Marc Marquez Says it’s “Game Over” for the 2025 Championship

Marc Marquez has conceded that his already diminishing MotoGP title hopes prior to last weekend’s Indonesian GP are now officially over.

Marquez, who without question is among Ducati’s elite despite it being his first season aboard a Desmosedici bike, has consistently been fighting against three seriously talented riders in the form of Francesco Bagnaia, Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini.

All three have been fortunate enough to have the glitz and glamour of the latest-spec GP24 bike.

Marquez, in turn, has been fighting with one arm tied behind his back due to being on the GP23 bike that won last year’s title. Don’t be fooled, it’s still a tremendous bike, but if there’s one thing we’ve learned from Ducati it’s that every year it makes huge improvements to its bike and that has been evident in a number of races.

Mandalika was one of those despite Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi being able to challenge the likes of Bagnaia and Bastianini at times - Martin was in a league of his own in the Grand Prix - however, the GP24 riders ultimately came out on top once again.

But that’s not why Marquez has seen his title hope dashed. Instead, it was his retirement from the race which was caused by an internal problem that resulted in his Desmosedici GP23 bike catching fire. 

Speaking in the aftermath of Sunday’s race, Motociclismo quotes Marquez as saying: “Of course the target for the last five races, it looks like the championship it’s game over for us because we already had a big disadvantage in terms of points. But with the mistake in Indonesia, now the gap is too much.”

Marquez has often had to fight back from poor qualifying results, something he must iron out to take the title fight to Bagnaia next season. And with all of his goals already complete for 2024, nailing down some consistency in qualifying is his next aim.

Marquez added: “We will keep our target, which is to find that consistency, and we were able to do it since Austria - we achieved that consistency in the results. And the next target is to try to improve our weak points that are in qualifying.”

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