The six reasons why Bagnaia won the MotoGP Americas Grands Prix

Francesco Bagnaia grabbed an unexpected first victory of 2025 at a dramatic MotoGP Americas Grand Prix, the win fortuitous in that his factory Ducati team-mate Marc Marquez crashed out of a healthy lead, gifting the race to Bagnaia.

At a circuit where Marquez had traditionally excelled and Bagnaia had not yet won, the success came as something of a bonus for a rider who appeared to be treading water until at least the next race in Qatar. Having come into the weekend trailing championship leader Marc by 31 points, he now heads to the fourth round of the season just 12 points adrift of new leader Alex Marquez.

But with Alex having grabbed all the second places of 2025 before Sunday, it was not a given Bagnaia would be first in line to profit from Marc’s first terminal race mistake of the season.

Here are six reasons why Bagnaia was best placed to take advantage.

Staying positive and patient

After the sprint race in Argentina, Bagnaia was pestered by the media looking for him to admit to feeling the pressure that came with losing to his team-mate. Asked if he was worried, he responded: “No. Maybe if it was the seventh or eighth race I would be worried.”

Whether he was counting sprints in that assessment is unclear, but even if you factor them in, Bagnaia has hit the top of the podium in race number six. By his own measure, he was right not to worry. He was right to keep the bigger picture in mind.

“We are closing this gap, and step by step we will be there,” he had said in the same press briefing. “With patience, I will be back there. But I know I have plenty of time to come back. I am strong in my mindset because I know my potential. I know I can fight with [the Marquez brothers] the moment I feel OK with the bike.”

It was – and still could be – easy to take such talk from Bagnaia as the mutterings of a sportsman trying to convince himself. But even if that is the case, the attitude has helped him keep a cool head, dutifully gather points rather than crash by pushing too hard, and keep on making those steady steps forward.

The step in America on Sunday was not getting on terms with Marc – that may or may not be yet to come – but finally getting one over Alex. And that step was ultimately enough to get him a win when the senior Marquez dropped it.

Talking of the bigger picture, Bagnaia was in one sense just waiting for the next round in Qatar to get a true measure of how he matches up against Marc Marquez. After all, the opening three rounds took place on circuits that weren’t among his favourites. This will allow him to frame Texas as a bonus win that puts him ahead of schedule.

Ducati’s support in tough times

After a second straight difficult weekend at the start of the season, Ducati general manager Gigi Dall’Igna posted a lengthy public show of support for Bagnaia on social media.

Such validation [from Dall’Igna] cannot have done Bagnaia any harm at all as he worked to chip away at his team-mate’s advantage in America

“I will not be satisfied with our results, no matter how excellent they already are, until we have provided Pecco with the possibility of showing his full potential on the track, allowing him to contend on an equal footing and to occupy the positions he deserves in the battle between champions,” wrote Dall’Igna after that Argentina round. “We are working relentlessly on this… Pecco cannot and should not have to work so hard for a third place.”

Such validation cannot have done Bagnaia any harm at all as he worked to chip away at his team-mate’s advantage in America.

Cynics may argue that the Italian factory team boss was simply making the right noises, and that Marc has nonetheless won management over to his side of the garage with his scintillating start to the year. But not every team goes to such lengths to support a struggling racer – just look at Red Bull in Formula 1. Remember too that Bagnaia won Ducati its first world titles since Casey Stoner, so there’s a deep connection there. Also, there’s nationality. One thing not even Marc Marquez can do is become an Italian…

Dall’Igna has thrown his full back to both riders early on

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The feeling is returning…step by step

Ask Bagnaia about his problems thus far in 2025 and, after reminding you that they’re not as bad as people think, he’ll tell you that the missing ingredient has been ‘feeling’. He just can’t quite recapture the handling his Ducati had at the end of 2024. Rediscovering that feeling was the challenge.

The first half of the USA weekend looked unpromising with respect to that challenge. Friday’s FP1 was wet, which meant Bagnaia couldn’t really work away at the problem. He almost missed direct passage into Q2 again as the track only dried out towards the end of practice.

But at some point on Saturday, he made one of his famous steps. He only qualified sixth, which gave his critics more ammunition, but he calmly explained that this was only down to riding mistakes. The bike was improving – and he showed some evidence of that with the explosive first lap in the sprint.

Although he then settled into a familiar third position behind the Marquez pair, Bagnaia said afterwards that the feeling was definitely coming back.

“I made some mistakes in qualifying,” he reported after Saturday’s action. “Without that, I could be on the front row. But the feeling was better compared to the other sessions. Then the race we did another step and the feeling was much better.” When Bagnaia says the feeling is actually back, that’s when even Marquez may have to watch out.

That first lap in the sprint

In some ways, MotoGP 2025 only really felt like it sparked into life when a spectacular first lap unfolded in the Saturday sprint. Here’s where we saw some real racing at the front – and not just between a pair of super-friendly brothers. This was Bagnaia sticking it to Marc. This was, for a few brief moments, truly the ‘battle of champions’ Dall’Igna referred to.

Sure, it didn’t last beyond the first lap. But perhaps some of the momentum carried over into Sunday. It showed Bagnaia not only what was possible in the early going, but that he could go wheel-to-wheel with people called Marquez in 2025. It made him believe that with some application he could at least beat Alex over a race distance, which he duly did in the grand prix.

That opening lap also featured an extremely near-miss for Marc, who had to call on all of his powers to keep the Ducati upright. He only lost the lead for the blink of an eye, and got past his brother and Bagnaia to reclaim it with staggering ease. Bagnaia was flabbergasted by how Marc had made such a glaring error and swept back into the lead with seemingly zero loss to his momentum or confidence.

That moment, alongside the fact that Bagnaia’s moves on Marc earlier in the lap had been so short-lived, could have been seen in a depressing light by the Italian. It’s hard to imagine that they didn’t try to play on his mind. But Bagnaia was clear that the battle as a whole had given him confidence.

The Americas GP could have played out very differently for Bagnaia – as well as Marquez and many other leading contenders – had officials not stopped the race after chaos broke out on the starting grid

Bagnaia beat Alex Marquez

Bagnaia’s first win of 2025 was never just a case of waiting for Marc Marquez to make a mistake. After all, Pecco had made a habit of finishing third (at best) up until Sunday’s grand prix.

While most saw second places as the minimum acceptable results for the man on the second factory Ducati GP25, they had become the exclusive domain of independent Gresini man Alex Marquez. The GP24 rider had an unbroken run of runner-up finishes from the Thailand opener all the way through to the Texas sprint on Saturday.

But this weekend was different. Armed with that newfound confidence and the best ‘feeling’ yet, Bagnaia refused to accept another defeat to Alex on Sunday. Though the blue bike slipped ahead early on and proved a tough nut to crack, Bagnaia made a pass stick on lap four. It was an extension of his Saturday aggression; a further reminder that the passive Bagnaia of the first two rounds might now be gone.

As one Marquez fell, Bagnaia got the better of the other one

Photo by: David Buono – Icon Sportswire – Getty Images

Once ahead of Alex, Bagnaia had enough of a speed advantage to keep him in his place without having to worry about a sustained attack. Getting himself ahead of the younger Marquez at long last came just in time, given that this was the day Marc finally dropped the ball. Bagnaia was duly positioned to take full advantage of the error and savour a victory hot dog in parc ferme.

Race officials were kind

The Americas GP could have played out very differently for Bagnaia – as well as Marquez and many other leading contenders – had officials not stopped the race after chaos broke out on the starting grid.

Bagnaia, the Marquez brothers and the seven other riders who sprinted off the grid shortly before the scheduled warm-up lap can consider themselves fortunate, both for the red flag and the fact that they were not issued with ride-through penalties.

Had the original race start gone ahead, the three riders who had fitted slicks on the grid would likely have streaked into an early lead. Bagnaia would have been among those starting from the pitlane, making victory a difficult proposition. A ride-through after the rescheduled start would have been equally damaging to his hopes of a win.

Bagnaia acknowledged the stroke of luck in his post-victory press conference, saying that the way the start was handled wasn’t fair. “I can imagine the situation of the guys who were ready on the grid with slick tyres,” he said. “They can be a lot angrier about what happened.”

But Bagnaia will happily accept a day when things seemed to go his way – and probably head for Qatar feeling like a new man.

Bagnaia has kickstarted his campaign in the United States – but can he now kick on in Qatar?

Photo by: MotoGP