MotoGP Championship leader Marc Marquez has been leaned to end nine years of waiting for the maiden victory at Red Bull Ring this weekend.
The factory Ducati riders took eight wins and 11 sprint wins from the opening round, appearing at the Austrian Grand Prix, leading the championship by 120 points.
On his way to the seventh premier-class title, the reopening of MotoGP 2025 at Red Bull Ring has not been overcome by Mark Marc Marquez so far since the Austrian Grand Prix returned to the calendar in 2016.
The Red Bull Ring is one of the four circuits on the current calendar, with Marquez not winning in his Grand Prix career.
He approached in 2017, 2018 and 2019 in his final rap battle between former Ducati riders Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo. But the second remains his best.
Already in 2025 Marquez finished a long, victorious drought, especially in Qatar.
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In the latest Crash MotoGP podcast, host Jordan Moreland believes Pecco Bagnaia will offer a tough challenge this weekend with Pecco Bagnaia winning the past three Red Bull Ring Races.
“It’s a circuit with a lot of characters and the reason why Mark Marquez wants to mark his list is because when you look at his previous results, he’s never won here and he’s approached many times,” he said.
“But now he is on a bike that beats him many times throughout the year, and it looks like a weekend.
“But he has a challenge from Pecco Bagnaia because I absolutely love Pecco and say he won the last three editions.”
Mark Marquez leaned to end nine years of waiting
Mark Marquez
However, senior journalist at Clash, Louis Duncan, is hoping that Marquez will continue his fifth consecutive Sunday victory, as he hasn’t seen Bagnair recreate the shapes of his past Austrian Grand Prix.
“It’s interesting,” he added.
“We already have some of these circuits where past marks have not won or haven’t won for a very long time, so we rewritten the scripts there.
“So I think there are a lot of keen eyes on what happens in the Red Bull Ring.
“It is really difficult for past marks to win again based on current form and current performance of the bike.
“I think we are now beyond the point that Pecco Bagnaia wants to take on the challenge.
“Even after Brno, he thought it wasn’t a bridge. He knows now that his rival is Alex Marquez and is trying to think about breaking Mark.
“Mark is on track on this circuit, and all the losses on the final lap are muddy over the fact that he was generally there on Honda machines that struggled with low gear acceleration circuits.
“And he was pretty fast here at GP23 last year. It’s not as if his best result was seventh or ninth.
“He’s been a few inches from winning here before, and I don’t think that repeating it is likely to happen, given that this bike is suitable for the circuit and Mark’s past form here.