“Pushing to the limit not enough” to beat Marc Marquez at Aragon MotoGP - Alex Marquez

Second-placed MotoGP rider Alex Marquez says beating his brother and current championship leader Marc Marquez may require more than “pushing to the limit” at this weekend’s Aragon MotoGP.

Ducati Lenovo Team’s Marquez comes into this weekend with a 24-point championship lead over Alex Marquez, and he arrives to a circuit at which he has won eight races in the past (including all classes, and Sprints).

Four of those wins were taken in succession in the premier class between 2016–2019, and Marquez was also the victor in Aragon last year with dominant displays in qualifying, the Sprint, and the Grand Prix.

It’s a formidable record for the eight-times World Champion, and one that makes him hard to look past when considering who might win this weekend – even for Alex Marquez.

“Push, push, push,” the younger Marquez sibling joked when asked how he can beat his points-leading brother this weekend.

“Because he pushes more than us! You’re at 100 per cent but he’s at 101 per cent, on the limit everywhere.

“Here, maybe pushing to the limit will not be even enough to beat Marc [Marquez]. It’s like this, it’s one of his gardens.”

Marquez suggested, though, that mistakes from his brother could open the door.

“We saw in the past [some] drama here, with some mistakes of him and it’s not an easy track to not make mistakes,” the Gresini Racing rider said.

“So, same mentality as every weekend: try to be as competitive as we can, try to extract our 100 per cent potential, and try to take home the maximum points we can.”

“Not really interested” in GP25 problems

Recent races have exposed potential problems in Ducati’s 2025 Desmosedici.

Marc Marquez is without a win since the series returned to Europe, has crashed twice in the past three Grands Prix (albeit with little consequence at Silverstone thanks to the lap two red flag), and was unable to match the pace of his GP24-mounted brother in the Silverstone Sprint which was the first half-distance race the current championship leader has not won this year.

Additionally, Francesco Bagnaia has crashed in three of the last four races (including Sprints, and admittedly the lap one crash at Le Mans happened with the assistance of Enea Bastianini) and has scored only four points in the past two rounds in France and Britain.

Plus, Fabio Di Giannantonio may have been third in the British Sprint, but he was anonymously ninth in the British Grand Prix.

It points to the possibility of the Desmosedici GP24 being a more understandable package than the GP25, one from which it’s perhaps possible to more easily extract its potential.

For Gresini’s Marquez, though, the comparison between the GP24 and GP25 is of little interest.

“I don’t know which problems they [GP25 riders] have, and I’m not really interested to know which problems they have, honestly speaking,” he said.

“I know what I have, I believe that I have the best bike on the grid, I know what I will have from here until the end [of the season], and I believe that we have the best package.

“So, we need to push, we need to be there, and for sure I think on Monday they will try some things.

“But, anyway, we know our package from here until the end and we need to focus only in our box.”

While Marquez expects the GP25 riders to take a step forward in Monday’s post-race test, he is not expecting any upgrades from Ducati between now and the end of the season.

“At the moment, no,” he said on the prospect of updates to his package.

“Don’t change the plan. We saw last year that Marc didn’t have any extra, and he had already the official contract, so it will be difficult to get an upgrade.

“Now, the political is really clear, really clever with the [year-old] bike: if someone has an upgrade, everybody on the GP24 has it.

“So, in that point, complicated a little bit to have some upgrades because many times they are limited about items that they can produce.

“We know what we have on Monday, and that will be the same as what we have before starting. We need to focus on our things and try to improve in some parts.”

Mother’s support

With both Marquez brothers sitting in the top-two positions in the riders’ standings since the opening race of the season, the allegiance of their parents, in particular their mother, has become a light-hearted topic in recent races.

A social media post from Marc Marquez this week suggested that he had persuaded their mother to his side of the 2025 title battle, but, on Thursday at Aragon, Alex Marquez assured that it is he who still has her support.

“Always,” he said.

“She said to me ‘I lied to him, don’t worry.’ I said ‘That’s good.’”

Quotes gathered by Crash.net MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren.