Alex Marquez turned a troubled qualifying into second place at the Misano MotoGP Grand Prix, finishing behind his brother Marc. Two crashes in qualifying left the Gresini rider ninth on the grid, but he responded with fifth in the Sprint before making his way onto the podium in the main race.

The result came while Alex was wearing Gresini’s special Marco Simoncelli livery. It was his first podium since the major crash he suffered at Catalunya in May and the first Marquez brothers’ one-two of the season. Misano was also Alex’s final Italian Grand Prix with Gresini, giving the result an added emotional dimension.

Alex described the second place as unexpected. He acknowledged that Marco Bezzecchi’s crash helped his prospects, while also stressing that he and Gresini remained strong to the finish. Recovering from ninth demanded a considerable amount of energy, according to the rider.

Marc kept control of the gap

Alex briefly reduced the gap to Marc to half a second, but believed the factory Ducati rider still had margin in hand. In Alex’s account, Marc responded with a quicker lap whenever he applied pressure, then eased off when Alex did the same. He estimated that Marc had roughly 0.1 seconds more pace, which allowed him to manage the distance between them.

The podium moved Alex up to eighth in the MotoGP World Championship standings, ahead of Pecco Bagnaia. He had already won the Jerez Grand Prix earlier in the season, but said starting from the front row would improve his chances of adding similar results. His next chapter will be with the factory KTM team. At Misano, however, he brought his Italian Gresini chapter to a close with a podium that exceeded his expectations.