2025 Catalan GP Highlights 💨

It's lights out of a race to give other GP here in Montmartre. Marko Betzecchi fluffed his launch around the factory of Puglia. And the front row, it's Alex Marquez that leads the field down into the first corner. Mark trying to get aggressive on his inside in the braking zone. 4-2-1. Acosta immediately threw on Quattroraro up into third place. Alex goes around the outside of Mark, almost going through too. They lead each other, don't they, the brothers? But it's Mark that has the early advantage. Yeah, the damage for Marko Betzecchi wasn't too severe. He's still in 11th place. Morvidelli yet again having a shock. And like yesterday, he's back in 10th now. Going to Turn 10. Tricky braking zone. This on the early laps when the field is still bunched up together. Mark leads Alex. That was where Alex Across crashed out of the lead in the sprint here yesterday. Oh, that's Marini side by side with Bastionini on the KTM. Bastionini up into fifth place now. So Marini, after his initial early start, is now starting to fall back to where he started again. Bastionini so, so good on his tyres and will hope to be in a good position later on. Yeah, the beast might be one to watch in the latter stages of this Grand Prix. He ain't called the tyre whisperer for nothing, is he? And we know how good he is on well-worn rubber. Through Turn 14 we go. What a shot that is as the field power through the final quarter. Mark leads Alex by just over a tenth and a half. Alex not close enough to attack Mark, then into the braking zone for the first quarter. Sideways on that braking zone was Acosta in third. Oh, three two-runners. And that's Dijan Antonio at the back of the picture. The bike coming back onto the racetrack. He's crashed behind Marco Bettecchia, who was trying to overtake Franco Morbidelli. It's not Mark Marquez that's crashed out. Don't worry, Mark Marquez fans. Here he is. That's an incorrect graphic. He is still leading this Grand Prix. This is up ahead of us and the gap is starting to squeeze. Morbidelli tips it in and Bettecchia makes contact. Second day in a row that Annapuri has made contact with Frankie Morbidelli. Although I don't think Frankie's quite as to blame as he was yesterday. And Bettecchia out of the Grand Prix and just behind him, Dijan Antonio seeing it all unfolding. Look, he immediately faults his Ducati. Turn 14. This is about to complete lap three of 24. Just to remind there on screens, Acosta not only the only ride on the soft rear tyre in the top three. Alex goes side-by-side here with Mark, who's going to be the latest on the brakes into that first quarter. Fair play to Alex. He really has toughed it out there, hasn't he, with Mark. Mark just let a look glimpse to his right-hand side there and sort of face for the blue Grazina Ducati. Knew he couldn't turn in. So Alex has made his move early on here. He leads at the start of lap four. Well, so Alex does not want any hot air on his front tyre and maybe thinks he's got the pace to pull clear and go away from Mark Marquez. So Alex Marquez then hits the front for the first time then having been overtaken at the start. This is the start of lap four of 24. How long will Pedro Acosta sit behind Mark Marquez? Surely you feel Acosta's advantage on that soft rear tyre is going to be early on in the race. Although Paul Girardin feels that he can manage that to the distance. They tighten up now through Turn 10. This top quartet. Alex, Mark, Acosta, Bastianini. A gap then of over six tenths of a second. Back to Quattroraro, who's still holding off. Asarco and Marini. Aguero in eighth spot. Bagnani in ninth. The top ten rallied out by Binder. Ralf Fernandes, Miguel Oliveira, 11th and 12th at the moment. Points for Martin Rind and Mir. Duran Mir's out to come through from 20th on the grid after his three-place grid penalty. Back to Mark in second place. In fact, Mark's coming under a bit of pressure here. Acosta once again just letting him know he's right there. Showing him his front wheel down the hill in 2.5. Pedro Acosta will not be shy of having a go at Mark Marquez. Did it in his first ever MotoGP start at the beginning of last year. Personal best though for Alex Marquez on that last lap. A 1.40.202 as the yellow flags come up behind. Someone in the Grail champ at the back of the picture into Turn 7. Somebody's gone down. It was a big, big cloud of dust, wasn't it? Oh, it's Binder. Brad Binder's crash. That was a nasty one. A couple of real heavy barrel rolls through the gravel trap there for Binder. He's really frustrated. That's another top six opportunity slipping through the grasp of the South African. Kotturama. No further action taken after reviewing the Morbidelli-Bekseki incident. We always felt that was going to be declared a racing incident. What was going to be potentially another controversial talking point involving Franki. Just for reference, the Gian Antonio after his early spill in the incident involving Morbidelli-Bekseki. He did remount. He's still circulating here in 22nd place. He's doing a low 1.41 driving hours, did you? I think KTM's best hope here is Bastianini. He needs to get past Pedro Acosta. And he's now pulling out of safety. He's got no power advantage. It's KTM versus KTM. And Bastianini's just going to park it on the inside of the 37. Can the 23 get it stopped just ahead of Pedro Acosta? Bastianini does. And he's now staring potentially at the first KTM podium. Could he improve on that yet? The yellow flags come out once again. It's no one in the top four who has gone down. You can see the Marquez brothers. It's Johann Sarko who's gone down at 10th out of 5th place. Well, this long barren run without a top 10 in MotoGP continues. Just shows you. You're on a tightrope here, aren't you? A knife edge with grip front and rear. Sarko's probably going to tell you, I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't do anything different to any other lap. Bastianini still matched the Marquez brothers up ahead of him. All of the top three did. 140.2s. Really interested to see what Bastianini can do now. Now that he's clear of Acosta, can he close down on the Marquez brothers up ahead of him? Look at this. As we said, it was a heck of a move. One hell of a move that by Bastianini. Look how hard he was grabbing the front brake on that KTM. A rear wheel was a good, what, half a foot in the air. KTM's hopes are now a victory here in Barcelona. There's a power now through Turn 12. Once again, that gap has sort of remained constant around three to four tenths between Alex and Mart now for a good number of laps. We're coming now, though, aren't we, to the phase of the Grand Prix where everybody said lap 15 onwards is where we're going to find out who really has been able to manage the grip better. There's been somebody who's gone down late on in this fourth sector. It's not any of our top four. They've already crossed the line. So, too, has Luca Marini. Cotteraro's across the line, too. Acosta did get back into the 40s last lap, but he's still six tenths slower than anyone else on track. It's Alex Rins, I think, who's gone down. Yeah, Rins, the 42, has gone down. I think he's also down at Turn 10. This is a little bit of a feeling of Argentina, doesn't it, in the early part of the season when Alex did so much of the leading only to get picked off late on by the fast finishing mark. Is history going to repeat itself here once again? Alex has to win this Grand Prix. Otherwise, Mark will go to Misano next weekend with his first match point. Credit to both of them. They're both riding so, so well. There are the permutations, as you can see on your screens. They're still doing low 140s. They are now a second a lap quicker than everybody else on the racetrack. Incredible display, this, as older brother pushes younger brother. Yellow flags are out in the last couple of sectors. It is Spinoza-Savadori. So with about three and a half laps to go here in Barcelona, and Alex Marquez looking so, so good for just his second ever Grand Prix victory. This will be sweet revenge if he's able to bounce back from that sprint defeat yesterday. Jack, some thoughts? Yeah, he hasn't been given the exact gap by the team just yet. The deep in conversation now, whether to change it from Group 2 2.7, showing the gap to Ineo Bastinini, which he got the last time around, to maybe start to show him what the gap is to Mark Marquez. Because at the moment, he doesn't know that he's been able to put a little bit of a gap into him over that last lap. In fact, they're changing it now for the first time this time around. Alex will know what the advantage is. Yeah, I'll be telling him as quick as possible because it's not just anybody that's on his case. It's a sixth time he's been a GP World Champion. We just saw that. Thanks very much for that info down in pit lane, Jack. We just saw there in the back of your picture. Oh, somebody's gone down. We're hearing our headsets. Somebody has gone down. Before Ineo Bastinini was in the back of the picture, it's Frankie Morbidelli. And I think he's at the same place that his sprint ended. Turn 10 has not been too kind to Frankie Morbidelli, has it, this weekend. It was right there in the sprint yesterday. Starts the final lap here. His home crowd are on there. He's going to get a raucous reception. 4.6 kilometers standing between Alex Marquez and one of the best days of his Grand Prix career. I'm not a three World Champion. I'm not a two World Champion. But winning in his backyard here in Barcelona, this will be something special. Of course, winning at his home Grand Prix the Spanish Grand Prix was special. But he is from very nearby here in Severa. So a victory at the Catalan Grand Prix will be extra sweet for Alex Marquez. And banishing the demons of what happened to him yesterday, we won't count our chickens yet. Alex Marquez certainly won't be. Through turn 10 we go. Lightning surely won't strike twice. Is he going to make his safety through? Of course he is. And now he can cruise to a dream home success. Well, it's been a proud streak for Marquez. But I think if there's anyone that he'd be quite happy to lose that winning streak to, it would be his younger brother. He is just two corners away. Marquez is going to taste defeat. He won a GP for the first time since May the 25th. It's been some incredible winning run, but it's going to be ended by his brother. It has been a brilliant bounce back in Barcelona for Alex Marquez, who takes the victory here in the Catalonia Grand Prix. He wins by only 1.8 seconds ahead of brother Mark. It's a brilliant first KTM Grand Prix podium for Ainea Bastianini. It is redemption then for Alex Marquez as he spearheads a Marquez 1-2 at their home Grand Prix. Bastianini breaks his tech three podium duck. Pedro Acosta, Fabio Quartararo inside the top five. Ayagura returns to the top six.