Alex Marquez: “Sunday will be a different story”

The younger of the Marquez brothers reckons Marc wasn’t playing games or hiding his hand in the Saturday sprint, and that he can be caught in Sunday’s MotoGP Argentina GP.

Despite trailing his brother Marc Marquez home for a third successive race in Saturday’s sprint, Alex Marquez does not believe the Argentina GP on Sunday necessarily has to follow the same script.

The Gresini Racing Ducati rider maintains his factory Ducati sibling had to work harder for the sprint victory at Termas de Rio Hondo than he did for his two wins at the season-opener in Thailand.

While Marc has been accused of winning by artificially narrow margins in Thailand, giving rise to speculation that his advantage is still greater than he is allowing it to appear in South America, Alex has maintained all weekend in Argentina that he is now closer to Marc in terms of true performance.

He stuck to that line following his second place in the sprint, and does not believe he is automatically condemned to follow his brother home once more on Sunday.

“I think it will be a different story tomorrow. I don’t think it will change your race very much whether you go to the soft or the medium rear tyre, so it’s about changing your approach to the race and the points at which you can attack. Now after the sprint we have more information and it will be a bit clearer what we need to try tomorrow morning,” said Marquez.

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

Although Marc led all the way from pole position and set fastest lap, the 0.903s margin of victory was as big a lead as he had all race. While it was an opportunity for Alex to watch Marc’s methods closely, it also gave him hope for the grand prix.

“It’s nice to be this close, like a constant masterclass over 12 laps,” said Alex after the race. “Every corner, you’re learning something new from him.

“But I saw he was more on the limit compared to Thailand. Because in Thailand, when he overtook us, it was like ‘ciao!’ But here he was more on the limit and suffering a little bit more.”

The brothers line up 1-2 on Sunday for the MotoGP Argentina GP.

Follow our coverage at Motorsport.com here.