The 2024 FIM Grand Prix World Championship’s seventh round takes place from May 31st to June 2nd at the Mugello Circuit in Italy.
Gresini MotoGP Team enters the season with a Spanish sibling duo: Marc Marquez, riding the #93, and Alex Marquez on the #73. During Practice Race (PR) on Friday, May 31st, Marc clocked a lap of 1’45.345, securing fifth position, while Alex achieved his personal best of 1’45.412, advancing to Q2 directly. On Saturday, June 1st, in Q2 qualifying, Marc set a fastest lap of 1’44.784 for fourth place, and Alex posted a time of 1’45.208, earning him an eighth-place starting spot for the main event.
In the Sprint race, which started at 2:45 PM local time and covered 11 laps, approximately 57 kilometers, both brothers struggled initially. Marc was fifth after the first lap, while Alex dropped to tenth. The race saw intense battles, particularly between Marc on the Desmosedici GP23 and speed record holder Brad Binder, who hit 366.1 km/h last year. By the end of the second half, Marc advanced to second, just over a second behind the leader, and Alex climbed to ninth, in a tight fight. Marc clinched second place in the sprint, extending his consecutive second-place finishes, while Alex finished eighth, collecting two points.
Reflecting on the weekend, Marc said, “I had the pace to win today, but couldn’t catch up. This track hasn’t been my strongest, but with Ducati, things changed. I had a good battle with the GP24, which is more competitive than the GP23. We might have missed something early on, but I’m happy with today’s result.”
Alex commented, “My start wasn’t great, and I lost a lot of places. It was tough to overtake Binder on the straight. The race was enjoyable, and we’re prepared for further action. Tomorrow, I might opt for a softer tire again, even though we’ll try the medium compound during warm-up.”
