Gresini Racing’s Alex Márquez ended his brother Marc’s remarkable unbeaten run by winning their home Catalan Grand Prix on Sunday, redeeming himself after crashing out of the lead in Saturday’s sprint for just his second career race victory.
Marc had won the last 15 sprints and races and had he won Sunday’s race would have had the opportunity to clinch a seventh title on Ducati’s home turf at next weekend’s San Marino Grand Prix.
But Alex had other plans as he tore up the script and, with seven rounds to go, Marc’s championship lead was cut to 182 points, meaning the Ducati rider cannot seal the title at least until the Japanese Grand Prix later this month.
Tech3’s Enea Bastianini came third to clinch his first podium with the team, while KTM’s Pedro Acosta and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo rounded out the top five. “This feels so good. It’s true that I still have that (crash) in the head a little bit the race from yesterday, but today when I was on the bike, I said, ‘Okay, this one needs to go home, this one needs to be with me’,” Alex said.
“I was able to make good lap times and I’m super happy for the team because in the tough moments they were always with me, pushing, and we are back.” Alex had clinched his first pole since April 2023 but it was sprint winner Marc who had the perfect launch off the line to lead into turn one before preventing his brother from overtaking on the next turn, with Acosta slotting into third.
But Alex was in no mood to finish behind Marc yet again this season and the Gresini Racing rider stepped out of his brother’s shadow to pounce on lap four, finding an opening on turn one to retake the lead.
Marc had warned all weekend that the younger Márquez sibling had the best pace and that was evident from the time sheets as Alex set the fastest lap, building a lead of half a second. Behind them, Bastianini used Acosta’s slipstream to finally make his way past the younger KTM rider on lap 11 to move up to third, earning a wide grin from former F1 team principal and Tech3’s future CEO Guenther Steiner.
As the top three streaked away, Acosta – the only rider on the grid to use a soft rear tyre – was falling behind as his strategy quickly backfired. But in the end, it was a battle between the two Márquez brothers, with Bastianini saying it was impossible for him to catch them.
Marc was also visibly easing off, with the gap steadily increasing in the final laps as the elder brother knew he had been thoroughly beaten by a determined Alex.
“I did my maximum, I did the perfect race,” said a gracious Marc, who even saluted his brother as Alex soaked in the applause from the raucous home crowd.
“He was faster and I just tried to follow him, but on that last lap I was a bit on the limit. I was struggling a bit. But I’m happy for Alex, happy for Ducati, happy for me because in a difficult circuit I finished second.”
