A stunning twist has emerged from the 2025 Americas MotoGP at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), where newly released video footage has shed light on Marc Marquez’s dramatic grid exit—and a critical misunderstanding that undermines his post-race claims of a “perfect” strategy. The eight-time world champion, now riding for Ducati, was captured meticulously planning his bold move with crew chief Marco Rigamonti, only for the footage to reveal a costly misjudgment about the penalty consequences. What seemed like a masterstroke on the grid has now turned into a tale of chaos, confusion, and a stroke of luck that saved Marquez and his team from disaster.
The footage, published on MotoGP.com, offers an unfiltered look at Marquez’s decision-making as he faced a drying track on a grid set for wet conditions. With his primary bike fitted with wet tires and a spare bike with slicks waiting in the pits, Marquez is seen huddling with Rigamonti, hashing out his options. “If I go there [to swap bikes] and I exit from the pit lane, I start last, right? On the grid and without a long lap penalty?” Marquez asks, his tone urgent yet confident. Rigamonti nods, replying, “Yeah, you start last,” and when Marquez presses, “But without [a penalty]?” Rigamonti reassures him, “Yeah.”
But the hesitation creeps in. Rigamonti falters, admitting, “I’m not sure how that works,” before turning to team manager Davide Tardozzi for clarity. Tardozzi delivers the bombshell: “He gets a ride through.” A ride-through penalty, typically costing 25-30 seconds in a race, would have obliterated Marquez’s chances from pole position. Yet Rigamonti pushes back, questioning, “No, without entering with this [bike]. Starting from there and just leaving this [bike on the grid]?” Marquez, still convinced, doubles down: “Yeah sure, I start last and that’s it. It’ll be as if [I] haven’t done the normal start procedure.” Rigamonti agrees, reinforcing the flawed assumption.
The plan crystallizes as Marquez lays out his execution: “When there’s three minutes remaining, if it’s [dry] like this, we’ll go… The mechanics go back to the pit and I go. Tell me if the bike is ready.” Then, in a hushed tone, cupping his hand to Rigamonti’s ear, he adds, “Don’t tell anyone.” Once the spare bike is confirmed ready, Marquez declares, “Let’s go with the plan,” sprinting off the grid to the Ducati garage—sparking a chain reaction as half the field follows suit.
Marquez’s strategy hinged on a critical miscalculation. He believed that by abandoning his wet-tire bike on the grid and starting the warm-up lap from pit lane on his dry-tire spare, he’d simply line up last with no further penalty. In reality, MotoGP rules—rewritten after a similar incident in Argentina 2018—dictate that changing tire types by leaving the grid incurs a ride-through penalty. Had the race start proceeded as planned, Marquez would have rejoined pole position after the warm-up lap, only to serve the penalty early in the race, effectively ending his victory hopes.
Race Director Mike Webb confirmed this in a post-race interview: “If we’d been able to continue, the riders who went and got their spare bike in pit lane with different tires would have served a ride-through penalty in the race.” Referencing the footage, Webb noted, “It sounds like the Marquez team were not expecting a ride-through. They were perhaps expecting just to start from pit lane or the back of the grid. No, the rule is clear: you retake your original grid position and serve a ride-through.”
The grid descended into pandemonium as riders like Francesco Bagnaia, Alex Marquez, and Fabio di Giannantonio mimicked Marquez’s move, rushing to swap bikes. The sheer scale of the exodus—triggered 16 seconds before the warm-up lap—forced Webb to call a new start procedure for safety reasons, delaying the race. This reset nullified the penalties, allowing Marquez and others to restart from their original positions with dry tires. Webb admitted, “They were very lucky to get away with that.”
Marquez capitalized on the reprieve, converting pole into an early lead, but his race ended in disappointment with a crash on lap 9. Meanwhile, teammate Bagnaia—also among those who followed Marquez’s lead—stayed upright to claim victory, joined on the podium by Alex Marquez and Di Giannantonio. Only three riders, Brad Binder, Enea Bastianini, and Ai Ogura, had correctly opted for slicks from the outset, avoiding the chaos entirely.
After the race, Marquez painted his grid exit as a calculated triumph. “I said [to Rigamonti], ‘OK, maybe I will leave the grid.’ Because I knew that if more than 10 riders follow me, the start is delayed and everybody restarts on the grid,” he claimed. “So that is what I tried to force… because like this everyone will restart with the slicks.” But this narrative doesn’t hold up. The rule he referenced applies only if more than 10 riders start from pit lane *after* the warm-up lap—not before. The footage shows Marquez banking on starting last, not orchestrating a mass delay.
The video exposes a rare chink in Marquez’s armor: a strategy undone by a lack of clarity between rider and crew. Rigamonti’s failure to grasp the penalty implications, compounded by Tardozzi’s brief correction going unheeded, left Marquez blindsided. What he hailed as “perfect” was, in truth, a gamble salvaged by fortune. As MotoGP heads to its next round, this incident raises questions about Ducati’s preparation—and whether Marquez’s instinct-driven brilliance can thrive without tighter coordination. For now, the COTA saga remains a thrilling, flawed chapter in his Ducati journey.
