Alex Marquez: Marc “playing a little bit”, still “faster than everybody” despite Sprint downfall

Alex Marquez had a ringside seat for the early race battle between Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi and brother Marc Marquez in the Misano MotoGP Sprint.

Bezzecchi converted pole into an early lead, with Alex losing second to Marc, who then shadowed the Aprilia until seizing the advantage on lap six.

The factory Ducati star looked set for a ninth Sprint win in a row, only to crash out shortly after, at Turn 15.

Alex took up the fight to keep Ducati’s unbeaten Sprint run since Catalunya 2024 alive, maintaining pressure on Bezzecchi, but was exactly one second behind at the chequered flag.

“Marco was faster [than me],” Alex said. “Especially in the sprint race, it was clear that he was quite fast.”

However, the Gresini rider believed Marc would have been tough to catch without his first race crash since COTA.

“I think Marc still has something more. They were in front of me, so I saw everything. He was playing a little bit, he did one lap quite slow, and later on, he put everything and was like ‘boom’, catching [Bezzecchi] again.

“So I think Marc is faster than everybody.

“But Marco is doing a really great job. Not just now, during all the season he had always a good pace.

“So, it will be difficult to challenge both of them tomorrow, but we'll try our best.”

Reflecting on the ground lost at the start, last Sunday’s Barcelona winner admitted:

“They were braver than me. I was just thinking too much to disengage the front device and not to carry the speed.

“So for that reason, I lost two positions. So for tomorrow I need to be a little bit more decisive on that point. And it will be important for us to try to make some laps leading.”

Nonetheless, Marc’s mistake meant Alex finished one place better than his pace suggested.

“Being realistic today, our best chance of a position was P3. But with the Marc’s crash, we are in P2.

“We were quite good in the qualifying. I missed some aggressivity on the first two-three corners of the Sprint. Then the pace was what we had during all the weekend.

“I was keeping the pace until the end, to try to put a little bit of pressure on Marco, because he was riding in a really good way, but making some small mistakes.”

With Marc’s team-mate Francesco Bagnaia finishing outside of the points, Alex is now 77 points clear of the Italian in the contest for MotoGP title runner-up.

Rookie team-mate Fermin Aldeguer finished sixth.