Alex Márquez and the overtake he never attempted on Marc: “He’s fighting for the championship; the Sprint wasn’t worth the risk.”

He had the speed to make a move—he admits it himself—but he never put his front wheel ahead of his brother’s.

Alex Márquez finished second behind Marc in the Phillip Island Sprint, choosing not to attack in the closing stages—a decision that sparked suspicions of team orders within Ducati on social media. But the Gresini rider stands by his decision without mincing words.

The context matters. In the shorter race, Marc won his duel with Jorge Martin, who crashed: the Aprilia rider suffered a fractured wrist and will miss Sunday’s GP. With the 12 points from the Sprint, the Ducati rider has taken the lead in the championship, 10 points ahead of his rival. We covered the race in Australian MotoGP Sprint: Martin takes himself out, Márquez takes advantage—the updated riders’ standings and Martin’s condition in Jorge Martin seriously injured, Australian GP over: the Aprilia rider’s condition.

After three difficult Grands Prix, in which he had finished only half of the races, Alex returned to the podium. “After Jorge crashed, I perhaps had the speed to try to attack Marc in the closing stages, but it would have been too risky. He’s fighting for the championship, and I would never take that kind of risk just to win a Sprint. He’s my brother, but we also ride for the same manufacturer and share everything that comes with it. So if the risk is too high, it wasn’t worth attacking him.”

The original plan was different. The Gresini rider explained that after passing Martin, he had wanted to overtake Marc too “and try to set my own pace, because I felt I was faster than them”. But Jorge’s counterattack at Turn 4 and the battle with Pedro Acosta cost him time: “When I tried to attack and close the gap, I used up a little too much of the tyre. At that point, I was at the limit”.

Marc Márquez acknowledged that his brother was faster, admitting they had not spoken yet: “Maybe he didn’t attack because it was me, to be honest, but I haven’t spoken to him. Alex was very fast today. He saw that I was aggressive too, and maybe he realised attacking me was too risky, because if he attacked, I would have counterattacked, since I was aiming for the 12 points”.

With Martin out of the picture, Alex’s chances of winning the GP have improved. He is nevertheless keeping his expectations in check: heavy rain is forecast for Sunday, and the priority will be to finish the race, because 27 laps in the wet at Phillip Island will feel very long. It remains to be seen whether the “zero-risk” approach towards Marc will apply in the full-length race too, on a dry or wet track.

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