“…I can’t believe this actually happened.”
Welcome back to another double header of Dre’s Race Review, and… it’s actually quite nice to have that feeling of everything’s wrapping up. Kimi Antonelli has won the F1 World Championship that’s been coming since the summer, Mercedes wrapped up the Constructor’s Title today, and on two wheels – Marc Marquez is 99% of the way there for his 10th World Championship. But the way he got there in a Grand Prix that probably shouldn’t even have happened is going to take some dissecting. Let’s talk about it.
If A Grand Prix Happens In The Desert…
This might be the most “obvious comment is obvious” statement I’ve ever made on here, but the vibes were fucccccccking off on this one. Qatar’s mediation between the United States and Iran over their ongoing conflict was dissolved the day the weekend started. Marc Marquez openly admitted he was flying into the country on Friday morning to be there as little as possible, as well as being on the first flight back home. And when he got there for the Friday press conference, reportedly, Marco Bezzecchi (One of the three men who broke up a unified front to boycott the race), joked that he was here despite “all the fuss”. Marc responded: “I had to be here because you’re here.” Which… kind of says it all, really.
If all 22 riders on the grid pulled out of the event, MotoGP would be forced to cancel. The moment riders’ competitive ego’s got in the way, the series won. This despite 19 riders who wouldn’t be here if they felt they had a feasible choice, only one regional broadcaster at the track (DAZN), with our own TNT Sports covering the event from home1, and barely any of the full-time journalists on site. Great.
Look. This isn’t a spoiler-free review, you know how this ends – the event went off without a hitch, mostly because the Republican Party in the United States got barbeque’d at the mid-terms and “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth is allegedly on the brink of being either fired and/or impeached by US Congress for his role in the conflict, and there’s seemingly no plan for any escalation in the region in the meantime. But man it did not feel comfortable watching along knowing all that in the back of the head… and the sport celebrating a record weekend attendance too, despite the potential of locked airspace and being not too far away from potential war. I haven’t got anything massively profound, I just think it sucks. Let’s talk about some actual bikes.
Same Piece Of Tarmac
Good news for Aprilia – They were fast out of the gate, with Marco Bezzecchi getting up to speed and being competitive right out of the gate. And on top of that, Jorge Martin was in a much better place with his wrist compared to the week prior in Sepang where he had to withdraw because he couldn’t do two laps in a row without experiencing pain.
Fabio di Giannantonio broke the lap record in Friday practice, but in Qualifying it was Marco Bezzecchi who took pole position with Marquez second and Diggia third.
The Sprint was a rollercoaster ride. Bez nailed his start and kept the lead into Turn 1, with Diggia forced to sit up yet again as he was on the outside of a three-wide going in. Bezzecchi and Marquez took off and quickly gapped the rest of the field, but the Sprint race was red-flagged on Lap 3 due to a sickening crash.
Fermin Aldeguer had returned from injury for this weekend, and when he hit the brakes going for a lunge on Pedro Acosta, he massively overcooks his braking, hits the rear of Pecco Bagnaia’s bike, and he gets launched fifteen feet in the air, landing on his back and shoulder off the track. For Pecco, it could very well be the final pisstake in a horrendous final season in red. He looked the most competitive he had been in a hot minute, qualifying in fifth and within a couple of tenths of Marc and Diggia, but he had to be stretched to hospital as a result of the impact.
The result? Double fractures to two of his metatarsals, flying back to Italy in the coming days for surgery. Not sure he’s riding for Ducati again, and a sad way to close out one of the all-time great MotoGP tenures.
The Sprint restarted for a shortened, 10-lap race and this time, Bez’s anti-wheelie hampered his launch, opening the door for Marquez to take the lead. But just a couple of laps later, we got the biggest flashpoint of the season so far.
Marc Marquez comes down from 220mph to brake for Turn 1, and takes his usual line. It’s slightly wider on entry, but the apex for the corner is later on and he can swing back around to narrow the path to Turn 2. Bez is behind, and because the Aprilia can turn so much better than the Ducati, he can hug the inside line better, and he approaches Marquez rapidly towards the exit of the corner. By the time Marquez sees him and stands the bike up, it’s too late – But it’s Bezzecchi that goes down, crashing out and leaving him virtually eliminated from title contention right there and then.
Now, this was quite the heated moment. Massimo Rivola sarcastically clapped towards the stewards on the hard camera when Simon Crafar decided that no further action was required. He, as late as Sunday night still thinks it needed a deeper analysis. So here’s mine, and why I think he’s wrong and Crafar in my opinion, got it right.
This is a classic case of two men fighting for the same piece of tarmac, and neither party being able to yield until it was too late. Marquez is ahead, and Bez is coming in so fast that by the time Marc starts to check up, it is already too late as the difference in closing speed was massive. Yes, Marc does somewhat turn in across Bez, but that’s the line his bike had been taking all weekend.
If anything, it’s somewhat of a freak accident because normally when you’re on the outside, the risk you run from that position is, if there’s contact, 9 times out of 10 the man on the outside goes down. The reason I think that happens here, is because Bez is SO low down and basically at maximum lean that the contact unsettles the bike and he slides out. The impact was firm enough to set off Marquez’s airbag. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the definition of a racing incident. Neither party is predominantly to blame, Bez has the right to attack the gap, Marquez has the right to turn in and try to take the space on a late apex. It is what it is.
Of course, people turned this into an explosive game of beef on social media given these two have history. But remember, when Bez took Marquez out in Mandalika last year, Marquez was the first to hop on social media and tell people to leave Bez alone for what he deemed an unfortunate accident. He checked on Marco after they clashed too and while clearly subdued, it was respectful. As far as I’m concerned, case closed. Massimo.
And even after Bez’s shock crash, behind him, we got another surprise – Jorge Martin was carving his way through the field. He’d gotten up to second from 10th on the grid after changing his rear tyre to the soft on the restart, and he was a man on a mission. He saw that Marquez was vulnerable after his airbag went off and went on the attack, briefly passing him to take the lead of the race. 14 days ago, the man broke his wrist in two places. Now he was in agony, but leading the Sprint.
It didn’t last, Martin burned through his rear tyre very quickly on the restart, Marquez was able to immediately counter-attack and start to stretch out an advantage, as Martin tried to hang onto second, eventually losing out to Diggia on the final lap. But if this was Martin’s last stand in a title fight he knew was slipping away anyway, it was a hell of a way to go down swinging. He needed help from two people to take his glove off after the race, needing a bag of ice. Even Gigi Dall’Igna went over to acknowledge just how gritty a performance that was. The only drawback? It opened up a title chance for Marquez for Sunday – The smallest of chances. Only a maximum swing, a Marquez win with Martin failing to score would do it. Super unlikely, but we’ve seen stranger shit happen this season.
Keep The T-Shirts In The Box
The Grand Prix was a much more straight-forward affair, playing out a lot like the formbook suggested. Bez kept his lead into Turn 1, the only minor surprise was Raul Fernandez getting a great start and taking second in an attempt to go with Bez. The funny thing about this was, if Fernandez had overtaken Bez and gone on to win the race, he’d have inadvertently knocked Bez out of title contention, with Bez still alive if he outscored Marquez by five points.
By the time Marquez had settled down in third and weathered the pressure from KTM’s Pedro Acosta, the Aprilia’s were four seconds down the road and nearly impossible to catch. Classic Marquez, takes it easy early on to let the tyres scrub off the sheen, and then gets quicker when the bike can slide a little bit more to help him turn. But he got a bit of good fortune in the latter stages, with Fernandez struggling to manage his fuel, Marquez blew by him with half a dozen laps to go like he wasn’t even there.
At the front, Bez was simply unstoppable. There were a few laps in the middle of the race when Marc really found his rhythm where we thought maybe there was a chance at a comeback, but Bez shut it down and coasted comfortably to his sixth win of the season to keep his very, very slim title hopes alive. In fact, with Bez 74 points back, with 74 available, he needs everything on the table, and Marquez to not score another point, just to win on countback.
Despite this typically not being a strong round for Marquez, with Ducati almost always likely to come away second best with Qatar’s plethora of medium-speed corners, he still leaves the place with 32 points out of 37, and knowing that beating Martin by just two points in Portugal’s Sprint Race will be enough for his 10th World Championship. And again, look at the other Ducati’s – Pecco injured, Diggia 8th, Lecouna 12th and Morbidelli 11th. It’s the fourteenth straight GP he’s been the best of his brand. Who needs team orders?
Special mentions to Raul Fernandez, who put together a brilliant race to get third, and remember – This was his first race distance since the crash in Mandalika that broke two of his fingers. That inflammation must have been a bastard given he couldn’t wait to ditch his gloves the moment he crossed the line. And of course Jorge Martin, who could do no more on the medium tyre, but still completed the full race distance in seventh. Like I said, the title was likely over the moment he hit the canvas in Australia, but he’s shown true grit to stay in the fight as long as he has, and for me, he goes down with honour. Classy touch from Marc to acknowledge the effort after both races too.
The Lightning Round
Once again, a salute from me to Yamaha for actually having the spine to say no to this weekend. I sincerely hope common sense prevails and that there’s no formal punishment for them withdrawing – Not that there’s any legal grounds for it anyway.
It led to a strange, almost 2011-vibe at the start, that with Pecco injured and Marini withdrawing late in the weekend due to fatigue symptoms (Heard mumblings it may be “Mono”), we had just 16 bikes on the grid for the start. And with Moreira parking it due to possible arm-pump and yet another mechanical failure for Brad Binder, only 14 riders saw the chequered flag. Unideal.
Does Fabio di Giannantonio feel like he has to be the guy to stick up for the VR46 crew? He was seen on camera saying that Marc turned in on Bez in the Sprint and Marc rightly retorted that he was taking his normal line. After the comments made about the development of the Desmo’s in recent years, it’s like he harbors some sort of anti-Marquez resentment, to which I say – It’s been 11 years, people. We all need to let this shit go. Unless you have a book to sell, apparently…
Really good weekends from two of the stand-in riders on the grid. Iker Lecouna got points in the Sprint and the Grand Prix and was able to finish in front of Fermin Aldeguer (Who probably wasn’t 100%, but still), and Jake Dixon was excellent, only finishing .6 away from making Q2 and in the back half of the Grand Prix, being within two tenths a lap of Johann Zarco’s pace. Two points in his first MotoGP start in five years. Awesome. *cancels TNT’s immense order of glaze*
One more Jorge Martin tidbit that was worth a mention – It was quite emotional reading about him overcoming some of the fear that came with the track. Remember, just 18 months ago, Martin was in a hospital bed with 11 fractured ribs and a punctured lung after crashing and having the horrific accident where Diggia ran him over. The man’s come an awful long way to be in this position and while the ultimate prize has seemingly alluded him, he’s had a tremendous campaign.
Just when Manuel Gonzalez was feeling the heavy pressure of having the Moto2 Championship lead that peaked at over 60 points reduced to just 3.5, Izan Guevara has an engine failure that’s going to absolutely butcher his chances. It’s now a 13.5 point lead for Manu with two to play, meaning he can just follow Izan home for the title. Horrible horrible beat for a usually bulletproof Triumph engine to have two failures in as many weekends.
And just a reminder as to what a MotoGP season now entails, look at Marc Marquez after the race. Leathers off immediately, absolutely shattered physically after a tough race, the fifth in as many weekends and the 39th of 2026. The fact the Triple Header returns next October is grim when the teams specifically asked not to have them.
And with this event safely in the books, I suspect F1 won’t be cancelling their edition in just three weeks time. Even if I know there’s several teams that aren’t exactly keen on the idea…
The Verdict: 4/10 (Meh) – Look, even ignoring all the political bullshit associated with this race, Qatar laying an egg in terms of overall race quality is a stark reminder that these bikes suck and need to go. But I feel like I say that most weeks on here. The Sprint is definitely worth a watch though, if that’s a small boost. See you in Portugal.
- Although, I did see an old friend of mine there doing media for them. So, it’s not safe enough to send a full crew, but it is safe enough for one freelancer. Hmm… ↩︎
