Take a bow, Marc Marquez. And, to be fair, also Marquez-the-younger, as in the formfind of 2025, Alex Marquez. Alex sits in second in the series as many try to work out how he has progressed from previous seasons. He’ s fast, always has been but this year he is the biggest challenge to Marc Marquez. For the other contenders, 2025 sees them battling for scraps. Enter a determined defending champion,‘ Pecco’ Bagnaia. Struggling with the 2025 machine that Marc, his teammate, seems to have sorted, Pecco has been struggling all season. At Mugello, his demeanour was that of a determined man – and he took the fight to MM93 in earnest. The first half of the race was vintage MotoGP racing at it finest. Passes galore, brave moves on the absolute limit, a bit of argy-bargy and for a non-contact sport, it was real gloves-off battling. But it seems it was just a matter of time before Pecco’ s front tyre had done its dash, a problem he has had all season. A great save from a front end folding saw him in third, staring at the back ends of the Marquez brothers and there was nothing he could do about it. Cruelly, struggling for front grip, he fell into the claws of Di Giannantonio and when Gigi challenged, a disappointed Pecco had to watch his podium chances evaporate, despite his early efforts. Meanwhile, Marc stalked Alex and the move that was always going to happen unfolded. It wasn’ t like Alex made it easy but Marc being Marc just has something in reserve that nobody