“No clear chance”: Alex Marquez identifies how Marc stayed out of reach in Argentine MotoGP Sprint

Alex Marquez overcame a stuck front holeshot device to take the fight to his brother Marc for most of Saturday’s Argentine MotoGP Sprint.

The Gresini rider admitted fault for not braking hard enough into Turn 1 to disengage the starting aid, which remained locked until he hit the brakes again. 

By then, he had already lost 0.582 seconds to Marc’s factory Ducati.

Despite the setback, Alex kept the pressure on, with the gap between the siblings shifting lap by lap - Marc faster on lap 1, Alex on lap 2, then back and forth until Marc found an edge.

The decisive moment came on lap 8 of 12 when Alex dropped into the 1m 38s, while Marc stayed in the ‘37s for another two laps, securing a 0.903s victory.

“I'm really happy. Close, but not enough to attack him,” Alex told MotoGP.com.

“The pace was super-fast, in the ‘37s and I didn’t have a clear chance, honestly, to overtake him in any moment.

“I started well but I had a small issue, my fault, that I didn't brake hard enough at the first corner and didn't disengage the front device. So I kept that until Turn 3.

“For that reason, Marc made a big gap in that point. Then I did a really good second lap to close the gap with him.

“I'm super satisfied with what we did and tomorrow we'll have another really important day in front of us. It will be a different story because we need to manage more the rear tyre, but I feel confident for that also.”

Marc, who has now won all three races since joining Ducati Lenovo, praised Alex for being "super strong" in Turns 3 and 6.

Alex acknowledged the areas where his brother had the upper hand on Saturday.

"Yeah, I can be better in two corners, but he's better than me in Turns 1, 2 and 3. So two against three, we lose!" Alex joked. "We need to improve."

Alex pinpointed Turn 5 as the key area.

"Turn 5 is where I lost the most time compared to him. How he rides the bike there is super clean, and it's really nice to see because he's doing things in a perfect way.

"I'll try to clean that up in warm-up and be a little more consistent in that section."

While Marc dominates the headlines with his perfect three-race win streak at Ducati Lenovo, Alex’s runner-up finishes are a bigger surprise.

"I'm super happy. Three podiums out of three, but we need to keep this pace up."

Alex now sits 11 points behind Marc in the early championship standings, with Ducati's former double champion Francesco Bagnaia taking third place in all three races.