Marc Marquez accepts blame for clash with brother Alex

Alex absolved for first corner incident, but in hot water for later clash with di Giannantonio

Qatar Grand Prix winner Marc Marquez has admitted responsibility for the incident with his younger brother Alex as the pair exited the first corner in Sunday’s race.

Poleman Marc claimed the lead into the first corner but cut across the front of Alex at unexpectedly low speed as the pair exited the right-hander. This resulted in contact and light bodywork damage to both Ducatis.

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The clash put both factory rider Marc and Gresini racer Alex out of position, so VR46's Franco Morbidelli passed them and took an early lead.

While Marc’s race was not unduly affected, the incident appeared to affect Alex’s rhythm as he lost two further positions. Alex then compounded his troubles by running into Fabio di Giannantonio in an attempt to re-pass him on lap three.

That in turn led to a long-lap penalty, resulting in an end to Alex’s string of MotoGP second places as the Spaniard could only finish seventh. Having started the day two points behind his brother, he now trails him by 17 points – but remains second in the standings.

After the race, factory rider Marc took responsibility for the first-corner incident, a setback he himself brushed aside with ease as he executed a calculated run to victory.

“Yeah, the contact with Alex was a little bit more my mistake than his mistake,” admitted Marc. “I opened the gas and I felt like the rear was going, [so] then I closed the gas again. He didn't expect this.

“For that reason, he hit me. And for that reason, Morbidelli overtook me. But it was more a little bit my mistake. Luckily for both of us, we stayed on our bikes.”

Alex, in turn, took the blame for his incident with di Giannantonio. The contact resulted from an optimistic attempt to overtake the Italian into the fast right-hander at Turn 12.

“It was my mistake, it's my responsibility. And when you make a mistake in life, you need to accept it,” said Alex.

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Karim Jaafar - AFP - Getty Images

“I tried to speak to Fabio [after the race], but [his team] said to me that it was not the [right] moment. I understand.”

Despite consistent speed, di Giannantonio has lost points and positions more than once already this year due to coming off second-best in brushes with other riders – including team-mate Morbidelli.

“The goal today was to fight with Marc,” said a frustrated di Giannantonio. “We were ready. I was quite clearly in front of Alex and I got hit quite hard. It was a mistake, but at MotoGP world championship level I have to say that these kinds of mistakes are a bit on the limit.

“You can accept it in Moto3, you can maybe accept it in Moto2, you can accept it maybe from a MotoGP rookie… but at our level we must avoid this kind of situation. That manoeuvre really put me in danger. If I crashed, I don’t know if I would be here speaking to you now – I might be in the medical centre.”