Álex Márquez | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nationality | Spanish | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Cervera, Spain |
April 23, 1996 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Current team | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bike number | 73 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Álex Márquez i Alentà (born 23 April 1996) is a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, and the younger brother of Marc Márquez, who also competes at Grand Prix level. Márquez was the 2012 Spanish Moto3 Championship winner, and won the 2014 Moto3 World Championship, defeating Jack Miller by two points in the last round at Valencia. In the process, he and Marc became the first brothers to win world motorcycle racing titles.
He began the 2010 season in the CEV Buckler 125cc championship, competing with the Monlau Competition team, along with Álex Rins and Niklas Ajo. Márquez did not participate in the opening round at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, as he was not old enough to do so – he did not turn fourteen until five days after the event. He finished eleventh in his first start at Albacete, having qualified tenth. He retired at Jerez due to clutch problems. He added finishes of seventh and sixth at Motorland Aragón and Albacete, before retiring from the final two races at Valencia and Jerez. He finished eleventh in the final riders' championship standings.
In 2011, Márquez battled with Rins for the title, with the championship honours ultimately going to Rins. Márquez won two races during the season – at Motorland Aragón and Albacete – and finished the season as runner-up, 12 points in arrears to Rins. With the championship changing to Moto3 regulations for the 2012 season, Márquez again won two races, at Albacete and Navarra; he won the championship with a fourth-place finish at Albacete.
Márquez made his world championship début as a wildcard at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix. In difficult weather conditions, Márquez scored points with a twelfth-place finish. He also made wildcard appearances at Estoril and Catalunya, scoring points on both occasions, with fifteenth and sixth respectively. After the mid-season break, Márquez moved into the series full-time from the Indianapolis Grand Prix onwards with Ambrogio Racing, replacing Simone Grotzkyj. He scored points in four of the remaining eight races, and ultimately finished the season in twentieth place in the riders' championship.