Marc Marquez reclaimed the lead of the MotoGP world championship with his fourth straight sprint race win on Saturday night in Qatar, the six-time premier-class world champion leading from start to finish to deny younger brother and fellow Ducati rider Alex Marquez in Lusail.
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The 32-year-old Marquez, from his fourth successive pole to begin the 2025 season, saw off a second-lap assault from his younger sibling to ease away across the 11-lap sprint, crossing the line 1.577secs ahead to take the series lead by two points after losing it following a crash from the lead in Texas two weeks ago.
Franco Morbidelli made it an all-Ducati podium with third, the VR46 rider seeing off Ducati rookie Fermin Aldeguer and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo on the final lap to finish 3.988secs behind the race winner.
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“At the moment we keep the same performance as the first part of the season,” Marquez said after moving to 98 points for the year.
“Austin was Austin and we did a mistake, but the feeling was good … an unexpected weekend because here in Qatar I normally struggle. I’m riding in a very good way and in the sprint I was super consistent controlling the gap, and then in the last two laps I slow down. I feel very good with the bike, and tomorrow let’s see if we can improve very small things for the race distance, but the feeling [today] was great.
“Alex attacked me in the first lap, but then I knew my rhythm was a bit better and just for the first two laps, I was not ready to attack. Tomorrow we will try to manage in a different way.”
Marc Marquez won the race to the first corner and was untroubled after Alex Marquez briefly took the lead at the start of lap two, eventually extending his margin to over one second after lap eight and cruising to victory thereafter.
Second for Alex Marquez was his seventh consecutive second place in the first four rounds of the season, while Morbidelli’s third place was the Italian’s second podium this year after he finished third in the Grand Prix in Argentina in round two.
Marquez’s factory Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia, the 2024 Qatar GP winner, recovered to eighth place after crashing in qualifying and starting from 11th, while reigning MotoGP world champion Jorge Martin, making his 2025 debut for Aprilia after a pair of off-season injuries saw him miss the opening three rounds, battled the pain barrier from a broken left wrist to finish 16th after winning the sprints in Qatar for the past two years.
Australia’s Jack Miller had a Saturday to forget at Lusail, the Yamaha rider starting from a season-worst 16th on the grid and fading to 19th in the sprint, a gamble to use to soft rear tyre backfiring as he finished 20.274secs behind Marquez.
Miller, who crashed twice in Friday practice, came to Qatar off an outstanding season-best fifth place in Texas, but finished only ahead of Thai rookie Somkiat Chantra (Honda) on Saturday for his worst finish of 2025.
The 22-lap Qatar Grand Prix will take place at 3am AEST on Monday.