Alex Marquez was already processing Monday’s less-than-flattering headlines at north of 290km/h.
On lap one of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix, the Gresini Ducati rider was hurtling towards the braking zone of turn six at Jerez in fourth place when he spied a sliver of a chance to out-brake older brother Marc Marquez down the inside and gain a position, but the gap closed almost as quickly as it opened.
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There was only one solution, and trying to thread the needle and make a risky overtake wasn’t it.
The younger Marquez sibling bailed out of his ballsy pass and elected to run deep into the corner, losing a position or two a small price to pay for not taking his brother out. He missed – just – Marc’s front tyre to his left, and narrowly avoided Francesco Bagnaia to his right.
Crisis averted. Chance for destiny enhanced. Opportunity taken.
When the seas parted for Alex Marquez – Marc crashed right in front of him two laps later – he was primed to take advantage.
Marc Marquez’s dominance this year before Sunday – he’d won both races in Thailand, Argentina and Qatar, and won the sprint in Austin before crashing from the lead of the Grand Prix – means chances for his rivals to shine have been few. Bagnaia benefited when Marc Marquez blundered in Texas, but on Sunday, Alex Marquez wasn’t about to let an opportunity slip.
Bagnaia was dispatched for second at the final corner on lap four, and long-time race leader Fabio Quartararo passed on lap 11. With 14 laps left, Alex Marquez was on track to finally win a MotoGP race in his sixth season. His mind then became his biggest opponent.
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“Seven laps to the end, I was losing a little bit the concentration,” he admitted after converting on his 94th start to, finally, take the victory that had eluded him after coming to MotoGP as a two-time Moto2 champion, but being perennially eclipsed by the giant shadow cast by his superstar sibling.
“I was thinking too much … what the team will start thinking, how to celebrate … all of that. I tried to push again and find my rhythm, and I was comfortable on that pace I was doing. For sure the team will ask why I was pushing and making the gap bigger, but it was the best way to keep the concentration.
“When Marc crashed, I say to myself ‘Alex, today is your day’. Without him, I know I was the strongest one. I was emotional [about his brother’s crash] for 0.5 seconds, and then I focus on my race.”
Finally, MotoGP’s nearly man – Alex Marquez had finished second eight times in nine starts this season before Sunday – had gone one better. Better than that, his win – and brother Marc’s climb out of the turn eight gravel trap to come home 12th – meant Alex Marquez reclaimed the lead of the world championship by one point after five rounds of 2025.
That Ducati won its 22nd consecutive Grand Prix – equalling Honda’s all-time record set in 1997-98 – wasn’t a surprise at Jerez, but the rider who achieved it was. On a Sunday where more than 101,000 fans rammed the hillsides surrounding the Jerez circuit – some of them arriving well before sunrise – it was a day Alex Marquez isn’t likely to forget in a hurry.
“Everybody today wanted to be in front because it was really important to have the fresh air for the front tyre, everybody was a little bit crazy in that first lap,” he grinned afterwards.
“Turn six … I brake and I was trying to make the move inside of Marc and I was a little bit on the limit, so I saw there was a gap between Marc and ‘Pecco’ [Bagnaia]. I just went wide to not make any stupid mistake. Happy for that it didn’t happen …
“If you asked me ‘where do you want to win your first MotoGP race?’, I would say ‘Jerez’ … I won here my first Moto2 [race, in 2017] and it was already special. To win in MotoGP is like another level.”
‘I WAS CRUISING’: MARC MARQUEZ PUZZLED BY CRASH
While Alex Marquez’s victory was a breakthrough few in the Jerez paddock couldn’t appreciate, that it came via his older brother’s mistake added further weight to the theory that the only rider who can stop Marc Marquez winning this year’s MotoGP championship is Marc Marquez.
In 10 starts this year, he’s won eight and crashed out of the other two, squandering – given the positions he was in when in both falls – at least 41 world championship points. In five qualifying sessions, he’s been beaten once – by 0.033 seconds by Fabio Quartararo’s otherworldly lap on a Yamaha on Saturday at Jerez that was the 2021 world champion’s first pole in three years.
On pure pace, it’s no contest. In the championship standings, Marquez knows he has low-hanging fruit to pick as he squandered a chance to end a six-year home Grand Prix drought.
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“It’s a mistake, and we need to learn about it and try to avoid for the future if we want to fight for the championship,” he said.
“We have a lot of speed … Austin I understand why I crash, but today I still don’t understand because I was not attacking, I was cruising because I know that the second part of the race is my strong point. But it’s like this, and I have to accept.
“I didn’t check on the data but I was maybe one degree more [lean] angle … but the important thing is that the speed is there. We are one point behind the leader, and that is the most important.”
Frustrated as he was with his error, Marquez made his way to parc ferme before the podium ceremony to celebrate a special day for the family, Alex’s win meaning a pair of brothers have won a Grand Prix for the first time in MotoGP history.
“[It’s] the only thing today that I have a small smile [for], and I’m super happy and proud about him,” Marc Marquez said.
“[Alex] works super hard to win a race in MotoGP, it was one of his targets in his career, and he won the race and he’s leading again the championship. He’s riding in an amazing way.”
QUARTARARO’S CAMEO LAUDED BY RIVALS
Quartararo’s presence at the front of the field at Jerez is nothing new – the Frenchman took a stunning pole at the Andalusian circuit in just his fourth MotoGP start in 2019, and has three other poles and two wins at the tight Spanish circuit on his CV.
But with Yamaha having fallen from the front of the pack since the 26-year-old relinquished a significant mid-season points advantage to lose the 2022 title to Bagnaia, Quartararo’s appearances at the sharp end have been rare.
Second place on Sunday was his first podium in 30 races, and he led for the first time since the 2022 German Grand Prix, 55 races ago.
“I am feeling on the moon,” Quartararo said.
“In the past – when I used to win races – I loved to be at the front and lead … fighting with these guys now is something that I totally forget, and is a great feeling.
“The pace is not good enough to keep the first position [yet] and be fighting with Alex, but it has to be step by step – I think we have skipped some [steps] this weekend, because we have not achieved one top-five [finish] before.
“Straight to the podium in second position … but we have to stay calm especially for the next races. We have to keep no expectation, because the bike is the same as the last two GPs and we know how much we struggled in Qatar. But the day we have the chance to take this kind of GP, we will take the opportunity as much as possible.”
Bagnaia, who finished third and harried Quartararo for the final laps without being able to get within half a second, was full of praise for his former title rival.
“With a slower bike than mine – my one is allowing me to overtake easily other riders – he was doing an amazing job,” Bagnaia said.
“He was really strong on fast corners and really strong in the braking, he was squeezing every little detail from his bike and was super fast, I couldn’t get close.”
MILLER POWERLESS AS TOP-10 BID GOES BEGGING
Jack Miller’s charge from a lowly 14th on the grid to well inside the top 10 didn’t pay dividends at Jerez, the Australian forced to retire on lap 14 of Sunday’s 25-lap race after a bizarre electrical fault caused by his Yamaha’s chassis slicing a wiring loom.
The 30-year-old stormed his way to eighth place after just three laps, and was seventh by lap six before being dive-bombed by Ducati’s Franco Morbidelli twice in as many corners on lap 10; four laps later, Miller crawled back to the pits with his technical issue for a second consecutive non-scoring weekend after he’d crashed out of Saturday’s sprint race.
“Where the wiring loom runs to the back of the bike, one of the fairing bolts cut its way into it and broke a couple of wires that were important,” he explained.
“The bike started running on three cylinders, then she finally said ‘no more’ and I brought it into the [pit] box, there wasn’t much more we could do.
“Morbidelli parked me off the track at the last corner and then put himself into the long lap [penalty loop], and I went into turn one and he did the f**king same thing again. That allowed [KTM’s Brad] Binder and [Pedro] Acosta through, but after that I was able to regroup and I felt like the balance of the bike was coming better.
“Obviously really disappointing … we had some solid points on offer today, and we gave it away.”
Miller’s non-finish soured an otherwise superb day for Australian racers at Jerez, with Darwin 21-year-old Joel Kelso taking his third Moto3 podium with third place, Sydney 19-year-old Senna Agius earning his third Moto2 podium in third place from his maiden front-row start, and Central Coast 17-year-old Carter Thompson winning in the Red Bull Rookies Cup, the pre-world championship series that acts as an unofficial feeder category into Moto3.
“Mega day for Aussie racing … shame I couldn’t keep up my end of the bargain,” Miller said.
“Joel is having a good year, already with a couple of podiums, and same with Senna. Really happy for the boys, and fingers crossed they can keep it going.”
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