Alex Marquez: “Stop thinking I have too much respect for Marc”

Alex Marquez silenced doubts about his willingness to challenge brother Marc after finishing just 1.3 seconds behind in Sunday’s Argentine MotoGP - his closest fight for victory yet.

The Gresini Ducati rider shrugged off an early attack from Francesco Bagnaia, then capitalised on a rare mistake from Marc to take the lead on lap 4.

“I tried to push from the beginning. I did a good start, Pecco attacked me in turn 3 but I was able to come back to second," Alex said.

“I was feeling really good. I had a lot of doubts before the race about the tyre choice, but in the end I decided to be like Marc and Pecco with the medium rear.

“Later, when Marc did a small mistake at turn one I said, ‘OK, I go for it’. I tried to put a nice pace and was able to make a gap to the second group.”

After following his brother throughout the middle stages, Marc ran wide during his first lunge for the lead, with ten laps to go, giving Alex temporary relief.

Both then set their best race laps on lap 19 of 25, before Marc’s persistence finally paid off at the same corner with five laps remaining.

“When he attacked me [for the first time] at Turn 5 I said, ‘OK, time to try’,” Alex recalled. 

“So I gave my 100%. I did a ‘38.3 but he was able to make '38.2. I was really on the limit. Nearly crashing all the corners.

“I tried to fight with him and to be there. But he's able to be more on the limit in the last part of the race. So we need to improve there.

“But I'm super happy about all the weekend.”

Alex, still chasing a first MotoGP win, has now finished runner-up to new factory Ducati rider Marc in all four races this season.

“I feel the strongest I’ve ever been in MotoGP”

“It’s the moment where I feel at my strongest in MotoGP,” Alex confirmed. 

“This bike suits me in a really good way with the riding style. So I'm just enjoying being on the bike. I'm playing with the bike and it's something really great. Just we need to keep going like that.

“The team are doing a super job, also the support from Ducati. We need to understand a few things from Marc, but here we were closer and it's super nice to fight with your brother for a MotoGP victory.”

“This question is disrespectful to me”

With Marc even calling Alex his main opponent for the title, the younger Márquez was asked if he needs to "break the respect" he has for his brother to beat him.

Alex was quick to shut down the suggestion.

“I’ve had this question many times; ‘when will you lose the respect for Marc’ or ‘you respect too much Marc’,” answered Alex.

“For me, this question is disrespectful to me. I’m a rider. I give my 100% always. I try to push for my team, for my sponsors. I know that it’s my brother and I will have an extra respect when I overtake him.

“I'm the first one that wants to beat him and I want to win. But I'm more realistic than everybody because I know how Marc is. I know his strong points and I don't have any problem saying about them.

“Maybe [normally] you will not say directly what your rival is doing really good. But it's my brother, so I don't have any problem saying it.

“And I don't have any problem with accepting if he’s better than me in some points.

“So I will try to learn. I will try to give like always my 100%.

“But stop thinking I have too much respect for Marc. We saw it today. We fight each other. He was faster than me and I gave my 100%.

“So I'm happy with second. I know that he is better than me in some areas and I will try to improve for the future.”

Alex, who has never finished higher than eighth in the MotoGP standings, leaves round two of the season 16 points behind Marc and 15 ahead of another multi-time MotoGP champion, Bagnaia.