‘Overconfidence’ stings Alex Marquez in Barcelona MotoGP sprint: ‘Crashing was not possible’

Gresini MotoGP rider Alex Marquez says he was “too relaxed” at the moment he crashed from the lead of the Catalan Grand Prix sprint and felt falling “was not a possibility”.

The Spaniard took pole for the first time since 2023 on Saturday at Barcelona with a new lap record and was on course for a dominant sprint win over Marc Marquez.

But on lap nine of 12, Alex Marquez crashed at Turn 10 and handed the win to his older brother.

Explaining what caused the crash, he said: “[I was] too confident. Too relaxed in that moment.

“I was just trying to finish that lap pushing, to see the gap with Marc, and from that moment I started to manage that gap.

“So, yeah, when you have a lot of confidence with the bike, when you feel too confident, the crash was not a possibility for me today.

“But I was really fast, I was really close to the limit. So, a small mistake cost you everything.

“But anyway, we have a great opportunity again tomorrow in front of us.

“We are again on pole position. We will have that opportunity.

“We will try to take it and we will have a warm-up to come back again with the feeling, and later push in the race.”

“It still hurts”, but Alex Marquez can’t dwell on sprint crash

Alex Marquez’s crash from the lead of the sprint follows last year’s Catalan Grand Prix when numerous riders fell while heading the field in the half-distance race.

He says this can be attributed to the low-grip surface penalising “really small” errors harshly.

“It’s a track with low-grip,” he said.

“When you make a really small mistake it costs you a crash.

“Turn 10 is tricky. It’s a corner that you need to stop a lot the bike, that to be a little bit wide or a little bit long on the brakes is so easy.

“So, we need to be focused tomorrow. It was my mistake today and we cannot focus that concentration on that moment of the sprint.”

The Gresini rider has had the strongest race pace of anyone throughout the weekend and notes he has “a great opportunity” ahead of him in Sunday’s grand prix.

“It still hurts, but it’s nothing we can change,” he added.

“Just we learn from that mistake and if that was on Sunday, it’s a little bit more painful.

“We have a great opportunity tomorrow again in front of us and we can’t lose time thinking on today.”