MotoGP - Marc Marquez tough: Ducati MotoGP colleague Francesco Bagnaia doesn't interest him

The MotoGP race weekend in Aragon could hardly have started better for Marc Marquez . In the first free practice session, he put almost a second between himself and his closest rival, Alex Marquez. In the afternoon practice session , Marc also relegated his brother to second place, albeit this time by just over two-tenths of a second.

"It's true that my rivals closed in the afternoon, but I felt comfortable," Marquez said with satisfaction on Friday evening. However, he didn't want to call it a sure thing at Motorland Aragon. "It's not as if I'm riding single-handed here. If I don't push hard, I'm on the same level as the other riders. To have that advantage, I have to take risks. The key is knowing where to take those risks."

So, the foundation has been laid for Marc Marquez this weekend – but the most important sessions, with qualifying, the sprint, and the Grand Prix, are still to come. And especially on Sunday, Marquez is prone to making mistakes in 2025. He crashed in Jerez and Silverstone, and the crash in Austin, when he threw away what he thought was a sure victory, was particularly painful. "What matters is how the weekend ends, not how it begins," he says.

Marc Marquez's chances of a resounding success like last year, when he clinched a hat trick of pole position, a sprint win, and a Grand Prix victory, are certainly good. On the other side of the Ducati garage, however, the situation is completely different. Francesco Bagnaia , finishing ninth on Friday, only just made it into Q2 and was once again visibly dissatisfied. His media session was postponed from its original 4:55 p.m. time to 6:00 p.m. and then later in the evening. Traditionally, this is a sign that the rider and crew had plenty of internal discussions to discuss beforehand.

The mood among Bagnaia and his entourage is obviously anything but positive at the moment. The two-time MotoGP champion made no secret of this on Friday evening in Aragon: "I can't brake as hard with this bike as I normally do. Especially on this track, I keep losing the front wheel. Today, it locked up for over 30 meters at times. It's unbelievable!"

When asked about his teammate's massive problems, Marc Marquez showed little empathy: "Honestly, I don't pay attention to that. I don't pay attention to it because it doesn't interest me. I care about my side of the box and getting 100 percent out of my package. I only look at the second-fastest Ducati, and that currently belongs to Alex. That's who I compare myself to. As for Pecco, I don't know what he's testing or in which direction he's working. I'm just guided by my instincts and my feeling on the bike."