Alex Marquez admitted he expected “things to be too easy” after cruising to a comeback victory at the Malaysian MotoGP race on Sunday.
Marquez took his third win of the 2025 season in Sepang after battling past Pedro Acosta and Francesco Bagnaia, but had a difficult start to the weekend.
The Spaniard was the heavy favourite for victory going into the weekend after topping pre-season testing, but admitted everything “changed quite a lot” since February.
Marquez also suggested he had to lower expectations after a difficult Friday, where he narrowly scraped into Q2 before taking the race win.
“It’s true that I made a mistake this weekend expecting things to be too easy,” Marquez said via Autosport.
[We made it into] Q2 in ninth place, and a little bit on the limit. So, it was quite complicated.
“The conditions, and especially the feeling with the bike, changed quite a lot compared to the February [test] here.
“The tarmac, the condition of the track was really different. Step by step, over the weekend, we turned things around in quite a good way.”
One reason for Marquez’s initial struggles was because of the fight for second place in the championship continuing into Malaysia.
Marquez became vice-champion to his brother Marc Marquez in the Sprint race after increasing his gap to Bagnaia and Marco Bezzecchi to 100 points.
The Gresini rider also admitted that sealing the runner-up spot helped him attack his rivals during the grand prix.
“Yesterday, as I said already in the press [conference], I didn’t ride freely on the bike,” Marquez said.
“I was thinking too much [about] that second place in the championship and not attacking Pecco [Bagnaia] at the moment that I should have done. So, today the plan was clear.”
Alex Marquez reveals plan to execute ‘nearly the perfect’ Malaysian GP
Marquez also revealed part of his plan that allowed him to take victory in Malaysia, including managing his battles against his rivals.
The Gresini rider made a move on the fast-starting Acosta on the first lap, before passing leader Bagnaia on Lap 2 en route to dominating the race.
Marquez admitted he had a “clever plan” to attack the riders ahead while also managing the difficult conditions presented by Sepang.
“We improved a little bit on the feeling in the warm-up,” Marquez said of his race strategy.
“I was clever with the plan to attack Pedro on the first lap, Pecco on the second and then just try to manage the tyre until the end. So, it was nearly the perfect race.
“It was the plan to not exaggerate, you know, to not over-ride on the rhythm, because later on you can pay off here with the rear tyre. So, I just tried to be really soft with the gas.”
“The front tyre was also difficult to control, but as I said, we did things in the correct way.”
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