“Oh, you wanted Marquez back? This is what you get.”
Welcome back to Dre’s Race Review, and it’s time to look at Round 3 of the 2025 MotoGP World Championship with the series heading to one of its big diamond races, the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, for the GP of the Americas. And we all thought this one was going to be a Marc Marquez walkover, like both of the previous races we’ve seen in 2025. And it was… until it very suddenly wasn’t. Let’s get into it.
Global De-Warming
Rain and thunderstorms in Austin at the end of March. Totes normal, bruv. The weather would ultimately play a huge role in how the weekend played out, with heavy rain on Friday leading to all the day’s running being wet. But even then, it was clear it was Marc Marquez’s weekend to lose. That classic confidence in COTA, where its anti-clockwise, flowing nature is a perfect fit for Marquez’s dirt-tracking, body-out riding style. In practice, sometimes you could only laugh at the extra half-second he’d find on a drying track over the rest of the field.
Saturday led to the first slick running of the weekend, and Marquez’s eighth pole position in Austin, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez, with Pecco Bagnaia down in sixth. But it gave birth to the craziest single laps of action in 2025 so far. Pecco gets the start of his life and cuts into the Turn 1 apex to take the lead, only for Marc to immediately counter at Turn 2, then Pecco counters back into Turn 3. Marc came back again at Turn 7 with a hard move to retake the lead.
At the back end of the lap, Marquez nearly loses the rear at Turn 18 in a huge tank slapper, which he somehow saves! Alex Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia both carve him up on either side, only for Marc to immediately lunge them both back at the final corner to take the lead again! It was ridiculous racing and something only Marc could have done. Marquez went from a near-crash to a double overtake for the lead in 15 seconds. He’s the only man alive who could do that. After that, he controlled the Sprint in its entirety to win it, ahead of Alex (again), and Pecco third.
Somehow, this was only the second craziest moment of the weekend.
Rules Of Engagement
So, Sunday had some more rain hit Austin. The Moto3 race was dry, but the rain came down right before the Moto2 race started and turned it into a damp race. It was a fascinating race because some of the field’s big hitters, including Championship leader Manuel Gonzalez, gambled on the slick tyre and the track coming back to them later. It did… on the final lap when Diogo Moreira, the best of the slick runners, set the fastest lap of the race as he took the chequered.
It left the MotoGP race in complete limbo. A damp track but with a dry line coming through, and a genuinely difficult choice between slick and wet tyres. A wet race was declared half an hour ago, and Fabio Quartararo crashed on the sighting lap of all things. It looked like a wet start, but Marc Marquez made a 200 IQ play. At the last minute, with just seconds before the start of the warm-up lap, he abandons his wet bike and wheels it back into the pit lane, runs back to his dry bike and runs it back down to the pit exit, despite it being closed.
It leads to absolute pandemonium as Pecco Bagnaia and several other riders copy Marc and follow him in, also clearly on wet bikes and wanting to follow Marc on the switch. So much so, the fucking Lightbox intro was skipped for the first time to follow the action. With multiple bikes sitting at the end of a closed pit, Maverick Vinales without a bike at all, and multiple crew members still on the grid, the start had to be aborted. Everyone back to the pits, and now on slicks before the race.
Now, some members of the media were very quick to say that Race Direction bottled this, and Marquez should have been hit with a ride-through penalty for changing bikes in a closed pit lane, as you’re not allowed to change tyres on the grid once the three-minute board is shown. But as I said, Marc knew what he was doing. He’s on pole, he knows the whole field can see him. He knew that if just nine other bikes followed him into the pitlane, Article 1.18.1 kicks in, meaning an automatic abandoned start if 10 riders or more leave their grid spots. Although Marc didn’t get 10 takers, Race Director Mike Webb called a Red Flag anyway due to Safety Concerns. Because that start was now rendered null and void, no punishment, even if they’ll likely be looking at closing up that loophole in the regulations.
Marc later told the media, he planned the whole thing. He told his Chief Mechanic, Marco Rigamonti, to stay alert with seven minutes to go until the start, knowing he was going to switch at the last minute as he already knew that slick tyres were the play. He runs at the last minute to try and trick the field. If the grid follows him, no big deal, everyone’s on the same playing field anyway. If he doesn’t get it, he knows he can cut back through the field that has to have a bike change anyway and potentially catch his rivals out. Was it dangerous? Potentially yes. Was it genius? Also, yes.
You sometimes forget that, for all his talent, Marc Marquez is also the most experienced man in the field. He knew the rules, and exploited them. He wasn’t fully correct, he thought it would have only been a back of the grid start and not a ride-through penalty (worth about 27 seconds and likely Marc only scoring minor points at best), but you almost have to admire the evil genius that Marquez can be. Only Cao Cao from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms has ever thrived so much in the realms of chaos.
Smooth sailing from here, right?
Original Sin
Oh, Marc. For all the jokes I made on here in 2024 about Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin’s battle of the bozo gene, I sometimes also had to remind people that Marc Marquez was what I like the call the victim of “Original Sin”. I’ve said many a time that the only thing that can beat Marquez in COTA was Marc himself, and he hit himself with a body blow.
The track did largely turn out dry. Marquez’s pace was incredible, breaking the race lap record three times in the early going. Pecco Bagnaia was running second and fading to nearly two and a half seconds back. Marc had taken some liberties with the Turn 5 kerb and just assumed he could keep doing that. But he took one cut too many, tucked the front and crashed front the lead. Marquez wasn’t completely out after he slid out. But with damaged aero, a huge hole in his fairing and no foot rest, which isn’t great for riding a bike, but is excellent at turning your foot into a s’more.
Marquez single-handedly turned his second-most dominant round on the calendar into a 30-point swing in Pecco Bagnaia’s favour, who’d go on to pull away from Alex Marquez and comfortably win, just Ducati’s second ever victory in Austin, in a 1-2-3-4 lockout with Fabio Di Giannantonio third and Franco Morbidelli fourth.
So let me get this straight, we have an Independent Ducati rider now leading the World Championship, despite not winning a race, his surname is Marquez, and it’s… Alex? 2024 just got weird. He leads the Championship by one point over Marc, with Pecco now just 11 points behind. With one of Pecco’s strongest tracks up next in Qatar, the real Championship battle is about to begin.
The Lightning Round
Lorenzo Savadori has a Championship point, Augusto Fernandez has three and Jorge Martin and Somkiat Chantra do not.
I’m starting to run out of patience with Joan Mir. Honda isn’t cheeks anymore, they’re capable of Top 10s everywhere now, and the Spaniard’s crashed in a GP for the 12th time in his last 23 GPs, and seven out of his last nine. It’s unacceptable for a rider of his quality, and his blushes were only spared due to Johann Zarco also crashing from what should have been sixth. Welp.
Speaking of crashes, how long before we start calling Pedro Acosta a bozo for it too?
With that in mind, is Yamaha’s factory team now the worst in MotoGP? Fabio Quartararo is trying way too hard to compensate for his bike’s flaws, but Yamaha has been a big disappointment off the back of pre-season testing. In this race, Fabio’s backup bike had big electronic problems, running engine mappings it wasn’t supposed to because the bike’s computer wasn’t wired right, thinking it was always going to be short on fuel. He somehow still finished 10th.
Serious credit to Jack Miller as well. He’s looked as comfortable as he ever has on that Yamaha, and a Top 5 result in those conditions was a just reward for his skill.
Ai Ogura is sixth in the Championship, despite a disqualification. Is that good?
Jake Dixon dominates COTA from lights to flag in Moto2, and is now the Championship leader after winning back-to-back in dominant fashion. On a Boscoscuro chassis, is he finally figuring this out?
Terrifying thought: Maximo Quiles just finished 5th in his Moto3 debut. He turned 17 three days ago. He’s a part of Marc Marquez’s new management firm. GOD HELP US ALL.
Don’t normally plug another series here, but go watch all of World Superbikes in Portimao this past weekend. Toprak vs Bulega is another all-time classic. ALL three races were 10/10 heaters.
The Verdict – 6/10 (Decent): Not bad, but a lack of real action plagued this one. Marc was comfortably leading until he wasn’t. Pecco was casual with it once he inherited it, and the best fight we got on track was Johann Zarco vs Fermin Aldeguer of all things. COTA as a track tends to break fields up, and given all three races were nearly won lights to flag, says it all. Stick to YouTube for the highlights. See you in Qatar.
And remember – Do not persue Lu Bu Marc Marquez.
