The neck brace, the stiffness in his neck, and the still-visible aftereffects speak volumes. Alex Marquez appears seated in front of the camera nearly two weeks after the crash that brought the Catalan Grand Prix to a halt and completely changed the course of his season.
The Gresini Racing rider has posted a video on his YouTube channel where he relives from the inside that weekend that went from euphoria to the hospital in just a few hours.
And he does so without holding anything back. From his doubts about the bike throughout the weekend to his hazy memories of the collision with Pedro Acosta, the Catalan recounts how he experienced one of the most violent crashes of the year and the gruelling recovery process that followed – marked by a broken collarbone, an injury to his C7 vertebra, and a recovery that will also force him to miss Mugello and Balaton Park races.
“I’m stiff,” he jokes at the start, still visibly in pain. “Barcelona is very special [because] of all the people, for how the weekend went, but mostly because of how it ended. It wasn’t a usual or normal weekend.”
The video begins by reviewing the atmosphere leading up to the grand prix, which was very special for him since he was racing at home. Marquez shows moments with fans, promotional events, and even his now-famous ‘Alexneta’, the quirky vehicle that accompanied him throughout the Catalan weekend. But behind the relaxed tone, the rider makes it clear that starting Friday, they were already struggling to find the best feeling with the Ducati.
And on Saturday, the big moment arrived. After getting over the disappointment of his 2025 crash at Montmelo, Marquez posted a solid qualifying result and went on to win the sprint race, though he admits that internally, the feeling wasn’t as perfect as it seemed from the outside. “I understood quite perfectly [that we were] suffering from problems that we had not encountered yet. But we got very close and we got these 12 points that tasted like glory.”
However, not even the celebration allowed him to switch off. “It was a sprint I won, but I didn’t have the better sensations,” he admits. “I was in the parc ferme, already a little worried just thinking here what we could do and how we could improve for Sunday.”
“I asked to see the crash because I didn’t remember it 100%”
The hardest part of the story comes when recalling Sunday’s crash. Marquez was battling for the lead when Pedro Acosta’s factory KTM suffered a technical issue and suddenly lost acceleration. Marquez’s Ducati violently slammed into the back of Acosta and was thrown toward the barriers in one of the most harrowing images of the season.
Alex himself admits that he could barely piece together what had happened for hours. “When I arrived at the hospital – I think it was around 3:30pm – I started to remember everything 100%,” he says. “I asked to see the crash because I more or less had flashes of it, but I didn’t remember 100%.”
And it was precisely when he saw it again that he truly understood the magnitude of the accident. “At that moment, I honestly realised how lucky I had been to avoid the wall on the right, how I entered that corner, how I fell. And there I became, somewhere, aware of all the good luck that I had.”
The reflection is even more striking when you consider the context. Marquez suffered a fracture of his right collarbone – for which he had to undergo surgery that very night – and an injury to his C7 vertebra, one of the most delicate areas of the neck. Doctors recommended several weeks of complete rest, which is why Gresini has already confirmed that he will not be in action until at least next month’s Czech GP.
“It’s not the kind of injury where you immediately think about coming back”
In the video, the rider also explains the gruelling physical and mental process of the days following the accident. After the surgery and a first night in the ICU – as a precaution – Marquez tried to return home, though the pain eventually forced him to go back to the hospital.
“I was discharged on Monday morning and travelled to Madrid. I arrived home and I was still feeling bad,” he explains. “The pain had come down from the [medications]. [But] the medications came down and the pain increased a lot, and I decided to spend two more nights at the International Ruber.”
But beyond the physical pain, the rider emphasises the enormous impact the crash had on him. “It’s not an injury where, like last year, I broke my finger, you fall down and you automatically think about recovering,” he reflects. “It’s an injury or a fall where the impact is so great that you have to land again on the ground and then process it for a week or so for the body to return to a little normal [state] for a lot of pain.”
Even so, Marquez makes it clear that he’s already thinking only about coming back… though without rushing it. “It’s not when, but how,” he says. “Being 100% prepared to come back and knowing that you have no injury, and you can give your 100%.”
The crash also came at the worst possible time for the younger Marquez. After claiming his first grand prix victory of the year at Jerez and winning again in the sprint race in Catalunya, the Gresini rider was enjoying a return to form after a tough start to 2026. Now, while Michele Pirro will take his place on the bike at Mugello, Marquez faces a recovery that’s much more complex than usual – and also much more of a mental challenge.
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: motorsport.com
