Marc Marquez relished Fabio Quartararo MotoGP sprint battle: ‘It’s racing’

MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez beamed over his early battle with Fabio Quartararo in the Catalan Grand Prix sprint despite contact with the Yamaha rider.

After qualifying second, 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo engaged in an aggressive battle with Ducati’s Marc Marquez and KTM’s Pedro Acosta in the early laps.

Quartararo fended off the pair into Turn 1 at the start before coming under attack from Marquez into Turn 10.

The Yamaha rider slammed the door on Marquez through the long left, which resulted in slight contact, before there was another touch at Turn 12 as Quartararo held the inside line.

Quartararo would eventually lose out to Marquez, but resisted Acosta’s advances and took the chequered flag in second behind the factory Ducati.

“On that Turn 10, I was just trying to understand if I could release the brakes or not,” Marquez told the official MotoGP website.

“But I had the doubt, and then with that doubt it created contact.

“But I tried to slow down to not have that contact, and then on Turn 12 he came back as I expected.

“I already heard the bike and then he came back in a very good way. It’s racing. Fabio is Fabio and he has a very good talent.”

Marc Marquez wary of younger brother Alex Marquez for Catalan GP

Marc Marquez inherited victory in Saturday’s sprint after his younger brother Alex Marquez crashed at Turn 10 with four laps to go.

But the championship leader is expecting a hard race on Sunday as he still considers Alex Marquez to be “the fastest rider out there” at Barcelona.

“It will be a very tough race,” he added.

“We need to understand what we can do. But yeah, I expect a very strong Alex because during all the weekend - since FP1 - he’s the fastest rider out there.”