Mat Oxley: How Márquez brothers made history with MotoGP’s first-ever sibling 1-2

If you think you hear the name Márquez too often these days, there are reasons for this. Not one reason. Two. During October’s Malaysian Grand Prix, Álex Márquez secured second place in the 2025 MotoGP world championship standings behind his older brother Marc. This is the first sibling 1-2 in eight decades of the championship.

Álex is three years younger than Marc – who has mostly dominated MotoGP for the last decade or so. Like his big brother, Álex worked his way into the premier class via winning the junior and intermediate championships. He won the 2014 Moto3 title and five years later the Moto2 crown, before graduating to MotoGP the following year.

When Álex first arrived in the grand prix paddock, Marc would tell any journalist that would listen that his little brother was the faster of the two. And he’s not stopped bigging him up since. The pair have an incredibly close relationship, apparently always wanting the best for each other, their racing egos quickly disengaged when dealing with each other.

“Marc is my brother and he’s my best friend,” says Álex. “When we were kids we were always together, at tracks all weekend, every weekend.”

Both are unpretentious and polite – there are no fancy clothes or supercars, no trick haircuts or tattoos. Marc is steely, laser-focused, eyes always on the prize. Álex is more laidback, with zero airs and graces. You’d never guess he makes his living at 230mph.

“Marc is steely, laser-focused, eyes always on the prize. Álex is more laidback”

Marc’s insistence that Álex is faster hasn’t been proven over time, but the last two seasons have shown that the 29-year-old younger sibling is faster than most MotoGP onlookers have given him credit for.

Álex spent his first three years in MotoGP riding Honda’s hard-to-handle RC213V. Only Marc could make this bike work on a regular basis, but everyone who rode the RC213V got used to being thrown down the road even when they didn’t deserve it.

“With the Honda you were pushing and you really didn’t know what would happen next,” says Álex.

After three years wrestling with the RC213V, Álex was beaten, mentally and physically. No team came looking for his signature for 2023, so he went to Gresini Ducati and offered his services for free, riding year-old Desmosedicis.

That move transformed his career and became the template for Marc’s defection from Honda a year later. During this period Marc was struggling to return from serious injury and thinking about quitting. He attributes his comeback to Álex.

“I was in a black hole,” says Marc. “I was going into that big black hole but I was never completely inside, because my brother helped me a lot – he was there.”

During 2025 the brothers shared the podium at eight grands prix, Marc a step or two above his brother all but once. Perhaps inevitably some fans and media accused Álex of riding shotgun, of not attacking Marc and preventing others from having a go.

In fact Marc was simply faster than everyone, but there is truth to the suggestion that they are easier with each other than they are with other rivals. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Two decades ago Ukrainian brothers Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko dominated heavyweight boxing, winning 40 fights between them. But they never fought each other. Why is that? Because their mum made them promise not to.

And here’s another reason why they don’t want to crash into each other – they share the same motorhome and have lived most of their lives in the same house.

“It would be very tough if something happened, because when we get home we have to eat lunch together,” says Marc.

The pair celebrate wildly whenever they do share a podium and often keep the party going into the night.

“Try not to follow me tonight,” grinned Álex during the media conference at last July’s German GP.

“You can push in the beginning – I will overtake you at 6am,” laughed Marc.

Next year they will ride the same-spec Ducatis for the first time, allowing us to get the truest measure of their comparative talents, even if there’s no real doubt Marc is the faster.

“Marc is more comfortable on that line between crashing and staying on the bike,” explains Álex. “No other rider is as comfortable as him at the limit. This is the reality. He can play with the limit because he knows he will have two warnings from the front tyre and he will save them, whereas you will have one and you will crash.

“Marc can take a lot of risks and be aggressive. I also have that aggressive side in me, but maybe it doesn’t come out so naturally. I need many inputs before I say to myself, ‘OK, now I go!’ This is my character, I’m calmer than him. I think more about things before I go there. I would say he’s more hot-blooded.”