Francesco Bagnaia finally made his return to the top step of the podium this past Sunday at the Americas GP, capitalising on a mistake from Marc Marquez to inherit the win in a race already marred by controversy before the starting flag was even raised.
The mistake from Marc not only meant that he forfeited his race lead to his teammate and championship rival Bagnaia, but it also shattered his clean sweep in the 2025 season so far.
Bagnaia had a slow start to the season; his lack of pace was accredited to a lack of confidence with his Ducati GP25 machinery, which Marc immediately gelled with. Similarly, Alex Marquez, on Ducati’s last year’s iteration of its prototype machinery, gained a newfound confidence, finishing alongside his older brother in every podium leading up to the COTA weekend.
After Marc’s error at turn 4, which gave away the championship lead to his brother Alex, the Pecco of old returned, controlling the race from the leading position and eventually finishing two seconds ahead of his nearest rival in Alex.
The VR46 squad was also in strong form, with the recovering Fabio Di Giannantonio rounding up the podium, followed by teammate Franco Morbidelli in fourth. Yamaha and Aprilia finished with a strong result, with Jack Miller taking fifth and Marco Bezzechi closely behind to wrap the top six.
Enea Bastianini’s signature late-race pace saw the Italian piercing through the field and netting a seventh-place finish for KTM. Luca Marini finished eighth as Honda’s highest finisher after LCR’s Zarco crashed out in the dying stages of the race.
COTA proved to be a race weekend full of attrition, but it also showcased the gains made by the two Japanese outfits, both of whom claimed a top-ten finish after multiple seasons spent at the tail end of the grid.
