Moto2: Alex Marquez Signs Two-Year Deal with Marc VDS

Alex Marquez is to join Marc VDS in the Moto2 class. The Spaniard has signed a two-year deal with the Belgian racing team to compete on their Kalex Moto2 bike for the next two seasons. Marquez will join Tito Rabat at Marc VDS to form a Spanish dream team in Moto2, with Rabat once again challenging for the title, while Marquez gets up to speed.

The Marquez announcement will likely be the first of many in the weeks leading up to the Aragon entry deadline. Both Jack Miller and Alex Rins will also be leaving Moto3, with Miller widely rumored to be moving up to MotoGP, and Rins off to join the Pons team with Luis Salom. However, there were whisperings at Silverstone that Miller may not be going straight to MotoGP after all.

LCR’s new British sponsor is believed to want a British rider on the production Honda. In that case, Miller would go to Moto2 with the Pons team. Whether that would mean Sito Pons would expand his team to three riders is unclear, but with a title sponsor now on board, that could be a possibility.

Marquez’s move to Marc VDS does reduce the likelihood that Emilio Alzamora will create a new Moto2 team via the Monlau structure. The Estrella Galicia 0,0 team will continue in Moto3, with Fabio Quartararo moving up along with Maria Herrera, in all probability.

Whether the move of Marquez to Marc VDS reflects the start of a more formal collaboration between Marc VDS and Alzamora / Monlau remains to be seen, but is an intriguing possibility.

With the Estrella Galicia Junior team also continuing in the Spanish CEV championship, that would provide a pipeline of talent for the Marc VDS team, and offer a stepping stone into MotoGP for Alzamora.

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.