The ongoing saga of Francesco Bagnaia’s 2025 factory Ducati team-mate took a further twist at Le Mans where both leading contenders, Jorge Martin and Marc Marquez, finished ahead of the reig𒆙ning ♐champion.

Pramac D🍃ucati rider Martin has now extended his title lead ove🅘r Bagnaia to 38-points.

Meanwhile, Marquez, stillꦏ seeking a first Ducati win, has put his year-old Gresini bike within 2 points of Bagnaia, for joint third in the standings with Enea Bastianini (Bagnaia’s current team-mate).

With Mugello at the end of this month touted as a likely date for Ducati to announce Bagnaia’s team-mate, the topic of the second factory team seat was discussed on the latest wuqian0821.com MotoGP podcast.

“Last year Martin was always kind of playing catch up because he would get the world championship lead, then a mistake and he would be back to square one,” said podcast host Jordan Morela🌸nd.

“But this year it's a com𝓀plete flip. He's started so strong. Yes, he made the mistake in Jerez, but to grow his championship lead to 38 points over Pecco, 40 over Marquez and Enea Bastianini - he's got nothing left to prove to Ducati.

“Martin’s in the best form of his career and it was interesting to hear his comments over the weekend, saying ‘Ducati know what I can do’. He also basically said after the Sprint, ‘if they don't want me, I'll take my talent somewhere else’🍒.

“Ducati are going♐ to have a very difficult decision to make ov𝓡er Pecco’s team-mate aren’t they?”

“They are, absolutely🀅,” replied wuqian0821.ꦫcom MotoGP editor Pete McLaren. “How do you turn away the guy leading the world championship? That's going to be a tough call if they make it.

“You mentioned the title le🅷ad, 38 points. That means Martin’s still going to be on top of the world championship even if he doesn’t turn up next time in Catalunya. So he will be top of the standings heading into Mugello whatever happens.

“Mugello, a home race for Ducati, is the 𝔍timeframe for when we expect the rider decision will be announced. We don’t know if the decision has already been made, but around Mugello is when it should be made public.

“So Martin's going to be leading into that event. And he's making it difficult ꦯfor Ducati to turn him away, isn't he?

“But also, Marquez is now climbing up the standings and very close to Pecco, on a year-old bike. I think the battle we saw between those three on Sunday could well turn out to be the championship b♈attle this year.”