Marc Marquez picks out “strongest” rival at Spanish MotoGP

Despite crashing twice in practice for the Spanish MotoGP, Alex Marquez has been picked as “the strongest” rider in the premier class field at Jerez by Marc Marquez.

Marquez missed half-an-hour of the Practice session after it was red-flagged for his crash at turn five which left him in the medical centre with concerns over his right wrist, but he came back out for a late time attack and topped the session with a new lap record.

It was this performance which prompted his brother, current MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez, to identify the Gresini Ducati rider as “the strongest one” at Jerez.

“At the moment, the strongest one is Alex [Marquez],” Marc Marquez told MotoGP.com after Friday’s two practice sessions in Jerez.

“Even if he had a massive crash this afternoon, he was able to come back on the racetrack and be the fastest rider. So, an amazing performance [from] him.

“We need to understand. Tomorrow the temperature will increase, so it makes everything more difficult especially in the Sprint race. But the main target for us will be that front row that is one of the key points for the race weekend.”

The Ducati Lenovo Team rider himself had a difficult day, plagued by technical problems in the beginning of FP1, then unable to extract the most from the Desmosedici during the final time attack in Practice.

“[It was a] good day, a difficult day because the fact that we didn’t start in the best way, we lost the first half of FP1 [which made it] a bit more difficult,” Marquez said.

“But then I was able in the afternoon the get step-by-step my rhythm. It’s true that I missed a bit the way about the setup, but then we came back and on the last run I felt better.

“So, let’s see tomorrow if we chose the good direction and trying to understand what we need to be consistent and fast.”

Gresini pit lane error "a funny situation"

During the morning session, while he was struggling through the technical issues, Marquez stopped outside the Gresini garage by mistake. He explained that this was because he was distracted by one of the issues on his bike rather than a moment of confusion with his 2024 team.

“Honestly speaking, I [could] say that I’m confused, but no; I was just looking at one problem that I had on the bike and I was looking at what was going on to tell straight away to the mechanics,” he said.

“But then I missed the box and I stopped at the Gresini garage that is the next one. It was a funny situation.”