Cycle News In The Paddock
COLUMN
Brotherly Love
Finally, Marc Marquez has been beaten—in a straight fight—ending a run of seven wins in a row. But it took another Marquez to do it.
It happened at the GP of Catalonia, at the fast and daunting Montmelo circuit outside Barcelona, an hour’s drive from the Marquez family home—very much a home GP for the brothers who have taken control of the World Championship in a way never seen before.
There have been brothers competing, sure. Most recently the Espargaro pair. As well as the Binders, though they’re mainly in the different classes. Respectable they may be. But nothing compares with the level of Marc and Alex.
Between them, they have turned MotoGP into a family affair.
Alex’s win left the older brother celebrating as if it were his own. He did come away from the weekend with more points, but that was only because his younger brother threw away a certain win in Saturday’s Sprint. At two-thirds distance, with his closest pursuer (Marc, obviously) having abandoned any attack, Alex tucked the front at the notorious turn 10 at the end of the back straight. Down and out. And a perfect weekend in the gravel with him.
“Overconfidence” was a poor excuse for a major unforced error, but redemption was available. On Sunday, his concentration sharpened as a consequence, and he rode what he described as “a perfect race.”
Funnily enough, second-placed Marc also said he’d had a perfect race. Just not as fast as his brother’s perfect race.
It was Alex’s second win of the season, but the first at Jerez had come after Marc had fallen off, so this straight defeat had at least the hint of a landmark. It’s a bit too soon to predict a changing of the guard. But it was a significant moment all the same.
“All my life Marc has been faster than me,” glowed Alex after the race. And not just in speed, Marc agreed, but in every aspect of strength, performance, athletic ability… It’s a natural advantage of his three years of seniority. An advantage, he smilingly added, that is left behind “once you are 23.”
Although it took a few more years than that for the sibling seniority to be reversed. Alex is 29 now, Marc 32.
The result was not unexpected. Marc predicted even before they turned a wheel that Alex would be his strongest rival, and he was definitely the faster brother. At the end of last season in post-race tests at Catalonia, he took pole.
There was a simple explanation, but with major implications, for it illuminates the small margins that separate not just the brothers but the full MotoGP field, operating on a brutal razor-edge of nuance and technique, where hundredths of a second make the difference between hero and zero.
“We are brothers, but we have different styles,” Marc said. “His strong points are my weak points.”
Specifically, fast right-hand corners, of which the Catalunya circuit has a preponderance, compared with just a handful of Marc’s preferred left-handers. (He dubbed it a “problem track,” with just two wins since 2013.)
“I followed him today, and I could be the same speed [on the rights], but I was fighting the bike,” Marc said. “He was smooth, and he had an advantage at the exit. On the lefts, I could make up ground, but I was never close enough to pass.”
Had he fought less hard than he might have, had his opponent been Bagnaia, Bezzecchi or (those were the days) Rossi? Adamantly, no. “You want to beat everybody. Even your brother.”
Nothing is yet confirmed, but only a complete disaster could stop Marc from taking this year’s title—a memorable comeback after his glittering early career was blighted by four years of an injury that effectively crippled his unique riding style and put him through a series of surgeries before the final one, where his right humerus was sawn in two and reset (for the fourth time), twisted back to normal by an amazing 30 degrees.
Alex’s hold on second overall is less gold-plated: 68 ahead of Bagnaia with seven races left and a maximum 259 points available. But Bagnaia is the victim of another crucial factor—the question of the Ducatis.
Marc’s (and Pecco’s) GP25 and Alex’s GP24 are very similar but crucially different. Only Marc can get reliable winning results from the GP25, and he is the veteran of winning races and titles on a Honda that others found increasingly difficult to ride. For Alex, the year-old GP24 has allowed him to shine as never before.
So did this racer mark a tipping point in the balance of power between the dominant siblings?
Probably not, but it was a landmark all the same.
The brotherly gap narrowed in Catalunya.CN
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