Marquez’s at the double as Alex Marquez wraps up Moto2 title

It may have been a somewhat humbling weekend in Sepang for MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez but there is still going to be plenty to celebrate in the Marquez household tonight after his brother Alex Marquez successfully wrapped up the 2019 Moto2 World Championship title.

The Spaniard came into the penultimate round of the season needing just a solid finish to secure victory and he duly delivered, following future KTM MotoGP rider Brad Binder across the line in second place.

That was more than enough to put distance between himself and Thomas Luthi – who came into the weekend as his closest rival – to take pressure off the upcoming season finale in Valencia.

It is the second time the Marquez brothers have held World Championships at the same time after Marc won the 2014 MotoGP crown and Alex clinched the Moto3 cup.

While title glory has been a long time coming for Marquez having made his Moto2 debut in 2015, he has been the star of the field on the Marc VDS Kalex in 2019. Propelled forward by a run of five wins from six races in the middle of the season, though he hasn’t topped the podium since, no other rider has been able to match his consistency.

It is a third Moto2 riders’ title for the Belgian Marc VDS team after Tito Rabat in 2014, Franco Morbidelli in 2017 and now Marquez.

Is Alex Marquez heading for MotoGP?

Yes. But not just yet. Which is a shame because we’re rather looking forward to the prospect of the Marquez brothers racing wheel-to-wheel (professionally) for the first time.

Based on his superior mid-season form, many expected Marquez to be on his way to joining Marc in MotoGP but with many riders in the premier class halfway through two-year contract cycles, his options were limited at best.

As such, Marquez is going to wait it out in Moto2 for another season in 2020 in an effort to defend his title in much the same way Johann Zarco did in 2016.

That’s not to say he wasn’t wanted though. Marquez was reportedly approached by Petronas Sprinta Moto2 for 2020 with a possible deal on the table to step up to MotoGP with the Petronas SRT Yamaha team next season.

However, this prompted Marc VDS to jump in to retain him because it didn’t want to relinquish him to a rival if he wasn’t going direct to MotoGP.

There was also apparently interest from KTM in the wake of Johann Zarco’s premature departure, but Marquez was also signed and sealed with Marc VDS at this point and he wasn’t enthused about the prospect of developing a relatively new machine.

More recently, Ducati has shown an interest in Marquez over a possible move in Pramac Racing in 2021, creating a tantalising prospect of having Marc and Alex on rival machines…