Alex Marquez’s streak of seven straight podiums came to an abrupt halt at the Qatar MotoGP, where a chaotic start saw him caught up in two major incidents — one with his brother Marc Marquez, and another with Fabio di Giannantonio that earned him a long lap penalty.
The drama began at Turn 1, as Alex made a strong start but found himself unexpectedly colliding with Marc’s Ducati Lenovo bike. Initially unsure of what went wrong, Alex said:
“I had a really good start, but I just didn’t understand what happened with Marc in the first corner. He had already opened the gas. Franco [Morbidelli] was overtaking on the outside, so I went for it, and then I felt the small contact.”
After the race, Marc explained that he had momentarily rolled off the throttle after losing rear grip — which led to the contact — but fortunately, there was no damage or further consequence from that clash.
However, the real blow came just moments later when Alex tried to immediately counter-attack after being passed by Fabio di Giannantonio at Turn 10.
“I went for a move at Turn 12, but it was completely the wrong place and time. I made a mistake. I want to say sorry to him and his team,” Alex admitted. “The long lap penalty was fair, and I accept it.”
Despite the setback, which dropped him to 12th, Alex managed to climb back to seventh, later being classified sixth following a tyre penalty to Maverick Vinales.
Though his Gresini Ducati sustained aerodynamic damage from the earlier contacts, Alex still managed the fifth fastest lap of the race — even finding a silver lining in the unusual situation.
“The bike was a bit damaged on the aero side, but it actually helped in some ways. I was overtaking everyone out of the final corner — it felt like the bike was flying!”
He added, “The braking and fast corners didn’t feel quite right, but I still did a 1’52.8 on lap 15, so the speed was there. That’s something positive we can carry forward to Jerez.”
Alex Marquez, who led the championship heading into Qatar, now sits 17 points behind Marc Marquez and 9 ahead of Francesco Bagnaia as the paddock returns to Europe.
