‘‘I AM THE FIRST of the losers.” Said with a sparkling toothy grin, Alex Marquez was proud of the status. “The winner is my brother, so it’s a good second place.”
The extraordinary is not unusual in MotoGP as it is in any top-level sport. But this year we really have seen something special. The Brothers Marquez making a slice of history.
We have seen siblings in team sports such as football. But in the highest echelons of individual sport I know of only two examples: the Williams sisters in tennis, with 30 major singles titles between them, and the Ukranian boxing Klitschko brothers, Wladimir and Vitali, regarded by many as the dominant heavyweight champions between 2004 and 2015.
Now in MotoGP, the Brothers Marquez.
Only one year and one championship, so it doesn’t compare with the long reigns of those above. But careers are short in motorcycle racing. And who can say that they won’t do it again next year?
It represents a comeback for each of them. For Marc, as is more than well-known, from a near career-ending injury followed by four years of nerve-shredding false-start surgeries, and a traumatic and expensive split from Honda, for an ultimately successful reset with Ducati.
For Alex, it’s more subtle. During 2025 he has displayed a level of talent previously unsuspected by most, and certainly shadowed by circumstances. Plus he has always had to play second fiddle to his older brother, in all their years of living, training, practising and racing together.
This would be normal, thanks to a three-year age gap. Much more so because of the level of Marc’s genius-level talent and determination. Now we must reassess how to value Alex’s talent.
It’s taken until now for him to be taken seriously, after he followed Moto3 and Moto2 titles with downbeat times in MotoGP. “He’s only there because of Marc,” was the common refrain.
In three years riding an increasingly inferior Honda, Alex failed to impress. Two seconds in 2020 preceded a dispiriting slump after he was dropped from the factory Repsol team. At the end of 2022 it looked like it was all over. Then his premier-class career was rescued in 2023 by Gresini Ducati.
It’s believed that with Marc’s support he was able to waive or at least significantly cut his fee, in the same way that Marc joined the private team for nothing. At Sepang Alex described the opportunity as “just a piece of luck, or something like that”.
Podiums in 2023 were encouraging. Year two on the year-old GP23 Ducati, now joined by Marc, saw a best-yet eighth overall. The tight-knit satellite Ducati team, run by the family of former champion and Covid-19 victim Fausto Gresini, kept faith.
All this time, he and Marc were as thick as thieves. As it’s always been.
What made the difference was the motorcycle. Ducati’s coveted GP24… which has taken Aldeguer to a rookie win, that Bagnaia wishes he still had access to.
“Compared with the GP23, it’s a bike I can ride as I like,” Alex said, earlier in the year.
It also revealed the level of his talent. Albeit, again, overshadowed by Marc.
Early in the season he’d dubbed himself ‘Mr P2’, as Marc seized all the glory.
The year was interrupted by a hand injury at Assen. He took a lucky distant second next time out in a very depleted German GP; but just eight points at the next three races made ‘Mr P2’ only a memory. His points lead over Bagnaia shrank to just 52.
“With some pain, you start to not ride the way you need to help the bike. I took a step back.”
Beating Marc at Catalunya, combined with Bagnaia’s own problems, put his campaign back on track. By Malaysia, second was just a formality. The history was in the bag.
