Marc Marquez continued his stampede towards winning a record-equalling seventh MotoGP riders’ title at the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix with his ninth double this year.
The 32-year-old has now won the Sprint Race and Grand Prix in Thailand, Argentina, Qatar, Aragon, Mugello, Assen, Germany, Czechia and Austria since joining the factory Ducati outfit for the 2025 MotoGP season. He has even scored the double at each of the past six rounds.
Marquez tasting glory at Mugello also marked his first Italian Grand Prix win since 2014. The Spaniard also scored his first Dutch Grand Prix win since 2018 at Assen and his first-ever win at the Red Bull Ring last week. Never before in any class had he won the Austrian Grand Prix.
Casey Stoner did not foresee Marquez’s dominance with Ducati before the season, with the Cervera native firmly on course to match Valentino Rossi with seven MotoGP titles. After 13 of the 22 rounds to come this term, Marquez leads his brother Alex Marquez by 142 points.
Photo by JURE MAKOVEC/AFP via Getty ImagesCasey Stoner is in awe of how Marc Marquez rides ahead of MotoGP’s traction control
While Stoner may not have expected Marquez’s dominance, the Spaniard is leaving the two-time MotoGP champion in awe. In particular, the Australian highlights how Marquez is able to ride ahead of the traction control settings on his Ducati GP25 when rival riders rely on it.
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MotoGP’s unified ECU in use since 2016 lets teams set their riders’ traction control settings to manage wheelspin and also operates at its maximum from 60 to 40 degrees of lean. But Stoner believes Marquez makes the difference, thanks to his feel for the tyres and throttle.
Stoner explained, via Motor Sport Magazine: “While everyone else relies on the TC, Marc rides a little ahead of it, which gives him a bit extra as the race goes on. It’s his sensitivity for the throttle. And his feeling for the front is phenomenal.”
Marc Marquez opposed MotoGP’s new stability control at the Austrian Grand Prix
Stoner is not the only MotoGP legend to be left in awe by Marquez this term. Jorge Lorenzo backs Marquez to break every record, having also recently surpassed Giacomo Agostini’s 68 premier class Grand Prix wins. Only Rossi has won more premier class races to date with 89.
Marquez already trumps eight-time premier class champion Agostini for podiums with 122 to 88, although he is some way behind Rossi’s 199. The Spaniard also leads the legends for pole positions with 73 from 202 races, over Agostini’s six from 130 and Rossi’s 55 from 372.
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But MotoGP has potentially now made it easier for Marquez’s rivals after introducing a new stability control setting for the ECU at the Austrian GP. The move, which MotoGP claims was for safety reasons, introduced a setting to help reduce the number of on-throttle highsides.
The stability control operates alongside the existing traction control setting that Stoner says Marquez can ride ahead of. And, like the traction control that Stoner feels today’s riders rely on, Marquez thinks the stability control can also negate a rider’s ability to make a difference.
“For me, it’s clear. The more things you introduce on the bike, in this case electronics, the less difference the rider can make,” Marquez said, via The Race, in Austria. “I tested this new control in Aragon, also in Malaysia, and it’s just easier to ride.
“You can be out of control, and the bike is doing everything. As a rider, I don’t like it. If it’s safer or not – at the end, every manufacturer has a different point of view.”