Marc Marquez led Alex Marquez in a fourth consecutive Marquez 1-2 to begin the 2025 MotoGP season, though Alex made him work hard for the Argentina Grand Prix win at Termas de Rio Hondo.
The Marquez 1-2 was briefly interrupted at the start through Pecco Bagnaia's lunge at Turn 5, but Alex immediately retook the position a corner later and then latched onto his brother's rear wheel.
And that paid off on lap four, as the elder Marquez ran wide into Turn 1, opening the door for Alex to assume the lead as the siblings monopolised the victory battle from there.
This was no carbon copy of the Thailand opener, however, with Marc having to work much harder to stay in touch with Alex - as evidenced by a big moment at Turn 6 around the halfway point in the race.
On lap 18 of 25 Marc finally had a first go at taking the lead, but went well wide after a Turn 5 lunge, allowing Alex back into the lead with some breathing room.
But it wasn't enough. Marc made quick work of that breathing room after gathering himself, then finally slipstreamed past Alex on the run down to the aforementioned Turn 5 on lap 21 before swiftly mounting a breakaway.
Alex had to throw in the towel very soon after, eventually finishing 1.362s back - a margin that was flattered by Marc backing off at the finish.
Bagnaia's early hopes of going with the Marquez brothers were immediately dashed by a spirited challenge from LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco, whose attacks on consecutive laps at Turn 8 both times required Bagnaia to counter-attack at Turn 9.
Then Franco Morbidelli got past both in quick succession, establishing himself as best of the rest instead as he capitalised on the early-race grip offered by the soft rear tyre (with all the riders around him running the medium).
He even briefly threatened to go after the leading duo, though quickly settled into a race for third place.
Bagnaia, particularly limited in the final sector, soaked up the continued pressure from Zarco in the early going, then switched his attention to attacking Morbidelli once the latter's soft rear started to show signs of weakness.
In the end, though, Morbidelli was fairly comfortable in seeing out a podium finish - his first in a grand prix since 2021, before his major knee surgery (though he did already pick up a sprint podium last year).
Bagnaia's fourth-place finish means he is still yet to score a grand prix podium at Termas de Rio Hondo, and he is now a fairly ominous 31 points back from Marc Marquez - with Alex 15 up on Bagnaia.
Zarco's hoped-for podium bid didn't quite materialise in the end, and he came up half a lap short of preventing a Ducati 1-2-3-4-5, having to yield at the very end to Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Di Giannantonio ran the soft tyre like his VR46 team-mate Morbidelli, and was remarkably the quickest rider on the track in the final stages - but the damage to his race had been done by being stuck behind KTM's Brad Binder in the early going.
KTM's race pace continued to look fragile, though Binder was his usual race-maximising self in just hanging on to seventh over impressive Trackhouse Aprilia rookie Ai Ogura.
Pedro Acosta was ninth on the other works KTM, desperately fighting off the works Hondas of Joan Mir and Luca Marini.
Marco Bezzecchi was expected to be a major factor in the Argentina GP, where both he and his Aprilia bike have potent past track records, but those expectations were immediately thrown in the bin when he overcooked the entry into Turn 1 at the start, tagging Fabio Quartararo's Yamaha and himself exiting the race.
Quartararo did continue but his race was badly damaged, too, though he did recover to 15th.
Another two-bike collision involved Raul Fernandez and Enea Bastianini, the former penalised for causing the latter to crash - though Bastianini did ultimately remount.
Results
1 Marc Marquez (Ducati)
2 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +1.362s
3 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +4.695s
4 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +5.536s
5 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +7.138s
6 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +7.487s
7 Brad Binder (KTM) +14.294s
8 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +14.447s
9 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +15.646s
10 Joan Mir (Honda) +15.787s
11 Luca Marini (Honda) +16.025s
12 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +21.663s
13 Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM) +22.319s
14 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +23.486s
15 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +25.148s
16 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +26.914s
17 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +27.661s
18 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +40.179s
19 Somkiat Chantra (LCR Honda) +41.693s
DNF Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia)
