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Fast MotoGP News: Extended Deadline for Gresini, Marquez Jr Signs 2-Season Deal with Marc VDS

We reported earlier that Honda satellite team owner Fausto Gresini of GO&FUN Gresini initially had until the British Grand Prix to make a call as to whether he will continue his relationship with HRC or the satellite bike will be up for grabs to other willing teams. While Honda appears to have not backed down from its financial claims for a factory bike, it looks like team Gresini got a new deadline to decide the future of its racing schedule.
Alex Marquez joins Marc VDS in Moto2 4 photos
Photo: motogp.com
Alex MarquezAlex MarquezAlex Marquez
The new deadline is the upcoming San Marino GP at Misano, and people with insights in the MotoGP paddock say that Fausto Gresini is most likely to give of the Honda factory machine in favor of a deal with Aprilia. Even though Gresini has been a Honda team for the last 18 years, the financial issues of its title sponsor appear to make running a factory bike a rather impossible task.

On the other hand, if Gresini and Aprilia sign a contract, this move could prove a win-win situation, with the former gaining access to all the goodies a works team puts on the table, including a bigger budget for development and all, whereas the latter would be spared certain expenses which are not at all negligible.

Suffice to say that Aprilia will not have to buy the two grid places which PBM’s retirement will leave open, and will not have to pay for the logistic efforts with its own money, as Gresini will have the financial support from IRTA. Motomatters believes that Aprilia could save up to €6.5 mil ($) only by teaming up with Gresini, which is definitely a lot for the racing budget the house of Noale must prepare for the all-new 2016 bike. Whether Gresini will be able to convince sponsors to back him for a factory ride in 2015 or whether we’re in for a new Gresini Aprilia team on the grid next year, we’ll find out September 12-14.

Alex, the younger brother of MotoGP’s youngest-ever champion Marc Marquez has signed a 2-season deal with team Marc VDS and will take the step to Moto2. In his second full season in Moto3, Alex Marquez is the current runner-up, 13 points behind leader Jack Miller, with 6 rounds to the end of the championship, and has two wins and three second places to his name.

With Marc VDS’s openly admitted intentions to field a MotoGP team in the near future, we might see Alex Marquez carrying onto the premier class in 2 or 3 years’ time, making it a truly interesting competition, as this would be the second brotherly couple to fight in the same category, after Pol Espargaro joined Tech3 Yamaha in 2014 and pits his rookie skills against his elder brother Aleix.

So far Aleix is 6th overall and the best Open class rider on the grid, and leads his brother by 4 points, with 92 over 88, 6 rounds to the end of the season.
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