Marc Marquez had ‘given up’ on Catalan MotoGP sprint win before Alex’s crash

Marc Marquez reveals he had ‘given up’ all hope of winning the Catalan Grand Prix sprint until his brother Alex Marquez crashed out of the lead with four laps to go.

The factory Ducati rider had cemented second position in Saturday’s half-distance race at Barcelona after a close battle with Fabio Quartararo and Pedro Acosta on the opening two laps.

However, he had no answer to his younger brother Alex on the Gresini Ducati, with the gap between the two growing to more than a second in the final part of the race.

It was only when the 29-year-old crashed at Turn 10 on lap 9 of 12 that the six-time MotoGP champion inherited the lead, having pulled clear of Quartararo by that point.

However, Marc Marquez stressed that he was certain victory was out of his reach in Barcelona, having eased off after being unable to match Alex’s pace.

The 32-year-old himself came close to ending up on the ground a lap later, just about avoiding a crash of his own at Turn 7.

“Of course, Alex was the fastest today. I was able to win the race because of his mistake,” he said. “If you check the lap times, I already gave up. Two laps before, I gave up because he was faster than me. 

“But with that bike, as we saw last year in the sprint race with Pecco [Bagnaia], as we saw today with Alex. Christ, I saved with the left on Turn 7. So sometimes you relax, the bike balance changes, and then you make mistakes. 

“But today, mixed feelings. I’m happy for the victory, but I’m unhappy for my brother because today he deserved the victory.”

Marquez believes his recent winning streak has been giving him extra confidence, something his brother doesn’t have after going through a torrid run of results since picking up an injury in the Dutch GP.

“More than the experience, the confidence [is the difference],” he said. “I’m coming from a lot of victories, and then I have that confidence on the bike to give up, [when] to push. 

“He’s coming from a very strange moment since his injury on the finger, on the hand. The fact that he was leading again, he was pushing. But the most important thing is to be fast. If you are fast, the mistakes you will avoid in the future.”

Revealing that he had also made a mistake at Turn 10 just a few laps before Alex’s crash, the older Marquez added: “I think Alex was not pushing his 100% on that lap. So as I say, maybe sometimes when you relax a bit, you just go in without the slide on the rear and then you force more on the front. 

“Because when you are pushing more, you create more front transfer and then you have the slide. But that Turn 10 was very critical. Two laps before, I had the [same] mistake. For that reason, I gave up.”