Lap time analysis proves Marc Marquez was more dominant at Aragon than he admits

Generally you might be so good at one thing that the one individual to check to is your self. That was actually the case for Marc Marquez on the finish of the Aragon Grand Prix, as he cruised throughout the road to attain his fourth victory of the 2025 season.

Anticipated to be dominant on the Spanish venue, Marquez actually took that to coronary heart as he topped each single session: FP1, Follow, FP2, qualifying, dash, warm-up and the grand prix. The final time that occurred was 10 years in the past on the German GP, when Marc Marquez himself achieved the feat.

It’s a powerful document when you think about the addition of the dash to the schedule in comparison with 10 years in the past, and the actual fact Marquez has now accomplished so on two very totally different bikes.

Based mostly on Friday kind, it was a consequence that didn’t shock many – although he was pushed a bit more durable than anticipated within the early phases of each races. The 1.107s benefit he held on the chequered flag masked his dominance; he was over two seconds away from Alex Marquez going into the ultimate laps earlier than he eased off to safeguard a win solely he may deny himself of, and actually it regarded like he had extra to offer.

It has strengthened his place within the championship to 32 factors, which is the largest it has been all season, whereas it ended Ducati’s latest funk of back-to-back grand prix defeats for the primary time for the reason that 2022 marketing campaign.

Scene of arguably a very powerful win of his profession final September, he dismissed the notion that his 2025 Aragon GP success – his seventh within the premier class – held anyplace close to the identical significance.

However scratch beneath the floor of it and it turns into clear that it’s maybe just a bit bit extra necessary within the wider context of the 2025 season than he needs to confess.

Marquez fights by dangerous ideas in Aragon domination

The actual fact the championship lead solely stands at 32 factors after eight rounds of the 22 this season is testomony to 2 issues: the primary is the superb job Alex Marquez has accomplished in constantly shadowing his elder brother. However maybe a good larger purpose is the Sunday errors Marc Marquez has dedicated too usually by his requirements.

The Americas Grand Prix weekend ought to have gone the best way Aragon did, however he crashed whereas main when he ran too aggressively over a moist kerb at COTA. At Jerez, on track arguably for an additional win, he fell early on whereas pushing too exhausting attempting to get previous team-mate Pecco Bagnaia.

He then crashed whereas main once more on the British Grand Prix, however was no less than spared the ignominy of this by a pink flag for an incident additional around the monitor that left oil on the asphalt. He got here away from Silverstone with an necessary third-place end, however he’d accomplished sufficient to stress himself forward of the Aragon spherical.

From Thursday he regularly pressured a necessity to not make any errors on Sundays and hinted at a change in strategy – although precisely what that entailed he wouldn’t say. From the off within the grand prix he led and regarded like he was controlling the tempo, retaining the hole behind across the 0.5s mark within the first 5 laps earlier than pulling the pin to get his benefit as much as over a second by the beginning of the ninth tour.

However as he hit cruise management ideas of crashes previous started to creep into his head, noticing that his instances had been quick with out placing all that a lot effort in. So, he dug deeper to place some stress on himself and preserve his focus to keep away from one other Sunday fall.

“When six, seven laps remained I began to consider these errors, methods to handle the state of affairs, however then I used to be trying on the lap time and I used to be driving in 1m47s-low with out full focus,” he defined. “Then I made a decision to extend the velocity to be targeted once more.”

Used tyre tempo has been Marquez’s key energy in 2025, and that confirmed in his lap instances as soon as once more. He set successive quickest laps from laps seven to 9, then once more from laps 11 to 12. He put in one of the best lap of the the race with three to go, a 1m46.705s that gave him a brand new race lap document at Aragon by over a second from the earlier one set in 2022 by Luca Marini (then on a VR46 Ducati).

A “necessary” win that units the tone going ahead

After the grand prix, Marc Marquez mentioned it was “necessary” for his manufacturing unit Ducati group and himself to win on Sunday at Aragon. A stronghold of his from the previous attributable to its anticlockwise format and the low-grip floor, he knew he was best-placed to win the race.

Nevertheless it was “necessary” as a result of he’d thrown away a sure-fire win at COTA and once more a possible victory a number of weeks later at Jerez. As he famous, “I misplaced 50 factors” due to these errors and the harm these would have accomplished to his rivals within the championship would have been huge.

Requested if there was an added significance to this win due to how dominant he was throughout the weekend, he replied: “No, I don’t assume so, as a result of we began already in an excellent method from Thailand to Jerez. Then it’s true that Le Mans, particularly Silverstone, we missed the best way a bit however we understood why. After which right here I got here again, I felt once more the identical feeling as I had within the pre-season and as I had within the first races.”

On Saturday he made a tight-lipped try at explaining what he meant by ‘coming again’ to one thing that labored earlier than, stating: “It’s true that in Le Mans and Silverstone I used to be driving with a distinct ‘spec’, however right here I come again as a result of I would like the identical because the others, then within the Monday take a look at we may have time to attempt. A couple of issues [were different].”

At Le Mans, he rode with a barely revised Ducati chassis. It’s unclear if that is what he’s speaking about, although he additional muddied the waters when he additionally mentioned on Saturday that his bike was the very same because the one the GP24 riders (Alex Marquez, Fermin Aldeguer, Franco Morbidelli) are driving. We all know this to not be true as a result of the engine within the manufacturing unit bike is barely totally different, as is the rear proper peak machine.

What we are able to say with some certainty is that no matter Ducati tried on the Jerez take a look at previous to the Le Mans spherical clearly didn’t transfer issues within the course Marquez had hoped. Monday’s take a look at at Aragon will hopefully provide a clearer thought as to what he must retry.

What is evident is that at Aragon Marc Marquez was a lower above his manufacturing unit Ducati counterparts. Bagnaia was over six seconds again in third, whereas Fabio Di Giannantonio was ninth on his VR46-run GP25. Marquez continues to extract absolutely the most out of that package deal.

If he has now discovered precisely what he must be comfy on that bike and has exercised the demons of COTA, Jerez and Silverstone, then this 2025 championship race is about to move into a brand new part his rivals are greater than more likely to emerge battered and bruised from.

Hope as Pecco Bagnaia’s title hopes lie on life assist

The Aragon Grand Prix felt like one thing of a watershed second for Pecco Bagnaia. He got here into it off the again of successive non-scores in grands prix and was nonetheless none the smart on methods to repair the GP25 to raised go well with his entrance finish wants. In addition, he was going through questions on his Ducati future as rumours unfold in Italy of a shock Yamaha swap in 2026 – one thing he flat out denies. 

The dash race was Bagnaia’s season at its worst; zero entrance finish confidence, countless lock-ups on the brakes and a spirit-crushing journey out of the factors to twelfth. And clearly, no course had nonetheless been discovered.

Ducati group boss Davide Tardozzi informed tv after Sunday’s race that it had turn out to be “sick” of listening to the identical complaints from Bagnaia as a result of the producer was merely hitting its head towards a wall looking for the answer he wanted.

After which it got here on Sunday morning. Admitting that it was one thing the group had by no means even thought to do earlier than, Bagnaia’s monitor engineer had a much bigger entrance brake disc placed on his bike for the grand prix and it gave him again plenty of the boldness he had been lacking. Particularly, he mentioned he was in a position to apply much less brake stress however decelerate higher, avoiding the entrance locking that plagued him on Saturday.

That was evident in his battle with KTM’s Pedro Acosta within the early phases. Acosta, the one rider operating the exhausting entrance tyre, launched raids on the brakes at Flip 1 on lap two, Flip 12 on lap two and Flip 1 on lap 4. He made a kind of stick, at Flip 12 on lap two, however Bagnaia was in a position to outbrake him into the penultimate nook and retake the place.

This unquestionably value him in his battle with Alex Marquez, however he pushed the Gresini rider exhausting. He set his greatest lap of the race on lap 22 of 23 at 1m46.773s, versus 1m46.843s for Alex Marquez, whereas their common tempo distinction was simply 0.026s.

To credit score each, Alex Marquez was simply 0.093s on common slower than Marc Marquez and Bagnaia 0.119s down. In fact, there’s a caveat to notice in that Marc Marquez was comfortably controlling issues out in entrance. However perhaps had he discovered himself a number of place down within the pack within the early laps, his afternoon may have been quite a bit more durable.

Bagnaia held his palms up and mentioned Alex Marquez’s driving was “good”, which meant not one of the velocity he had led to any stress that might crack the Gresini rider.

The aid across the Ducati camp, and inside Bagnaia himself, was palpable on Sunday afternoon. This does really feel like a real turning level, even when Bagnaia doesn’t imagine he’ll immediately be successful races once more from the upcoming Italian Grand Prix.

And whether or not it will likely be sufficient to salvage his title hopes looks like a stretch at this stage, with Marc Marquez now 93 factors clear and exhibiting at Aragon what he’s actually able to. However no less than the actual Pecco Bagnaia ought to now begin to present as much as races…