After the dash on the British Grand Prix in late Could, Marc Marquez’s championship lead stood at simply 19 factors. Largely a results of a handful of early errors within the opening rounds, Alex Marquez’s kind on this interval was to not be missed.
He trailed Marc Marquez residence in each races on the opening two rounds, was second to him once more within the COTA dash and second within the grand prix after his older brother crashed from the lead. Second within the Qatar dash was adopted up by a sixth within the grand prix, earlier than he was second at Jerez within the dash and eventually broke his grand prix victory duck on that Sunday.
One other dash second adopted at Le Mans, earlier than the moist situations fouled him in the principle race. However twice main as much as the chequered flag on the Silverstone dash had Alex Marquez served because the championship chief – each instances when Marc Marquez had dropped the ball.
From the British Grand Prix, when he was a nervous fifth following a crash earlier than the race was restarted, podiums adopted in Aragon and Mugello and the Assen dash. Then he broke his hand in Dutch Grand Prix crash, was eighth within the Sachsenring dash earlier than attending to second within the grand prix (in a extremely attritional race), non-scored at Brno, was second and tenth in Austria and eighth and 14th in Hungary.
Damage, a number of errors and a few pointless penalties all conspired to stoop Alex Marquez’s outcomes. On the similar time, his brother went on a run of seven successive 37-point weekends from Aragon to Hungary.
Barcelona, then, was an opportunity for a much-needed reset. Having gelled immediately with the GP24 when he examined it first on the circuit final November, from Friday Alex Marquez emerged because the quickest rider by way of race tempo.
Some tweaks to the bike to enhance turning spurred him to pole with a brand new lap document. And he was properly on target to win the dash comfortably when he crashed with 4 laps to go at Flip 10 having grown overconfident at his tempo over Marc Marquez.
Victory was handed over to the manufacturing unit Ducati rider, who got here into Sunday on the Catalan Grand Prix 187 factors away from his youthful brother and needing to outscore him by two to create a primary match level within the championship chase subsequent weekend at Misano.
At this level of the season, kicking that exact can down the street is simply delaying the inevitable. However Alex Marquez’s experience to his second grand prix victory within the premier class on Sunday at Barcelona was extra important than that.
Marc Marquez has been overwhelmed to race wins this yr. However at Silverstone, a weak circuit, he was recovering from a crash previous to the pink flag that prompted a restart and was cautiously avoiding one other mistake. Marco Bezzecchi received that day however not in a head-to-head. At Le Mans, Marquez wasn’t inclined to go all in towards Johann Zarco in extremely moist situations.
All season, just one rider has gone up towards Marc Marquez in a head-to-head and beat him on official tempo. That was Alex Marquez within the Silverstone dash. And it was him once more on Sunday at Barcelona, going through as much as immense strain to attain crucial win of his profession.
How Alex Marquez beat Marc Marquez in a straight battle at Barcelona
The Gresini rider “damage” emotionally after his dash exit. He’d simply eased off having damaged his older brother’s resolve, and this was sufficient simply to vary the steadiness of the bike on the slick floor to trigger his fall.
However that couldn’t detract from the tempo he had. Even Marc Marquez knew that. Barcelona permits Alex Marquez to use his velocity in quick proper corners, which acts as one thing of a defence towards his older brother as a result of that’s the place he’s weakest.
“He’s tremendous robust in my weak factors, which is these [right] corners, particularly Flip 3, Flip 13, 14, Flip 9,” the championship chief defined. “He was using in a brilliant great way. Clean. The bike wasn’t shifting. I used to be behind him, similar velocity, however combating towards the bike. When this occurs it’s one thing associated to your using fashion, not the bike. So, he’s using higher in these factors. I used to be making an attempt to compensate on the left corners but it surely was simply three left corners the place I used to be in a position to get well some hole.”
Off the road, Marc Marquez was in a position to nab the lead from the polesitter however can be handed in the beginning of lap 4. The tempo to start with wasn’t excessive because the Marquez brothers tried to manage tyre put on.
| 2025 Catalan MotoGP – Tempo evaluation | |||
| Lap | AM73 | MM93 | EB23 |
| 2 | 40.339 | 40.265 | 40.156 |
| 3 | 40.315 | 40.492 | 40.239 |
| 4 | 40.289 | 40.453 | 40.12 |
| 5 | 40.451 | 40.48 | 40.368 |
| 6 | 40.202 | 40.326 | 40.336 |
| 7 | 39.886 [PB] | 40.09 | 40.119 [PB] |
| 8 | 40.17 | 40.046 [PB] | 40.244 |
| 9 | 40.225 | 40.24 | 40.443 |
| 10 | 40.174 [TL] | 40.325 | 40.28 |
| 11 | 40.214 | 40.267 | 40.294 |
| 12 | 40.35 | 40.331 | 40.181 |
| 13 | 40.5 | 40.29 | 40.303 |
| 14 | 40.291 | 40.475 | 40.463 |
| 15 | 40.373 | 40.251 | 40.323 |
| 16 | 40.654 | 40.527 | 40.585 |
| 17 | 40.383 | 40.431 | 40.713 |
| 18 | 40.217 [TL] | 40.289 | 40.771 |
| 19 | 40.311 | 40.257 | 41.256 |
| 20 | 40.438 | 40.962 | 41.266 |
| 21 | 40.927 | 40.778 | 41.399 |
| 22 | 40.977 | 41.327 | 41.777 |
| 23 | 41.211 | 41.452 | 41.791 |
| 24 | 41.769 | 42.125 | 41.88 |
| Common tempo | 1m40.464s | 1m40.543s | 1m40.666s |
| Distinction | – | 0.079s | 0.202s |
(Desk key: PB = finest lap; TL = observe limits)
Throughout the 24-lap race distance, there was nothing to separate the Marquez brothers by way of tempo. Alex Marquez was on common 0.079s sooner than the manufacturing unit Ducati chasing him (and was solely 0.007s faster in the event you take away Marc Marquez’s 1m42s ultimate lap).
Marc Marquez says at one level he rolled off the throttle to cease himself overtaking his brother as he needed to make use of him to tug away from Enea Bastianini in third. That was an astute tactic. As soon as into third, the Tech3 KTM was for a time solely round 0.6-0.7s behind the manufacturing unit Ducati and will have been an issue late on if the lead group stayed shut.
On the finish of lap 19, Alex Marquez was nonetheless solely 0.328s away from his brother, who’d gotten that hole right down to as little as 0.262s on lap 16. On lap 20, nevertheless, the Gresini rider performed his hand. He pulled 0.852s clear and compelled Marc Marquez to empty his reserves. The end result was an error at Flip 10 which noticed him get a bit of off form, have horror flashbacks to his brother’s Saturday crash, and conceded defeat.
“Davide Tardozzi informed me, he mentioned to me perhaps at present is the day [to lose],” Marc Marquez mentioned. “Possibly. You’ll strive. It is advisable to strive. However at present on the paper… I attempted, you see on Flip 10 I went in after which I had a flashback from [Alex] yesterday. I at all times will try to generally you strive and you’ll’t.”
On lap 22, the hole grew to 1.053s and rose to 1.740s come the chequered flag.
Alex Marquez, Marc Marquez, 2025 Catalan MotoGP
“Painful” classes poised to make Alex Marquez stronger
For the whole lot of his grand prix profession, Alex Marquez has existed within the shadow of his brother. It’s been an unfair cross he’s needed to bear, however one not totally with out advantage: within the early part of a Moto2 profession that was shaping as much as be nothing however lacklustre, he was arguably afforded extra time to show himself than most would have been.
And there might be little doubt that Marc Marquez didn’t have a hand in Alex Marquez being introduced as much as MotoGP by Honda to the manufacturing unit squad in 2020 when Jorge Lorenzo retired.
Nevertheless it’s what you do with these possibilities. Since stepping onto a Ducati at Gresini in 2023, Alex Marquez has flourished. And he was satisfied pre-season, from his first moments on the GP24, that he now had a machine to point out his true potential.
That potential, as Barcelona proved, is sufficient – on the precise day – to beat the perfect rider of this technology and one who has been embarrassingly dominant in 2025. One other instance of that was proven on the Catalan Grand Prix when his dash win sealed Ducati the constructors’ championship. Of the 541 factors scored by the marque up to now, Marc Marquez has contributed 454: Alex Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia mix for simply 87.
Marc Marquez did admit he might have gone all in in these ultimate laps to attempt to win, however felt that wasn’t vital together with his championship state of affairs as it’s. So, there’s that query mark hanging over this end result: might Alex Marquez have withstood an assault from an uninhibited Marc Marquez?
Possibly that reply will come later within the season, as a result of that what if doesn’t really matter within the context of this end result. Marc Marquez solely surrendered when Alex Marquez pressured him to push as a lot as he dared and virtually pushed him into an error. And after what occurred within the dash, it will have been comprehensible if the Gresini rider cracked when his brother was underneath 0.3s behind him at one stage.
The very fact will perpetually stay that he didn’t. The crash within the dash supplied him a beneficial lesson that finally helped him within the grand prix.
“That mistake continues to be painful,” he mentioned. “Nevertheless it was one of the simplest ways to overlook it a bit of bit. Additionally, that mistake helped me win at present as a result of I used to be braking late in that nook after I did that mistake.”
To name a win fortunate glosses over the hassle required to have been in that place within the first place. Alex Marquez needed to work exhausting for his Spanish Grand Prix victory, however the absence of his brother due to a crash maybe made issues just a bit bit simpler for him. He beat him truthful and sq. at Barcelona, although, and Gresini crew boss Michele Masini believes that is solely going to unlock extra from the No.73.
“He might be stronger than earlier than together with his mentality,” he mentioned. “As a result of this helps so much additionally for the mentality from right here to the tip of the season. So, I feel at present he actually deserved this and we have now to carry this within the subsequent GPs.”
Marc Marquez now can’t win the championship till the Japanese Grand Prix on the earliest. He needed that to be the case, as a result of to have the chance in Misano would imply a nightmare run of outcomes for his youthful brother.
Barcelona, nevertheless, was a warning to watch out what you would like for. Alex Marquez shouldn’t be going to change the result of this world championship. No person is. However he could make life exhausting for his older trouble within the ultimate rounds and construct himself up into an altogether stronger menace off the again of that for 2026…
