Explained: Why Alex Marquez rides a Yamaha in training
Gresini Racing’s Alex Marquez was training on a Yamaha
Recent footage from the Aspar circuit showed Alex Marquez training on a Yamaha.
That's because the Gresini Ducati rider is set to receive a new machine from the manufacturer he represents in MotoGP.
Unfortunately for Marquez, it’s not a new race bike, but rather a new training bike, as the Italian company is reportedly preparing him a new Panigale V2 S, according to the Spanish edition of Motorsport.com.
The Spanish rider continues at the moment to ride a Yamaha R6 in training, despite having been a Ducati MotoGP rider – albeit on a satellite contract with the Gresini Racing team – since 2023.
In contrast, his brother – Marc Marquez, who became a factory Ducati rider in January and who currently leads the MotoGP standings after winning both races at the opening two rounds of this season – has been riding the 120bhp 2025 Panigale V2 S since January.
Marc Marquez’s Ducati Lenovo teammate, Francesco Bagnaia, is the only other rider to have been given a V2 S for training purposes.
Motorsport.com reports that the younger Marquez had initially wanted a 2024 V2 last year, but with the bike in the end of its production cycle he decided to wait until the new bike became available this year.
Additionally, the bike that will be initially loaned to Marquez will become available for him to purchase outright at the end of this year.
Marquez currently sits second in the MotoGP riders’ standings, 16 points behind Marc Marquez, after finishing second in both Grands Prix and both Sprints so far this year.
Round three of the 2025 season takes place this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
Alex joined the Crash.net team in August of 2024 having covered consumer and racing motorcycle news at Visordown for two years.
