ALEX MARQUEZ RECOVERS TO P2 IN MISANO AFTER Q2 BLUNDERS AS MARC MARQUEZ TAKES THE CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD

Alex Márquez’s Misano weekend began with a qualifying session he called a “disaster,” costing him realistic podium chances. In Q2, the Gresini rider made two separate mistakes: shortly after the session started he slid into the gravel, and later in the closing stages he went off track again. Márquez said the causes were his own: “The mistake in Turn 8 was my fault, I went in too fast. In Turn 4 it was the last lap. I was already far from the ideal line and still had to turn in. Then I crashed.”

He also pointed to tire conditions. For the race he had used older Soft rears in the free practice to prepare, but later reflected that he would have been better with the fresher tires from the previous day. His verdict on qualifying was blunt: “A good qualifying happens when you do the right things at the right time. Today it was exactly the opposite. I thought about lap time first instead of pace—and I made too many mistakes.”

The story changed in the MotoGP sprint, where Márquez fought his way forward and finished fifth. On the medium rear he benefited from the chaos ahead and from a moment when Fermin Aldeguer and Pedro Acosta were battling. “I was lucky—I could just overtake. They opened the door for me,” he said. However, behind Jorge Martin and Fabio Di Giannantonio, the job became managing the front tire. Márquez explained that the temperature in his front tire kept rising, reducing available traction. When Martin passed Di Gi Giannantonio, Márquez thought another opening had appeared: “That was my moment. But then I made a mistake in the first part and lost it again.”

On Sunday, the earlier damage was fully repaired. Starting from ninth—because of the two Q2 errors—Márquez had already accepted that a podium was unlikely: “After qualifying, somehow I was already sure I didn’t have a chance at the podium. P4 to P6—that’s what I thought was possible.” The turnaround came quickly: “But already in warm-up you could feel it and the speed. That’s how I felt immediately in the race—I had everything after a good start to attack. So I kept attacking.”

He worked through the field early: after one lap he was fifth, then he passed Aldeguer and brought Acosta back until lap four. With the fastest lap he closed on the front and even got past Jorge Martin, but the move ended there. Still, he reduced the gap to just 0.6 seconds, though he couldn’t make a decisive push. Later, Márquez described the result as emotional for the entire Gresini team. The podium was “dedicated to Marco Simoncelli,” and “those special colors” seemed to give him extra strength.

The podium was also shaped by trouble for the riders ahead. Marco Bezzecchi had been on course for a major weekend after going under 1:30 in the sprint and taking second, but he crashed out in Sunday’s race in Turn 13. Speedweek reported that he said: “It was going well, but I made a mistake in Turn 13 and the front end slipped away.” He added that the key was braking: “You have to hit the braking point more precisely. In the fast section there was some instability on the bike, and when I braked I couldn’t close the line cleanly.” He also said he hadn’t made a mistake at the start and denied that he’d been too ambitious at home, insisting: “If you start from the front, you want to win. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Misano or somewhere else.”

After the race, Márquez said: “A huge honor to wear these colors—but above all, to stand on the podium.” He stressed how important it is for Gresini in Italy, calling it “really important,” and noted it would be his last GP with Gresini in Italy. He summed up his approach as giving everything: “I just tried to give 100%. It’s true that getting through the field cost a lot of energy, but I believed that was the right way.”

Márquez called the podium surprising—especially for a P2: “An unexpected podium for us, especially a P2. We were a bit lucky because of that crash [by Bezzecchi], but we really rode well and stayed strong until the end.”