Alex Marquez weighs up rivals for brewing runner-up battle
Alex Marquez says Francesco Bagnaia remains his main rival for MotoGP runner-up, despite Marco Bezzecchi’s growing form at Aprilia.
While brother Marc closes in on the 2025 MotoGP title, the fight for runner-up remains wide open.
Alex Marquez, 175 points behind Marc, has occupied second place in the standings for much of the season.
But a slump in recent results has left the Gresini Ducati rider with only 19 points across the last three rounds at Brno, Red Bull Ring and Balaton Park, compared to 34 points he scored at Jerez alone, or the 29-point hauls from double runner-up finishes at Buriram, Termas, COTA, Aragon and Mugello.
That dip should have made him vulnerable to Marc’s team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, but the factory Ducati rider has also struggled in recent races and remains 52 points behind with eight rounds left.
Instead, momentum has shifted towards Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi, who has amassed 67 points in the last three events to cut the gap to Bagnaia to 31. KTM’s Pedro Acosta has almost mirrored Bezzecchi’s recent scoring but still sits another 33 points further back.
“Pecco still the opponent for second”
For now, Alex continues to see Bagnaia as his main rival.
“At this moment Pecco, because he's more close than Bezzecchi,” Alex said at Balaton Park.
“But Bezzecchi has been super fast from the beginning of the season, he was just missing the qualifying. And it's true that in the last races, he has been also quite fast in the qualifying. So it will be interesting to see how fast he can recover.
“But still I feel that Pecco is the opponent for second in the championship, but it will be interesting also to see Bezzecchi and Aprilia, how they develop.”
While Bagnaia and Bezzecchi are on the latest factory machines, Alex doesn’t expect any further changes to his year-old GP24.
“The base that we have is more or less the same now,” he said.
“Many riders changed manufacturers”
Alex also pointed to rider changes at Aprilia and KTM as a reason for their slower start to the season.
“I think this year can be a strange situation, because many riders have changed manufacturers. I think for that reason Aprilia in the beginning were not fast with Bezzecchi. Because they were missing the qualifying, but on race pace, they were already super fast,” he said.
“For the KTMs, with Enea [Bastianini], with Maverick [Vinales], from the moment KTM did a step with Maverick, all the other KTM riders made a step. These are things that create the atmosphere of being fast.
“It will be interesting if we can improve a little bit, but if not, I think we have a good base and I think if we put everything together - like we did during all the weekend in Austria until Sunday - we are able to fight for podiums.”
To secure a Marquez one-two in the world championship, Alex can afford to lose no more than 6.5 points per weekend on average to Bagnaia, 10.4 to Bezzecchi and 14.5 to Acosta.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
