Marc Marquez takes blame for Qatar MotoGP collision with Alex Marquez

Marc Marquez admits the collision on the first lap of the MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix with brother Alex Marquez that left damage on his Ducati was “my mistake”.

The factory Ducati rider ended up winning Sunday’s 22-lap Qatar GP by 1.8 seconds at the chequered flag to complete his third weekend hat-trick out of four rounds in 2025.

But his race was almost ruined at Turn 1 on the opening lap, when he and younger brother Alex Marquez on the Gresini-run Ducati made contact.

Marc Marquez lost a winglet from the rear of his bike, while the incident allowed VR46’s Franco Morbidelli to take the lead around the outside of the pair.

Explaining what happened, Marc Marquez said: “The contact with Alex was a little bit more my mistake than his mistake, because I just opened the gas and I felt like the rear was going.

“I closed the gas again and he didn’t expect it.

“For that reason he hit me and for that reason Morbidelli overtook me from the outside.

“But it was more a little bit my mistake. Luckily both of us stayed on our bikes.”

Alex Marquez had a second collision just a few laps later with Fabio Di Giannantonio while battling for third, which led to the former receiving a ride-through penalty.

He would finish seventh at the chequered flag, though was promoted to sixth when second-placed Maverick Vinales was demoted 16 seconds for a tyre pressure infringement.

Di Giannantonio ended up without points in 16th.

Though the damage to Marc Marquez’s bike initially looked like it was causing him problems as he was overtaken by the likes of Vinales and Pecco Bagnaia, he said he didn’t feel any ill-effects.

“No, no. Just I lost the smallest wing of the seat. So, I didn’t feel anything,” he said.

Marc Marquez brands Qatar GP “most important weekend” of 2025

Coming to a circuit he has only won at once in MotoGP and not since 2014, Marc Marquez expected to struggle this weekend.

But a clean sweep of pole, sprint win and grand prix victory while his chief rivals dropped points has allowed him to take a 26-point lead in the standings again having been trailing by one coming into the round.

“I’m super happy, especially because to myself it’s the most important weekend of the season,” he added.

“Because Thailand, Argentina, Austin were good circuits for me but here was the first circuit where I said ‘ok, maybe I will struggle a little bit’.

“And I knew that Pecco and Alex and [Fabio] Di Giannantonio and some other riders are super-fast here.

“But just I worked a lot during the weekend. I did a step on the right fast corners, which was also super important.”

Marquez says he wasn't concerned with others catching up to him in the first half of the race because he preserving his tyres for a push late on, which he did with seven laps to go.

“And as we see in the race, I did a different strategy because I just managed the front tyre,” he said.

“I knew that doing that strategy maybe Pecco would arrive because I slowed down the race a lot.

“Morbidelli was going but I didn’t care. I was just controlling my front tyre because I was not able to ride at my limit because I have a riding style that pushes the front a lot.

“And in this circuit we struggled a lot. But then I just waited, when Pecco overtook me I said ‘ok, now I start the race’, and I started to push more.

“The last seven laps when I overtook Vinales, just I increased a bit more the brakes, the push, the turning and just tried to use the front tyre more. And that’s where I made the step.”