Five things we learned from the MotoGP Czech Grand Prix

Marc Marquez romped to yet another victory in the 2025 MotoGP campaign on Sunday as he won the Czech Grand Prix at Brno.

It was the factory Ducati rider’s eighth grand prix win of the season, with Marquez now leading the championship by 120 points over brother Alex in second.

But the six-time champion heading towards a seventh MotoGP title was not the only takeaway from the weekend as action occurred throughout the paddock.

So, here are five things we learned from the Czech GP weekend. 

Aprilia is closing in on Ducati

After qualifying, it looked like it would be much of the same at the front of the field as Francesco Bagnaia put his bike on pole with Marc Marquez in second. Fabio Quartararo was on the front row too, but considering Yamaha’s recent tendency to fade dramatically throughout a race, a challenge wasn’t expected from the blue bike.

The Aprilias also seemed to be right up there. Even though he suffered three crashes across Friday and Saturday, Marco Bezzecchi stuck his Aprilia fourth on the grid. While Jorge Martin could only manage 12th upon his return to the MotoGP paddock, there was another Aprilia in the top 10 as Raul Fernandez put his Trackhouse machine sixth.

The sprint race turned into a bit of a mess with the confusion regarding the factory Ducati riders and their tyre pressures. Still, Bezzecchi took fourth while Martin finished out of the points. Luckily for the Aprilia squad, the main race was much more clear-cut.

Bezzecchi managed to get the better of Marquez after the latter lost momentum due to his failed attack on Bagnaia during the opening tour. Bagnaia then ran wide heading into the last sequence of corners and Bezzecchi needed no further invitation. The Aprilia rider took the lead heading into the first corner and led the field until lap seven when Marquez took back first position.

To his credit, Bezzecchi tried to make a race of it, but the Italian couldn’t quite match the factory Ducati rider’s pace. In fact, Bezzecchi came under increasing pressure from Pedro Acosta during the middle of the contest, but the Aprilia rider had kept some extra performance in the tank and pulled away to take a comfortable second.

Martin, meanwhile, had a calm and measured race, picking off other riders on his way to seventh. His weekend was very much a case of building up confidence, so the reigning champion delivered nicely on that front. Fernandez had an excellent weekend too, taking sixth in the sprint and then fifth in the main race.

Looking at the performance of the other bikes at Brno, it doesn’t appear Aprilia has to beat Ducati anymore. Considering that there was only one red bike on the podium, Aprilia had to just beat Marquez instead. Given the season the six-time world champion is having, that might be a step too far even for the improving Aprilia outfit.

KTM is also a contender

Acosta can be a difficult man to please, and this year his annoyance with the performance of his KTM was slightly too obvious at times. When asked about where the improvement needs to happen, the Spaniard would typically just say that everything needed to be better as he continued to lament the lack of performance from his orange bike.

Pedro Acosta claimed his first podium of the season on Sunday

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

However, KTM is increasingly finding itself in the top five, and Acosta’s attitude has clearly changed to suit. Maverick Vinales began exploiting the performance available from the KTM better than Acosta at tracks like Mugello, and clearly there has been a mindset change from Acosta as a result. 

Qualifying continues to be a weak spot for the orange missiles, with Acosta being the highest KTM rider in seventh. However, the sprint saw the race pace of the KTMs come out as Acosta took second while Enea Bastianini had his best sprint to date with the Tech3 squad as he sliced through the field to take third.

Acosta again produced a strong performance in the main race, challenging Bezzecchi until he decided to focus on keeping third from Bagnaia. Pushing “100%”, he just managed to resist the Ducati rider to complete the podium. Even though Bastianini went down from fourth on lap seven in the main race, the rest of the KTMs enjoyed untroubled runs to finish within the top 10.

There is no doubt that the impressive top speed of the KTM down the straights helped at Brno, especially up Horsepower Hill. Nonetheless, it looks like with the recent aerodynamic and electronic improvements, the tide has definitely started to turn for the Austrian manufacturer.

Bagnaia’s qualifying was a false dawn

Whenever Saturday’s television coverage cut from a shot of Bagnaia’s struggles out on track to the Ducati garage, team manager Davide Tardozzi was shaking his head with a look of despair spread across his face.

Frankly though, who could blame him? Bagnaia didn’t even progress straight to Q2 following Friday’s official practice session and looked set to stay outside the golden top two in Q1 until a late quick run rescued the situation.

Francesco Bagnaia finished off the podium despite starting on pole, and he now trails team-mate Marc Marquez by 168 points

Photo by: Qian Jun / MB Media / Getty Images

It looked pretty miserable in Q2 as well. Bagnaia didn’t even complete his first run after being displeased with his bike’s handling, but his second lap was good enough to put him on pole.

Now, if a grand prix doesn’t make a season, then a single session definitely doesn’t, but there was light at the end of the tunnel for Bagnaia after that pole lap. Sadly, it was a flash in the pan.

Admittedly the dashboard problem in the sprint race, which alerted him of being below the regulation tyre pressure when he wasn’t, could hardly be considered his fault. However, his poor pace in the main race, where he finished off the podium again, was a mediocre showing at best.

After the race, he complained about the brakes once again. The two-time MotoGP champion explained the changes that were carried out but highlighted that the bike is still a handful to control.

“We just changed the pump on the lever,” said Bagnaia. “It’s doing what the 355mm [discs] were doing, so I feel better with that. I can manage it better, I can control it better, but it’s still very tough.

“I have a lot of movement, a lot of locking, and it’s difficult to brake as I want. Last year I was always braking super hard, making a lot of slides, and the bike was stopping a lot. This season, I need to be very precise, very straight the moment I start to brake, and I can’t have any sliding because the rear is not helping to stop.”

Honda is still in trouble

Honda has regressed since its victory at Le Mans in May

Photo by: Team LCR

It’s difficult to believe that Johann Zarco’s victory at the French Grand Prix was only two months ago, but it’s true. Honda appears to be back in its slump after looking like it was on the cusp of a breakthrough.

Joan Mir qualified fifth aboard his factory Honda, putting hope into the Japanese team. However, his traction control didn’t engage correctly for the sprint, so he tumbled down the field, and when combined with running wide at the first corner due to a cold rear tyre, he was out of contention.

Zarco managed eighth but the LCR team had more woe when Takaaki Nakagami was taken out by Augusto Fernandez and suffered injury, which finished his weekend prematurely.

The main race was similarly forgetful, Mir being taken out early on by Alex Marquez while Luca Marini finished as the top Honda in 12th.

After the race, Mir claimed that Honda lost out 5km/h or 10km/h to its rivals down the straights while saying that the lack of horsepower was also partly to blame for his crash with Alex.

Brno really isn’t the track to have a power deficit and it showed. The summer break couldn’t come fast enough for beleaguered Honda riders.

Brno’s superb return

Brno last appeared on the MotoGP calendar in 2020 before returning this year

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Almost 220,000 fans attended Brno circuit as the Czech Grand Prix returned to MotoGP after a five-year hiatus.

Following the 2020 running of the race, the track was removed owing to financial complications as a result of COVID-19. In addition, there were safety concerns regarding the track’s low grip and bumpy surface.

The track was announced to be returning in August last year and it delivered the goods. There was plenty of action up and down the pack with the track’s undulations and sweeping corners delivering a mixture of challenges for the MotoGP riders in front of the packed grandstands.

Another nice variable was that many of the riders hadn’t been to Brno with MotoGP machinery, which threw some uncertainty into the mix.

Next up is the Austrian Grand Prix on 15-17 August

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images