MotoGP Spanish GP: Alex Marquez takes first win as Marc crashes

Alex Marquez scored his breakthrough MotoGP victory at the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, reclaiming the lead of the world championship in the process.

Alex’s brother and previous points leader Marc Marquez crashed his factory Ducati on lap three of the race at Jerez, thus falling a point behind the Gresini Ducati rider.

In a morale-boosting result for Yamaha, Fabio Quartararo scored his first grand prix podium since the 2023 Indonesian Grand Prix. The Frenchman held off Francesco Bagnaia’s factory Ducati for second place.

Alex’s win was the 200th win for a Spanish rider in MotoGP. It also allowed Ducati to extend its winning streak to 22 races, thus drawing level with the record tally established by Honda in 1997-98.

Quartararo enjoyed a perfect getaway from pole position while his biggest threat, Marquez, struggled off the line and was forced to slot in behind his team-mate Bagnaia.

That was the cue for an intense first-lap battle between the two Ducatis, reminiscent of that seen in the sprint race at the Americas GP two races ago. Despite repeated attempts from Marc, including a moment of contact in the stadium section, Bagnaia refused to lie down this time around. By the end of the second lap, Marquez was still looking for a way around ‘Pecco’.

While Quartararo took advantage of this early battle to stretch out a small lead, Marc continued to search for a way past Bagnaia. Heading into Martinez on lap three, the six-time MotoGP champion asked too much of his Ducati and lost the front end. The resulting crash put him to the back of the field and out of contention for a major points haul.

Having shaken off one Marquez, Bagnaia then came under attack by the other on lap four, when Alex overtook him at Lorenzo to claim second place.

The race then settled into something of a rhythm, with Quartararo, Alex Marquez and Bagnaia establishing themselves as a leading group with a small advantage over Maverick Vinales (KTM).

On lap 11, Alex made his move on Quartararo, slipping past the factory Yamaha at the first corner.

It was soon clear that the Frenchman had no answer for the Gresini Ducati rider, but he was certainly able to make life difficult for Bagnaia, who also had to contend with a closing Vinales as the race wore into its second half.

While Bagnaia shadowed Quartararo closely, the Italian was unable to find a way around the delighted Yamaha rider by the end of the 25 laps.

Vinales dropped back again in the closing stages but delivered a solid fourth place, KTM’s best grand prix result of the season after the Spaniard lost second place in Qatar last time out to a tyre pressure penalty.

Over three seconds behind Vinales was Fabio di Giannantonio aboard the VR46 Ducati, who led home the factory KTMs of Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta.

It was an attritional race that saw Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) fall out of fourth place on lap six, Joan Mir crash from a strong sixth position and Franco Morbidelli (VR46) tumble out of seventh on his recovery ride from a bad start. Jack Miller also retired his Pramac Yamaha with a technical problem.

All of these mishaps allowed Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) to grab eighth place, Enea Bastianini to come home ninth for Tech3 KTM and Luca Marini to round out the top 10 for Honda.

Marc Marquez recovered from his early fall to salvage four points for 12th place behind LCR Honda rider Johann Zarco.

MotoGP Spanish GP results

Photos from Spanish GP – Race