MotoGP experts are debating whether Marc Marquez has reached his peak in 2025. He enters the Hungarian Grand Prix on a run of six consecutive victories, or 12 including Sprints.
Marquez has won nine out of 13 Sunday races this year, and 21 out of 26 overall. He leads his brother Alex in the championship by nearly 150 points.
The Ant of Cervera is now only two points shy of his best points tally ever – 420 in 2019. That benchmark was set on the Honda in the pre-Sprints era.
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Marquez won 12 out of 19 Grands Prix as he romped to his eighth world championship and his sixth in the premier class. His podium rate was an extraordinary 95%, and runner-up Andrea Dovizioso didn’t even break 300 points.
Marc Marquez on the ‘explosiveness’ he’s lost at Ducati
Speaking before the Hungarian Grand Prix, Marquez refused to jump on the ‘bandwagon’. He played down the growing talk that he’s better than ever.
The Ant of Cervera pointed out that he’s riding for the ‘best team’ this year. Ducati are nearly 250 points clear in the constructors’, and as a manufacturer, they have scored 31 podiums out of a possible 39.
In 2019, his Honda teammate Jorge Lorenzo only scraped into the top 20 of the championship, albeit after missing four races through injury. Replacement Stefan Bradl posted the best result of the season on that side of the garage when he finished 10th in Germany.
While Francesco Bagnaia has struggled this year, he’s still third in the standings with a race win and seven Sunday podiums.
CATEGORYVOL.CAREER RANKWins122ndPoles102ndPodiums181stPoints4201stMarc Marquez’s 2019 season in the context of his career
“I’m not jumping on the bandwagon because the situations are different,” Marquez said, via MARCA. “In 2019, I had some strengths, which I don’t have as much now; I have others, in terms of experience.
“I’m on the best bike on the grid with the best team. I’m not saying that the 2019 bike wasn’t, but the other Hondas weren’t that close.
“Here in Austria, a Ducati finished second. Look at 2019 when we finished first and second.”
While he’s gained ‘more experience’, despite suffering with injury at the start of the decade, Marquez added that he’s lost ‘explosiveness’.
Would Enea Bastianini swap places with Francesco Bagnaia right now?
Marquez feels sympathy for Bagnaia as he experiences a period of ‘transition’ in his career. He likened it to his departure from Honda.
The 2013 debutant needed to prove to himself that he could win races again after multiple surgeries and failed comebacks on a declining Honda bike.
Marquez replaced Enea Bastianini at Ducati over the winter and is already building a case to be considered the brand’s greatest ever rider. He will join Bagnaia and Casey Stoner in winning a MotoGP title in red.
Bastianini insists he’d swap places with Bagnaia even after seeing his fellow Italian unravel. Marquez hasn’t had a teammate who can challenge him consistently since Dani Pedrosa.