Marc Marquez: “Pecco attacked, I came back... then a massive moment”

Marc Marquez’s perfect 2025 victory streak almost came to an abrupt end with a huge moment during a dramatic opening lap of the COTA MotoGP Sprint race.

Starting from pole position, the factory Ducati rider immediately found himself under attack, with team-mate Francesco Bagnaia launching from sixth to first into Turn 1.

Marquez quickly responded, cutting back on the exit, only for Bagnaia to fight back at Turn 3.

The Spaniard regained control, but just as he tried to pull clear through the high-speed right-handers, his Desmosedici slid violently sideways, nearly launching him into a huge highside.

"It felt like the slide would never stop!"

“It was a tricky first lap,” Marquez told MotoGP.com. “Pecco attacked me in the first corner, then I came back at Turn 3, then I tried to push to open a gap - because I had the pace - but I had that massive moment on the long right corner.

“I started to open the gas and then I started to slide, slide, slide and it was like it would never stop! Maybe I was with too much lean angle. But yeah, it was a scary moment!

“I said ‘OK, I will lose…’ But I could get it back under control in a good way.”

Although the incident allowed Bagnaia and Alex Marquez to overtake, Marc instantly regrouped and stamped out their victory hopes by re-taking the lead.

“The most important for me is that already in the next corner I was able to attack and to come back to leading the race," he said.

“Then on the next lap, I rode in a smoother way. I had already opened a gap and from that point on I tried to control.

“The plan was to lead the race from the beginning, open a gap of one second and control. I mean, it doesn't matter if you win by half second or three seconds.

“So when I had that gap of one-second, I just tried to control and was done.”

Marquez’s race-winning time of 20m 29.509s was slower than Maverick Viñales’ 2023 sprint victory (20m 27.825s).

It was also only fractionally quicker than his own 20m 30.119s time as a runner-up for Gresini on last year’s GP23, despite a partial track resurfacing to remove the remaining bumps.

“The track changed, it was warmer,” Marquez explained. ”That [lap one] warning gave me the chance to understand the track conditions, and then when I opened a small gap it was enough to control the race.”

Marquez crossed the line 0.9s ahead of his younger brother Alex to make it five wins from five starts as a factory Ducati rider, with Bagnaia completing the podium 1.9s behind.

The Spaniard will aim to continue his win streak with an eighth COTA grand prix victory on Sunday - which would match his Sachsenring record - when a shift from the soft to medium rear tyre could upset the order.

“Tomorrow with the medium, we need to understand where we are and where the others are,” Marquez said. “Also I expect a strong Pecco, I saw at the end of the sprint his pace was not bad.”

Marc takes a 19-point lead over Alex into Sunday’s race, with Bagnaia now slipping 36 points behind in the early title chase.