Alex Marquez: “I crashed two times” trying to copy Fermin Aldeguer’s lines!

Alex Marquez said rookie MotoGP winning team-mate Fermin Aldeguer’s natural riding style was clearly “better than everybody else in Ducati” at the Indonesian Grand Prix.

After seeing victory snatched away by Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi on the final lap of the Sprint, Aldeguer took the lead on lap 7 of the grand prix and never looked back.

With main rival Bezzecchi eliminated on lap one after colliding with Marc Marquez, Aldeguer’s lead topped nine seconds before backing off on the final lap.

Gresini team-mate Alex completed the podium in third, just behind KTM’s Pedro Acosta but almost eight seconds from Aldeguer.

“During the whole weekend, especially from FP2, Fermin was able to be really fast with the soft [tyre]. He was really constant and able to make a lot of corner speed,” Alex explained.

“I think his natural way of riding was really perfect for this track, and better than everybody else in Ducati at this track.

“So he was making the difference, where the bike is quite similar to ours, and all that about setup.”

The title runner-up added that he tried to copy Aldeguer’s lines, but it didn’t end well.

“He was able to ride in a really free way,” Marquez said. “We saw it on the data. I think he crashed just in FP1, but that was a rookie mistake.

“When I tried two times in practice and in qualifying to make those lines, I crashed two times! So I was not able to make that.

“So just for his riding style, he was much better than us. It was a really nice help for us to have that reference all weekend.”

Aldeguer’s best race lap was a massive 0.488s quicker than next closest Fabio di Giannantonio and also beat the previous lap record set by Enea Bastianini a year ago.

Despite riding alone for much of the race - backing off in the closing stages and giving up 1.5s on the final lap alone - Aldeguer’s winning time of 41m 7.651s was a close match for last year's 41m 4.389s victory time by Jorge Martin, also on a GP24.

The following chart shows how Aldeguer’s lap times compared with the 2024 Indonesian MotoGP podium:

Meanwhile, Alex highlighted that Aldeguer’s win means every Gresini rider has now taken a MotoGP victory since the team’s partnership with Ducati began in 2022: Enea Bastianini, Fabio di Giannantonio, Marc Marquez, Alex Marquez and now Aldeguer.