Alex Marquez says excessive rear tyre degradation and vibrations cost him a chance at the podium in MotoGP’s Valencia Grand Prix, though he admits he’s still unsure what caused these issues.
Lining up on the front row of the grid for Sunday’s season finale, Marquez made a solid start to slot into second place behind race leader Marco Bezzecchi. However, his pace began to drop off as early as lap five, leaving him vulnerable to the riders directly behind him.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez was first to challenge him, overtaking him on lap 11, while KTM ace Pedro Acosta and VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio also picked him off later in the race. Gresini team-mate Fermin Aldeguer dealt the final blow, passing him for fifth on the last lap.
Lapping in the mid-to-high 1m31s on worn tyres, Marquez was losing almost half a second to the frontrunners on every tour, eventually finishing the race more than eight seconds down to Bezzecchi in sixth.
It was a stark contrast to his performance on Saturday, where he led from the front in the sprint and claimed a commanding victory over Acosta.
Speaking afterwards, the 2025 runner-up expressed his surprise at the rapid drop-off he suffered at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, with chattering on the rear tyre adding to his troubles.
“I was able to make a good start, to be quite comfortable behind Marco,” he said. “But from lap five to seven, more or less, I started to drop so much on the rear. That was the main problem - a lot of vibrations on the rear and all that.
“I suffered from that moment until the end. The last 15 laps were difficult to finish, but it's better that something like this happened now than in the mid-season in 2026. So, it’s better to have these problems now so we can solve them on Tuesday.”
With the exception of LCR’s Somkiat Chantra, the entire MotoGP field went with the same strategy in Valencia, opting for a hard tyre at the front and the medium on the rear.
While Circuit Ricardo Tormo can be challenging on tyres, Marquez was perplexed as to why his tyres dropped off so early in the race.
“I don't know [what caused the degradation], we need to analyse a little bit and to see what happened exactly, because the first drop was too early,” he explained. “At that moment, the tyre is not even on the temperature. After five laps, you may use 15% of the tyre, but no more.
“But at that moment, I started to already have some vibrations, some drop on the left, especially on the straight, and I started to lose a lot of positions.
“The most important thing is to try to learn, and to change the riding style a little to finish the race.”
Despite the unfortunate circumstances on Sunday, Marquez still ended the year a career-best second in the standings with three wins and 12 podiums across Sunday races.
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