“Body language” theory as Pecco Bagnaia “playing catch up” to Marc Marquez

The battle between Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez for supremacy in the factory Ducati MotoGP garage appears to be swinging in the direction of the Spaniard.

The two seemed fairly even after the Sepang test, where it was Bagnaia who had the faster overall time but Marquez who put in the better Sprint simulation.

But, at this week’s Buriram MotoGP test, it’s clearly been Marquez who has had the upper hand over his Italian teammate.

The eight-time World Champion topped the opening day of the Buriram test while Bagnaia was held back by technical issues, and on Thursday the #63 was observed to be behaving with some animation on one particular return to the Ducati Lenovo Team pit box.

“In this job, they can’t tell you too much, so you have to turn into a body language expert,” said MotoGP.com pit lane reporter Jack Appleyard.

“That walk from Pecco? The way he took his glove off?

“I’ve seen him animated throughout the day. Less than happy.

“He’s playing catch up to his teammate so far.”

At the moment it’s difficult to say if Bagnaia’s animation was about his performance level or a potential return of the technical difficulties he encountered on Wednesday, but at this final test of the 2025 preseason it appears to be Marquez who has the advantage in the battle between the two factory Ducati teammates who are surely the two strongest favourites to challenge for this year’s world title.