2025 Catalan MotoGP: Alex Marquez ends Marc Marquez’s victory run, delays title chance

Gresini’s Alex Marquez overcame Marc Marquez to win a tense MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix and delay his older brother’s title clinching chances until at least Japan.

After crashing out of the lead of the sprint on Saturday, Alex Marquez bounced back to beat Marc Marquez by 1.740s to end the factory Ducati rider’s run of seven successive grand prix victories.

Jumped by Marc Marquez at the start, the Gresini rider overtook him on lap four of 24 and then resisted immense pressure to eventually break away.

It marks his second career victory and second of the 2025 season, and ensures that Marc Marquez cannot win the championship at Misano.

Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini completed the top three for his first grand prix podium of the year on the weekend a takeover by Guenther Steiner was announced.

Pecco Bagnaia recovered from 21st on the grid to seventh.

Alex Marquez couldn’t convert his pole to the holeshot at the start of the 24-lap grand prix, as Marc Marquez carved through at Turns 1 and 2.

With high tyre wear expected, the pace at the beginning of the race was low, with Marc Marquez not putting any daylight between himself and the chasing pack behind.

On lap four, Alex Marquez used the slipstream to outdrag the factory Ducati into Turn 1 and hit the front for the first time.

He would now sit under intense pressure from Marc Marquez, with the KTM duo of Pedro Acosta - the only rider on the soft rear - and Bastianini right behind.

As late as lap 17, the lead gap was only around three tenths, though Alex Marquez would soon go for a decisive push.

On lap 20 he started to break Marc Marquez, forcing the championship leader into running wide at  Turn 10 and extend the gap to the Gresini rider.

At the start of lap 21, Alex Marquez’s lead stood at 0.8s, with that creeping up to a second next time around.

Alex Marquez took the chequered flag 1.740s ahead of Marc Marquez, while Bastianini was a further 5.562s behind to complete the podium.

Marc Marquez’s championship lead is now 182 points, but his first match point in the title race will not come until at leas the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of September.

Acosta’s soft tyre dropped off a cliff late on and he fell 13.373s off the lead in fourth, while Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) fought back to fifth late on.

Trackhouse rookie Ai Ogura was the leading Aprilia in sixth ahead of Bagnaia, while Honda’s Luca Marini was eighth from Pramac’s Miguel Oliveira and Aprilia’s Jorge Martin.

Raul Fernandez was 11th on the sister Trackhouse Aprilia, with Joan Mir (Honda), Maverick Vinales (Tech3), Jack Miller (Pramac) and Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini) completing the points.

Franco Morbidelli suffered his second DNF of the weekend when he fell at Turn 10, with VR46 team-mate Fabio Di Giannantonio a retirement after an early fall.

Di Giannantonio crashed in reacting to Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi falling in front of him at Turn 1 on lap two when he made contact with Morbidelli.

Brad Binder (KTM), Johann Zarco (LCR), Alex Rins (Yamaha) and Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) also crashed out of the race.

Full 2025 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix results