Opinion: Marquez brothers made history at Jerez, yet some remain uninterested

The Spanish GP wasn’t overly dramatic or filled with much excitement after factory Ducati rider Marc Marquez crashed out of race-winning contention, and brother Alex took the lead. The younger of the two held first place until he saw the chequered flag – a relatively standard race, on the face of it. But when Alex Marquez crossed the finish line, he quietly added to MotoGP’s history of firsts. 

At the Jerez Circuit, Alex Marquez ensured that he and Marc would go down in history as the first brothers to win MotoGP races in the modern premier class. In Alex Marquez’s personal history book, this was also a first. The Gresini rider has wins in Moto3 and Moto2, and championships to go with them, but this was his first time at the top of the podium in the premier class. 

Although Alex wrote a line in the history books during Sunday’s full-length race, Marc contributed on Saturday during the sprint race. He became the first rider to win five consecutive sprint races since they were introduced to the MotoGP calendar in 2023, and he shows no signs of slowing down. 

The problem, as I see it, is some folks are uninterested or even annoyed by the Marquez dominance, or the “Marquez fest” as I’ve heard with an air of disdain too many times. 

Marc Marquez is one of the most talented, if not the most talented, riders we’ve ever had in modern  MotoGP, and now we get to see what he can do on the best machinery. No, it doesn’t make for the best racing, but for one year, you probably get to witness true unadulterated two-wheeled greatness – that’s the kind of thing you tell your grandkids about.

If, by some twist of fate, Marc doesn’t win the championship, all current signs point to his brother Alex taking it from him – he currently leads the championship by one point over Marc. Alex winning the Championship wouldn’t just take that title from Marc, it’d stop him from equaling Valentino Rossi’s total of nine world championship titles, for now.

We might not get the dogfight battles that keep us hyper-engaged throughout races, as we did last year. But there’s a much bigger picture here: records to be broken, titles to be equaled, and maybe the greatest comeback story of modern MotoGP. 

Liking or hating it won’t change the outcome, so why not lean into it and enjoy what could be one of the most dominant performances we’ll see for a long time?

If you include sprint race wins, Marc will almost certainly set a new record for the most total wins in a season, but even if you count only full-length races, he could still set a new record. Let’s enjoy what we have. In fact, let’s embrace it.