The Tank Slappers with Lewis and Uri

The 2025 MotoGP rider market exploded on Monday after Autosport revealed that Ducati had changed its mind and decided to promote Marc Marquez over Jorge Martin to its factory team.

Ahead of last week's Italian Grand Prix, it looked as if championship leader Martin was set to get the nod for the factory Ducati team.

Then it all unravelled as Ducati's hopes of placing Marquez on a factory bike at Pramac faded when the eight-time world champion said the team was "not an option".

Ducati faced a crossroads and the possibility of having to lose Marquez or Martin to a rival factory in 2025. On Sunday, it decided it would have to lose Martin to keep Marquez.

Martin duly went to Aprilia and a deal was put together on Sunday night and signed on the Monday.

In the latest Tank Slappers podcast, Autosport's Lewis Duncan and Motorsport.com's Oriol Puigdemont discuss the Martin/Marquez situation, how it came to pass and what it means next for MotoGP.

They also look at the other dominoes that will no fall into place in the wake of this.

The 2024 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix offered up a raft of talking points as Francesco Bagnaia bounced back from a sprint crash with victory on Sunday.

The reigning world champion crashed out of the lead on the final lap of the Catalan GP sprint to end a Saturday win drought dating back to the Austrian GP last year.

It softened the blow of a difficult sprint for championship leader Jorge Martin, who was able to extend his points lead over Bagnaia. The factory Ducati rider bounced back brilliantly in the grand prix, however, to beat Martin for his third GP win of the season.

Martin extends his championship lead to 39 points, while Marc Marquez rose from 14th on the grid to seal podiums in both races at Barcelona.

Prior to the weekend, Aleix Espargaro announced he will retire from MotoGP at the end of the 2024 season. But he proved he is going out on a high with pole and victory in the sprint.

In the latest Tank Slappers podcast, Autosport's Lewis Duncan and Motorsport.com's Oriol Puigdemont discuss Espargaro's career and the on-track action at Barcelona.

They also look at the looming decision Ducati must make about its factory line-up for 2025 and why it's not as easy as it may seem.

A thrilling French Grand Prix at the fifth round of the 2024 MotoGP season looks to have drawn the battle lines for a three-way title fight.

Pramac Ducati rider Jorge Martin put in a perfect weekend to claim pole, sprint and grand prix wins, the latter coming after absorbing immense late pressure from Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia.

Martin is now 38 points clear in the standings and put in the best weekend of his career at a point in which Ducati is nearing a final decision on its second factory team rider for 2025.

He is facing stiff competition from Marc Marquez, though, who came from 13th on the grid to finish second in both the sprint and the grand prix to move to within 40 points of the championship lead.

Having scored his first grand prix podium of the year at Jerez, Marquez is now proving consistent on the year-old Ducati and has set his sights firmly on a factory bike for next year.

On the latest Tank Slappers podcast, Autosport's Lewis Duncan and Motorsport.com's Oriol Puigdemont discuss Martin and Marquez's races and what they mean for Ducati's 2025 decision.

They also look at the ongoing troubles for Honda after another dismal weekend, while ponder what the 2027 regulations will do for MotoGP.

MotoGP returned home this past weekend with the 2024 Spanish Grand Prix from Jerez, and the fans were treated to an all-time classic between two of the very best riders in the world.

Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia had an intense battle for the win, taking advantage of a Jorge Martin crash from the lead in the middle period of the race, and Bagnaia ultimately triumphed with his third straight Jerez victory by just four tenths of a second.

On this week's edition of Tank Slappers, Autosport's Lewis Duncan and Motorsport.com's Oriol Puigdemont discuss the intoxicating fight, as well as Martin's role in the action, and where all three of the riders title campaigns could he heading with Le Mans next up in a fortnights time. 

Also discussed on the show this week, more struggles for Honda as Luca Marini was the last rider over the line, Johann Zarco getting kicked out of Race Direction after a crash with Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro, and whether Jerez can be a "blue ribbon" race for the sport, like Monaco could be for Formula 1, now both sports are under the Liberty Media umbrella. 

Last weekend's Americas Grand Prix produced numerous talking points as the 2024 MotoGP season continues to thrill, with Maverick Vinales stealing the headlines for Aprilia.

Thrown a career lifeline by Aprilia after his acrimonious split with Yamaha midway through 2021, Vinales had so far failed to deliver the kind of results expected of him.

But in America, having taken a breakthrough sprint win in Portugal, Vinales put together a perfect weekend where he took pole, sprint victory and registered his first grand prix win since Qatar 2021.

It made him history too, as he became (officially) the first rider in the modern MotoGP era to win races on three different brands of motorcycle.

On this week's Tank Slappers podcast, Autosport's Lewis Duncan and Motorsport.com's Oriol Puigdemont discuss Vinales' resurgence and how Aprilia has been able to coax out the best version of the Spaniard.

They also discuss Ducati's ongoing chatter woes, why Marc Marquez's Americas GP weekend wasn't as bad as his DNF suggested, and the continuing rise of rookie superstar Pedro Acosta.

With Honda enduring a miserable weekend, our hosts give their honest opinion of the Japanese manufacturer and why it is so far from being competitive again.

On the latest episode of Tank Slappers, Lewis Duncan and Oriol Puigdemont react to the big news of the week, as Fabio Quartararo announces a new two-year extension at Yamaha's team, and the pair discuss the ripple effects of the move, including why Aprilia was turned down and who they might try for instead in what could be a chaotic silly season. 

Also, the big question as MotoGP heads to Austin this upcoming weekend for the Grand Prix of the Americas at COTA... is this the big win for Marc Marquez that can kickstart a title campaign?

The motorsport world has been digesting one of the biggest announcements of the year on Monday after Formula 1 owner Liberty Media announced its acquisition of MotoGP.

The American media giant announced on Monday 1 April that it had purchased majority shares in Dorna Sports from Bridgepoint Capital for €4.2 billion.

The news means Liberty now owns the world's two biggest motorsport world championships in F1 and MotoGP.

The deal will herald a new era for MotoGP as Liberty gets to work growing the series in key markets across the globe, with America set to be at the forefront of this.

There are still many unknowns about the deal and the direction Liberty will take Dorna and MotoGP in the coming years, though the former is confident it will be able to clear the regulatory boards.

In the latest Tank Slappers Podcast, Autosport's Lewis Duncan and Motorsport.com's Oriol Puigdemont discuss everything we know about the deal and what it could mean for MotoGP.

The 2024 MotoGP Portuguese Grand Prix was won by Jorge Martin but the collision between Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia stole all the headlines.

Pramac Ducati rider Martin put in a mature display to clinch his first grand prix win of the season, seeing off Aprilia's Maverick Vinales prior to the Spaniard's gearbox problems, and Ducati's Enea Bastianini to move into the lead of the championship.

But it was the collision between Gresini Ducati rider Marquez and the reigning double world champion Bagnaia that served up the biggest talking point of the second round of the 2024 season.

The crash was dismissed by the stewards as a racing incident, but both riders differed on their opinion about the clash. Harshest of all was Marquez, who felt Bagnaia was at fault for the collision.

This has served up Ducati's first big internal drama to manage.

On the latest Tank Slappers podcast, Autosport's Lewis Duncan and Motorsport.com's Oriol Puigdemont discuss the incident and what it means for both the riders and Ducati going forward.

They also assess Martin's impressive grand prix performance and evaluate where he is now as a rider after the 2023 season.

Pedro Acosta continued to make waves in his MotoGP debut year as he scored a maiden podium in the grand prix in third, while Vinales' return to form is also a point of discussion on this week's show.

The 2024 MotoGP season continues this weekend with the second round of the campaign at the Portuguese Grand Prix.

After Ducati dominated the opening round of the season in Qatar with Jorge Martin winning the sprint and reigning double world champion Francesco Bagnaia taking the spoils in the grand prix, Portugal presents a new challenge for the Italian marque.

The unique conditions of the Qatar race coupled with the fact a test took place there just two weeks before the season started means Portugal will act as something of a reset, as well as perhaps offering a better glimpse as to what the pecking order truly looks like.

That much is true for two stars of the Qatar GP in KTM rookie sensation Pedro Acosta and eight-time grand prix world champion Marc Marquez on the Gresini Ducati, with the latter admitting after the last round that Portugal would see him "starting from zero".

In the latest Tank Slappers podcast, Autosport's Lewis Duncan and Motorsport.com's Oriol Puigdemont preview this weekend's Portuguese GP and the storylines to watch out for.

They also discuss the latest rider market announcement, following Ducati's signing of Moto2 star Fermin Aldeguer to a two-year deal from 2025: Where will the young Spaniard actually race and how does it affect other key Ducati players?

ewis Duncan and Oriol Puigdemont are back to review the first round of the 2024 MotoGP Championship, where Francesco Bagnaia kicked off his MotoGP title defence with victory in a thrilling Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday, ahead of Brad Binder and Jorge Martín with Marc Marquez finishing a strong fourth on his Ducati debut.