Well, Marc Márquez will have to stay at home for a while… Every time Àlex has achieved a great result in MotoGP, such as his podiums at Le Mans and Aragon in 2020, or the pole and 3rd place yesterday Argentina, his brother saw it on TV… In Termas de RÃo Hondo, with the eldest of the Cerverians on the sofa of his Madrid chalet with his right thumb just operated on, the little one took off after three dark years
Àlex Márquez’s Argentinian weekend was to be framed. And to get excited. “If they had told me that I would get the pole, a 5th place in the Sprint and a podium in the race, I would have signed immediately”, said the de Cervera, who, in addition, leaves the second GP of the year boosted in fourth place in the World Drivers’ Championship, 17 points behind the new leader, surprising leader Marco Bezzecchi, deserved winner of yesterday’s wet race.
Even in a drunken state, the most optimistic Àlex Márquez would not have dreamed that in the second race with Ducati he would sneak into the elite of the category with a first podium or with Saturday’s impressive pole in the water. Two weeks before the start of the championship, at an event in Madrid, the Pistoles confessed, without complexities, that he was experiencing an emotional rebirth, “a bit like returning to Moto2”, since Ducati had opened the sky to him and had allowed to recover forgotten sensations as a rider, after three years of initiation in MotoGP with indomitable Honda mounts. “I’ve changed a Casio for a Rolex”, he illustrated to this newspaper, half joking, half seriously, the transition from one motorcycle to another. “I want to put an end to my doubts and prove to myself that I haven’t forgotten to go fast”, commented Àlex, who despite being the 7th best in the pre-season maintained caution: this 2023 he didn’t think he would go any further than a “top 7-8″…, although he thought that “it would be a good year” if in the “first three or four races” things went “well”. To go well is a 5th in Portugal and a 3rd in Argentina, and to be 4th in the World Cup after two races? More than good, sensational, for the most underrated two-time world champion, 17th in 2022.
In Argentina, in addition to the pole and 5th place in the S sprint, Àlex was superb in the race, which was very complicated in the wet. It is true that at the start he was overtaken by a hungry Bezzecchi with Saturday’s puncture (Binder overtook him by 72 thousandths) who snatched the first position from him at the first corner; but CerverÃn endured the fight with Bagnaia – who ended up weakening and going to the ground -, he got away from Morbidelli and only gave way on the last lap to a Zarco stuck in the water.
“I had nothing to do against Johann, because he came very strong. I am very happy, we are consolidating. A long time has passed since Aragon 2020, my last podium. It’s incredible, but better things can still come”, enthused Àlex, who completed the first triple in the history of satellite bikes (from Ducati: the Mooney VR46, the Pramac and the Gresini).
The big winner of the day and of the GP was Marco Bezzecchi, disciple of Valentino Rossi at the Tavullia Ranch, who took his first MotoGP victory in his 22nd race and climbed into the lead taking advantage of Bagnaia’s crash and weakness by Maverick Viñales (12th).
The Argentine race was contested by only 17 pilots due to the five casualties due to injury; the last one, that of Joan Mir due to the fall in the Sprint. A reflection of the hardness and demands of the new MotoGP World Championship.
