Ducati announces injured Marc Marquez’s stand-in for Australian GP

Ducati has announced that its test rider Michele Pirro will substitute for MotoGP champion Marc Marquez at the forthcoming Australian Grand Prix.

Pirro will ride for the factory Ducati squad at the Phillip Island event on 17-19 October, teaming up with three-time world champion Francesco Bagnaia.

This would be the Italian’s first start in MotoGP since last year’s Barcelona finale, when he stood in for an injured Fabio di Giannantonio at VR46, and the first on a factory Ducati since the 2023 Japanese GP.

While other manufacturers regularly give their test riders the opportunity to take part in races as wildcards, Ducati isn’t allowed to do so as the only marque classified under ‘Category A’ under MotoGP’s concessions system. 

While Marquez has already been ruled out of both the Australia and Malaysia rounds this month due to the injury he picked up in Indonesia, Pirro’s appointment has only been confirmed for the first weekend of the double header.

“Updates for the upcoming #AustralianGP.  Following the injury that has forced @marcmarquez93 to miss the next two round of the 2025 @MotoGP season, #DucatiLenovoTeam confirms that @michelepirro51 will replace him at the Aussie appointment,” the championship-winning Ducati squad said in a short statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Michele Pirro, Ducati Lenovo Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Pirro has been called in after Marquez suffered a “fracture at the base of the caracoid process and a ligament injury to his right shoulder” in a collision with Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi at the start of the Indonesian Grand Prix last weekend.

Polesitter Bezzecchi was trying to recover from a slow start that had dropped him in the lower regions of the top 10 when he made an overambitious move on Marquez at Turn 7 and sent them both out of the race.

Marquez flew back immediately to Spain to undergo a medical examination, where the full extent of his injuries was revealed.

While no surgery is planned at this stage, the nine-time world champion will focus on rest and immobilisation of the shoulder as part of a ‘conservative treatment plan’

 A decision on his potential return in the final two rounds of the season in Portugal and Valencia will be made based on his recovery progress in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Aprilia has announced that its test rider Lorenzo Savadori will make his 11th appearance of the 2025 MotoGP season in Phillip Island, as 2024 MotoGP champion Jorge Martin continues his recovery from the collarbone fracture he sustained in the sprint race at Motegi.

Savadori’s appointment means the factory Aprilia squad will be back up to full capacity after competing with just one rider in Indonesia last weekend. 

MotoGP regulations do not require teams to field a replacement for an injured rider, unless there is a gap of nine or more days to the following race. Since Japan and Indonesia races were on back-to-back weekends, Aprilia wasn’t obligated to bring another rider in place of Martin.

Elsewhere, KTM is yet to reveal who will step in for Tech3 rider Maverick Vinales, who looks set to miss the rest of the season due to the shoulder injury he picked up in June. 

While the Spaniard returned to racing in Barcelona last month and completed the following two races in Misano and Motegi as well, he came to the conclusion in Mandalika that he needed to spend time away from the track to complete his recovery.