Sepang MotoGP domination should earn Alex Marquez the respect he’s long deserved

Alex Marquez has faced the unenviable position of being the younger brother to one of motorsports’ greatest names. But he has done so with the kind of grace and love that can only come from a brother.

It’s something that has come with its benefits. As Marc Marquez pointed out a few weeks ago when he was beaten fair and square by Alex Marquez at the Catalan Grand Prix, his younger brother was forced to raise his level from a young age because he always trained with his more advanced older sibling.

There have certainly been other benefits. Because of his surname, he probably got a longer stay at a top team in Moto2 despite a lot of lacklustre years in the category before his breakout championship season in 2019.

That said, you don’t win championships based on the bloodline you come from. And it was often overlooked on his way to MotoGP in 2020 that this is a rider with two world titles at Moto2 and Moto3 level.

It’s also forgotten that he stepped up in a pretty big way for Honda in his rookie season when Marc Marquez was ruled out with a serious arm injury. He scored Honda’s only two podiums in 2020, his first at Aragon coming in a tough dice with a multiple winner in Alex Rins when he was a Suzuki rider.

He struggled over the next two years with LCR Honda, before making something of a last-hurrah move to the Gresini Ducati squad for the 2023 season. Straight away, the promise that was shown in 2020 was on its way back on the satellite Ducati. A couple of sprint wins were a glimpse at the race-winning potential he was always convinced he had.

But he would have to wait until this season, the year in which his older brother Marc jumped on a factory Ducati to totally dominate, to follow through on that. The first came at the Spanish Grand Prix, as he capitalised on a crash for Marc Marquez to break through for his maiden victory. Then there was the battle at Barcelona to beat his older brother, while his Malaysian Grand Prix success last weekend was an exhibition.

And that came a day on from securing a historic 1-2 in the championship for the Marquez family, after a podium in the sprint ended his nervous wait for his best standings position in the premier class.

“My way in MotoGP was not easy from the beginning…I was nearly at home in ’23, just a piece of luck or something gave me the opportunity at Gresini,” he said. “I’m first of the losers, but the winner is my brother, so it’s a different feeling.”

Arguably, the version of Alex Marquez we’ve seen in 2025 is the most confident ever. But, after securing second in the standings, it was clear that his public perception relative to his brother remains a point of contention.

“We didn’t even dream it,” he said of the second position. “It’s impossible to dream of an occasion like this, to be first and second, to be at the top of the world championship. This is something super amazing. I think Marc and I are not getting the credit we deserve.”

After his Sepang domination, even he sourest of his doubters can’t deny his standing as one of MotoGP’s top talents right now.

Overcoming a big “mistake” propels Alex Marquez to his easy Sepang win

Alex Marquez left the Sepang pre-season test in February having put in a race simulation that would have had him odds-on favourite to score victory had the grand prix been run just a few days later.

Across the classes, Sepang has been a decent venue for him, with podiums in Moto2 in 2019, a sprint win in 2023 and a second-place finish in the grand prix. Even last year, on the difficult GP23, he scored a brace of fourth-place finishes in what was one of his better weekends of that campaign.

Expectations heading into last weekend, then, were understandably high. But he later admitted that this was a mistake, and he was bitten hard on Friday with a brace of crashes and ninth in the rankings after Practice.

“The feeling changed quite a lot from February,” he explained. “The asphalt is quite damaged compared to then. It was difficult over the weekend. I also made the mistake that the expectations were too high, expecting everything to be easy upon arriving here. And I had two crashes on Friday, and then everything was quite complicated. So, we had more work than we expected, but the team gave me the perfect bike to win the race.”

Race pace, however, was evident from Friday. There is a reasonably strong argument to be made that the pressure of securing runner-up spot in the standings denied him a double victory at Sepang. He admitted on Saturday that he wasn’t riding well, was too stiff on his GP24.

Free of that pressure on Sunday, he clicked into the Alex Marquez all expected coming into the Malaysian Grand Prix. Wary of his error in not making moves early enough in the sprint, nor in 2023 in the grand prix against Enea Bastianini, Marquez was much sharper off the hop in Sunday’s 20-lap race.

Though Pedro Acosta leaping him into second at Turn 1 was a surprise, he cleared the KTM with a clinical move on the inside of Turn 4 on the first lap. He repeated that move on the second tour on Pecco Bagnaia, whose medium front tyre hadn’t quite come up to temperature.

Lap 2 was an early statement for Marquez, who posted a 1m58.873s versus a 1m59.311s for Acosta and 1m59.455s for Bagnaia. By the start of lap four, he was almost a second clear. This was a gap that stabilised for a while as the pace from Bagnaia and Acosta behind improved. The decisive break came on lap 12.

A 2m00.103s was almost half a second quicker than Acosta, and over half a second quicker than Bagnaia, who would trade places on lap 13 when the latter was suffering from a slow puncture. At the start of lap 13, Marquez was 1.5s clear and continued to swell this, as his average pace worked out almost 0.3s per lap quicker than Acosta’s.

Marquez came under no pressure to the chequered flag, as he cleared Acosta by a modest 2.676s. Of the top three, Marquez was the only one at any stage to lap in the 1m58s. Had he needed it, there was more pace available to him as he managed his soft rear tyre better than he expected.

“It was under control,” he said, diplomatically, when asked if that was an easy race. “My strategy was clear: try to overtake in the beginning, to be aggressive. It’s the mistake that I made yesterday with Pecco in the beginning. Here, when you are behind people, it’s so difficult. So, I did the plan perfectly. It’s true that I had some problems, because I didn’t have Pedro in my plans at the start.

“But anyway, I overtook him at Turn 4, Pecco at Turn 4 on the second lap, and then I decided to put my rhythm in, just trying to manage the rear tyre. And I arrived at the end with a lot of feeling and a lot of life on the tyres. So, we managed it much better than in Australia.”

Bagnaia’s bizarre Sepang weekend more valuable than his Motegi sweep

After his disastrous run since sweeping the Japanese Grand Prix, the version of Pecco Bagnaia that hit the track on Thursday at Sepang was not the Motegi version. He still looked uncomfortable on one bike and ended Friday out of the Q2 places.

Then he went on to claim pole and a dominant sprint victory on a bike that he still didn’t look 100% comfortable on, a week after he was 2.5s off the pace in 19th in the same race in Australia. So, what changed? Well, that’s a good question, and one with no firm answer.

When probed about this, Bagnaia said that he was using something on his GP25 that hadn’t really worked at any other stage Ducati had tried it. Frankly, given how tight-lipped Ducati has been about this entire situation, there’s nothing to suggest the team didn’t just give him the Days of Thunder ‘special tyres’ treatment.

Bagnaia’s grand prix was not as good as his sprint. Partly, that may have been down to his choice of medium front tyre. He was one of only eight riders to do so, and he looked uncomfortable in the early stages.

Once it came up to temperature, his pace stabilised and it was similar to Marquez’s in the lead. What was certain was that Bagnaia was on for a podium on Sunday, before a puncture on lap 12 ultimately ensured he wouldn’t see the chequered flag.

He was given a warning on his dash, but continued on until lap 18, when the problem became too severe. It was a frustrating end to a race he felt he was in a position to at least give Acosta a good challenge in the closing stages.

“It was strange because I was controlling the tyres a lot from the start,” he said. “I was just doing the race like I did in Barcelona last year with the ’24, when I let others go and then arrived at the last moment of the race.”

On his medium front tyre choice, he added: “I cannot say [if it was correct] because I thought I was managing the tyres well, and even if they were on the edge, I was losing a bit, I was very strong on braking.”

Regardless, there are positives to be had. Before his puncture, his average pace was still at 1m59.963s. Likely, it wouldn’t have been enough to do anything about Marquez, but he was faster than Acosta at that stage.

Moreover, he feels - despite Ducati’s quite public admissions of confusion over this weekend - that a lot of useful information about the bike has been gained, even more so than what he learned in Japan.

Aprilia’s bump in the road a reminder of the challenge it still faces

The Sepang circuit has been a curse for Aprilia this year. It was during lap 13 of the pre-season that Jorge Martin suffered the first of his four major injury setbacks in 2025. Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez was also injured in the Sepang pre-season test.

But Aprilia returned to the Malaysian venue in a completely different position from where it was in February. Since winning the British Grand Prix, it has been a regular podium contender, while the absence of world champion Marc Marquez created an Aprilia-shaped void to be filled.

It followed through with this at the Australian Grand Prix, as Marco Bezzecchi won the sprint with pace that would have seen him victorious in the main race had it not been for a double long lap penalty. But Fernandez picked up the pieces brilliantly to score his first victory.

Sepang has been a difficult venue for Aprilia over the years, with no podium finish to its credit. But the struggles it faced this year were a surprise. Bezzecchi never made it out of Q1 and could do no better than 11th. Top Aprilia honours in the grand prix went to Ai Ogura in 10th.

The Aprilia seemed to struggle to switch new tyres on in any situation in Malaysia, which pinned it back. Bezzecchi did have a strong sprint, where he got to seventh at the chequered flag before being boosted a place following a penalty for Fermin Aldeguer.

That seemed to give direction for Sunday’s race. But a choice of medium front tyre really didn’t work for the Aprilia rider.

These are lessons which Aprilia will benefit greatly from as it continues to piece together a package to challenge Ducati for the championship next year. However, the Malaysian Grand Prix must also serve as a reminder to the scale of the challenge it faces in trying to beat Ducati…