Marc Márquez finished second in the German MotoGP, showcasing an impressive recovery from 13th place on the grid. In the process of climbing up the rankings, he had to overtake a unique rival: his brother and Gresini teammate, Álex Márquez.
Carlo Merlini, the commercial and marketing director of the Gresini team, spoke to AS about this overtaking maneuver. He started by saying: ‘Jorge [Martín] fell before Marc overtook Álex, but when he was approaching, I was near Julià [the Márquez brothers’ father] and asked him: «Julià, what do we do now?» And he told me, «If he doesn’t respect me, he won’t respect his brother either»’.
Merlini was particularly concerned about the potential for an incident between the Márquez brothers, recalling similar situations between teammates in the past. However, he noted that Marc executed the maneuver cleanly:
– But it ended up being a clean overtake, aside from my fear that both would end up on the ground. It’s something that has happened between teammates at Ducati, in Argentina with [Andrea] Iannone and [Andrea] Dovizioso. Here it’s the same whether they’re brothers or not, but Marc wouldn’t have done it without seeing a clear overtaking opportunity.