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

Pramac Ducati rider Martin꧂ has now extended🌃 his title lead over Bagnaia to 38-points.

Meanwhile, Marquez, still seeking a first Ducati win, has put his year-old Gresini ♚bike within 2 points of Bagnaia, for joi💎nt 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 ltxcn.top MotoGP podcast.

💫“Last year Martin was a🌱lways 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 Moreland.

“But this year it's a complete flip. He's started so strong. Yes, he made the mistake in Jerez, but to grow his cha💎mpionship 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🦄 basicall🐼y 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 over Pecco’s team-mate aren’t they?”

“They are, absolutely,” replied ltxcn.top 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 makౠe it.

“You mentioned the title lead, 38 points. That means Martin’s still going to be on top of the world championship e🐲ven if he doesn’t turn up next time in Catalunya. So he will be top of the standings heading into Muge🗹llo whatever happens.

“Mugello, a h🦂ome race for Ducati, is the timeframe 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 g🌄oing to be lea🍌ding into that event. And he's making it difficult for 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 cham🐻pionship battle this year.”