“Tomorrow with the medium, we have to perceive the place we’re and the place the others are,” Marquez mentioned. “Additionally I count on a robust Pecco, I noticed on the finish of the dash his tempo was not dangerous.”
Marc takes a 19-point lead over Alex into Sunday’s race, with Bagnaia now slipping 36 factors behind within the early title chase.
