‘It was a human reaction’ to help ‘unconscious’ Franco Morbidelli, says Alex Marquez

A test which was organised by the Aruba.it Ducati team, all eight of the Italian manufacturer’s MotoGP riders were in attendance alongside a full line-up of WorldSBK riders.

What was a two day test was impacted by red flags on the final day as Franco Morbidelli suffered a nasty fall. 

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The Italian was hospitalised as a result, but prior to that, both Marquez brothers came to Morbidelli’s aid when he was stranded between turns seven and eight.

Speaking about the accident, Alex Marquez said: “We [himself and Marc Marquez] were in turn five and we saw the red flag on the panels.

“Then we arrived in turns seven and eight, the change of direction, and he crashed there. There, it is very dangerous.

“He was in a really bad position, unconscious so we put down the bike and put him in a lateral position just so he could breath.

“He started to breathe but the ambulance took around two minutes to come.

“It was a long two minutes so it was just a human reaction. Everyone would react in that way.”

While that was Marquez’s first on-track appearance of 2024, the Gresini rider will again be on circuit this weekend as MotoGP pre-season testing gets underway at Sepang.

Marquez, who has been aboard the GP23 bike just once in Valencia, wants to understand more the engine character in Sepang.

“I want to understand a bit more about the engine character and how it is different to the 22 [bike],” added Marquez.

“We need to understand what we need to try and work with the electronics.

“The rest is pretty similar but the engine character is the main point that I want to work on.

“The engine braking looks like it is a little bit better but on the acceleration it looks different how the power comes to you.

“It’s true that Valencia is a very special circuit and the conditions were a bit different.”