Sibling rivalry: Will the all-Márquez MotoGP battle come to blows?

MotoGP is on course for a wonderful story, that of 32-year-old Marc Márquez‘s redemption after a rebuilt right arm and a career gamble. The No93 Ducati and Márquez’s wide-arching grin have been dominant marks of the 2025 championship that has so far yielded six wins and nine sprint victories, up to and including another recording-breaking GP in terms of attendance (the fourth this year) at the TT Circuit Assen for round 10 of the schedule last weekend.

However, the red Ducati has been frequently accompanied by a blue one. The smile duplicated. The surname doubled in the record books. Alex Márquez, three years Marc’s junior, has chased his brother onto the podium in either a sprint or a GP race in nine of the 10 rounds so far. Alex capitalised on Marc’s crash in Jerez, Spain, for round four to seize a memorable first MotoGP triumph in his sixth term in the class (compared to Marc’s 13) and inched ahead in the British GP Sprint. Otherwise, Alex, riding the 2024 title-winning Ducati GP24 in contrast to Marc’s factory GP25, has somehow slipped into the role of the dutiful younger blood relative.

Much has been made of the brothers’ abilities and impact on the world championship in the last decade, and especially from 2014 when Alex claimed the first of his two world championships, in Moto3. He needed five attempts to win in Moto2 in 2019, but has been in MotoGP ever since. Marc has battered the record books: this year alone he has reached 100 career pole positions and has 94 wins across the board. Alex’s numbers, like most, are nowhere near. But he is one of just three riders on the current entry list to have ruled the Moto3/Moto2 divisions and one of 11 to have won GPs in all three. There have been countless ruminations and celebrations of MotoGP’s most prolific family: TV reports, articles, fun features comparing their personalities, even examination of their separated parents Roser and Julià.

Alex and Marc have always been tight. They shared the same house in an exclusive gated community north of Madrid, the same trainer and co-own the Vertical agency that handles their interests as well as other young riders like Moto3 starlet Maximo Quiles. They have the same sponsors and gear suppliers. In MotoGP, they were team-mates at HRC from 2020-2022, and although Alex deserved his MotoGP berth due to his Moto2 title, there was also a waft of nepotism.

Yes, Honda’s competitiveness declined, and Marc’s arm injury drama would begin in the 2020 pandemic championship, but Alex only managed two podium results in three years. They then linked up as riders in the satellite Gresini squad in 2024 as Marc, following Alex’s defection from the Japanese giant to Ducati technology, enacted his fruitful plan to return to factory rider billing for 2025. Alex, in particular, grappled with the awkward performance of the GP23. For 2025 the former Honda stalwarts had exactly what they both needed: the best machinery on the grid in GP24 and GP25 bikes.

Marc led Alex home twice in Thailand for the opening Sprint and GP. Then it was Marc and Alex again for Saturday’s Sprint in Argentina and round two. “Close, but not enough,” Alex said afterwards at Termas. “I mean, not enough to attack him. The pace was super fast. I’m playing with the bike. It’s something really great. We need to understand a few things from Marc, but here we were closer. It’s super-nice to fight with your brother.” After Sunday’s Argentine Grand Prix and the fourth 1-2 in a row there were already signs that Márquez junior was disliking the tag of being both brother and botherer.

“Already [there have been] many times this question of ‘When you will lose the respect to Marc?’ Or ‘you respect too much Marc’ or something like this. This question is not respectful to me,” he said, exasperated. “I’m a rider. I give my 100% always. I try to push for my team, for my sponsors, for all that. I know that he’s my brother and I will have extra respect when I overtake him but I’m the first one that wants to beat him and I want to win. I’m more realistic than everybody because I know [Marc]. I know his strong points. I don’t have any problem to say it. I don’t have any problem to accept if he’s better than me in some points. I will try to learn.”

Round five in Spain and Marc’s Sunday race spill was the invitation that Alex, who was leading the championship thanks to his consistency (and Marc’s costly error in the United States for round three) gleefully accepted to make his milestone. “When I saw Marc crashing on Turn 8, I said, ‘Today is your day.’ I knew that without Marc on track, I [would] have some opportunity, some chance. I knew I was the strongest one.”

Round eight and it was back to another Marc/Alex double. Round nine, in Italy, Alex was again trailing Marc twice. “I tried, I tried,” he pleaded. “I think this year’s sprint races, [I’ve tried] more risk than ever.” Alex’s effort that weekend clouded the fact that 2025 has been his most prolific start to a season ever, and he’s regularly classified ahead of 2022 and 2023 world champion Pecco Bagnaia on the same bike as Marc, as well as other pretenders. “I’m the only rider that beat him [Marc] in a sprint,” he reminded the media in Mugello. “That is a satisfaction. If you are always in P2 and the P1 is changing, then it can be a little bit frustrating, but when it’s the best one [Marc] and it’s the rider that is making more the difference, you just need to accept it, you need to be there. So the satisfaction is that I always try my best.”

The Márquez influence on 2025 MotoGP has become overbearing. The social media banter between the Ducati and Gresini teams relentless. The shots of family and friends continuous. Rightfully so, you could argue because there has been a Márquez in every single podium ceremony since the start of the campaign. In Assen, however, the repetitiveness of No93 followed by No73 prompted fresh reactions as the pair assumed the status quo with a slightly different context.

On Friday in The Netherlands, Marc crashed twice, knocking his left elbow, the left side of his chin and also taking a whack to his nether-regions. “Marc, he’s one of the more brave, [he has] more balls — well, now, it’s one and a half — and he’s able to forget things that happened and reconnect with the bike,” Alex joked and forewarned on Friday night. Somewhat understandably, Marc was less than ‘peak’ for Saturday’s qualification and his fourth position after Q2 was only the second time he’d missed the front row all season, but, like Alex had predicted, he was better and more resilient for the Sprint. He grabbed the lead and then throttled the GP25, parrying and defending from persistent probing from Alex for 13 laps. The difference between them at the flag was just 0.3sec: the slimmest gap yet in 2025.

Afterwards, in his media debrief, and having only conceded three championship points, Alex looked visibly frustrated. It was the closest he’d come to displacing the authority of his brother, and he couldn’t make it happen. Second place again. On Sunday, Alex’s crash after tangling with countryman Pedro Acosta in a tussle for fourth meant a broken left metacarpal. Marc was pursued by Aprilia‘s Marco Bezzecchi in a near repeat of the Sprint as the Italian harried the Ducati through the frighteningly fast third sector, as respective front tyres squirmed and squealed for traction. The outcome was the same.

The result vindicated Alex, for what Marc claimed was a surge of unfair criticism. “I want to say to the people that they need to respect all the riders because yesterday in the media scrum, [they] start to say that ‘your brother didn’t attack you like the other riders…’,” he said. “Even some mechanics told me that on social media people start to talk. Today, Marco: why didn’t [he] attack me? Yesterday I defended in the best way possible [from] Alex.

“Today I defend in the best way possible [from] Marco. I knew that they were faster in Turn 11-12. That is the fastest area and very narrow corners. If you are on the good line, they cannot attack you. I just was strong on the brake points, so I defend in a very good way. One more time: respect the MotoGP riders because all of them defend his colours, defend his team. All the grid wants to win, but the problem is that only one is able to win.”

Marc’s statement prompted some discussion in the media centre how far both brothers would stretch the limits to usurp the other. Marc has famously clashed with Valentino Rossi and also clattered into other riders on the grid since his emphatic debut in 2013. Now that Alex is a constant threat for race wins, the championship offers an unusual challenge because 2025 is the first time his family has been ‘foe’.

Marc seemed to relish the joust with other names in other teams in the past…but this is a ‘new’ experience of an adversary. It is a predicament that even his rivals see. “I don’t think they will start to argue because they are brothers,” observed Bagnaia in Jerez. “In the race weekend, they will be super professional and fighting for the objective, and I don’t think that if Alex will have the chance to win, Marc will do stupid things or the same in both cases.”

MotoGP is no stranger to siblings. French brothers Christian Sarron and Dominique Sarron won 250cc Grands Prix in the 1980s, the Japanese Aokis in the 1990s and the Turkish Öncü twins also prevailed. Lately South Africans Brad Binder and Darryn Binder lined up on the MotoGP grid together for a single campaign in 2022 and more Catalans, Aleix Espargaro and Pol Espargaro, were also competing against each other in MotoGP from 2014-2023.

Family influence and the notion of nature versus nurture is not restricted to the asphalt. Sebastien Pourcel and Christophe Pourcel aced Grands Prix in both MX2 and MXGP categories during the ’00s. The current 2025 MXGP world championship has seen 18-year-old Belgian twins Lucas Coenen and Sacha Coenen successful in both classes (Lucas is vying for the MXGP crown) and the starkest off-road equivalent to the ‘Marqui’ is Jett Lawrence and Hunter Lawrence; multi-title winning Australians in the SMX (AMA Supercross and motocross) series in the United States who both represent American Honda/ HRC.

SMX is a US behemoth of 17 supercross rounds, 11 motocross dates and three hybrid ‘play-offs’ with big attendances, a large industry presence and millions of dollars involved. Jett, the younger brother at 21, fills the ‘Marc’ role with eight championships already, including an outstanding undefeated motocross debut term in 2023, where he clinched all 22 motos. Hunter, 25, has struggled with injury and health issues but was the family’s initial bow-breaker in the transition to Europe in grands prix and then the USA, and has two 250cc crowns.

He has raced Jett in both the quarter-litre division and in the 450cc premier class of both disciplines since 2024. Hunter has always graciously acknowledged his brother’s capabilities. “It’s surprising because they always seem to go out of their way to underline the family aspect and how they support each other,” offers respected SMX journalist Lewis Phillips. “It’s odd in any form of racing, and I cannot recall other brothers talking about how competition is about ‘the unit’ rather than the individual.”