Fiery new footage proves Marc Marquez-Pecco Bagnaia tense row after a crash
Last year’s Portuguese GP served up a first flashpoint between Marquez and Bagnaia at Ducati
A new MotoGP documentary has revealed a heated exchange between Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia following their 2024 Portuguese Grand Prix clash.
The pair, who will be team-mates this year at the factory Ducati squad, were battling for position in the closing stages of last year’s Sunday race at Portimao.
Marquez lunged up the inside and ran slightly wide, with the pair colliding as their lines converged in the middle of Turn 5 - leading to the pair crashing.
The clash was deemed a racing incident by the stewards.
A new documentary from the official MotoGP website entitled ‘There Can Be Only One’ has shown a behind-the-scenes exchange between Marquez and Bagnaia as they stood outside of the stewards’ office in Portugal.
Marquez began by saying: “At the point you know that if you open the throttle, the contact will come and the one on the outside crashes.”
Bagnaia responds: “Depends on how the rider on the outside reacts. Maybe, in your head, you would have done it that way, to which Marquez replies “Now we’ll look at the data.”
“Marc, when you go wide, you know perfectly well there’s another rider on the inside. You know that,” Bagnaia adds.
“So, it’s my fault,” Marquez says, before Bagnaia counters: “No, I’m not saying that!”
Marquez stands firm that he doesn’t believe he is at fault, noting “I didn’t close the line”.
Bagnaia says “it’s neither your fault nor mine”, with Marquez concluding as his rival is ushered back into the stewards room: “This is the problem. It’s not your fault or mine, but we both crashed. For me, it was difficult to avoid this. Don’t worry, I won’t make a show out of it.”
When Marquez spoke to the media after this, he laid the blame at Bagnaia’s door, while the latter branded it a racing incident.
In a recent interview conducted by Ducati at the team’s 2025 launch event, when the Portugal clash was brought up, Bagnaia pointed out that the points he lost in the incident would led to him winning the championship.
