Alex Marquez failing to overtake brother Marc in the Dutch TT sprint prompted "curiosity" from one of their MotoGP rivals - but he believes there was no way to make the move work despite his pace.
Marc had worked his way past Alex with a lighting start and, though the fact they got through on Fabio Quartararo in quick succession meant Marc never got to break away, he always seemed to have a race under control.
A fifth-lap look at Duikersloot, the second of two fast right-handers towards the end of the lap, proved as close as Alex would ever get to claiming the lead.
And for Joan Mir, who ended up able to watch the race after crashing out off-line at Turn 3 at the start, that was surprising.
"I was curious!" said Mir. "You have to ask to him, but I saw that he had something more, especially in sector three and four.
"I don't know in the last laps, because when everything starts to slide a bit, Marc is very good at it - but in the previous laps I saw that Alex could have the opportunity without any problem to overtake him.
"Before the chicane, the fast corner on the left [Ramshoek]. There he had the opportunity, and I don't know why [it never came].
"Probably he was expecting the drop of Marc, or just happy with the points he was pulling out over Pecco. I saw Alex very strong today, honestly.”
That position was echoed by Marc himself, who said that he wasn't the fastest rider out there.
"The fastest guy in practice was Pecco. On the sprint I believe it was Alex," he said.
However, both Marquezes insisted it was not too unusual that Alex - who has been at the centre of something of a debate already as to whether he's fighting his brother hard enough as a title rival - could not find any good opportunity to get past.
"Turn 12 [Meeuwenmeer] was the only point that I was able to do it. 11 [Duikersloot], there it's not really clever," Alex insisted.
"The main problem is that I was faster than him in the points that it's more difficult to overtake, that is sector three, especially with these wings and all that.
"In the past we saw many overtakes there, Turn 12 to 13, but there I was not able to do it. Later on he was really fast in the last corners, going in the chicane, and first corner - that is the two points that are more clear on the braking point, it's more safe [to overtake].
"I was not able to attack him. I tried, I was really close on him, but I was not fast in the points that you need to be fast to attack a rider."
Alex said he wasn't really suffering with tyre temperature issues in Marc's tow and could follow him with little trouble in terms of bike handling - the Ducati proving "really stable and really good". But he did think Marc was benefitting from clean air in how he was able to attack two key points: Haarbocht (the first corner) and the Geert Timmer chicane.
Alex did also pick up a track limits warning around halfway point that further complicated his ambition to get to the lead.
"I did a really bad start. I'm sure I lost the sprint win at the start and it's something we need to fix," he said.
The elder Marquez saw the events of the race - which put him 43 points clear of Alex - similarly.
"I knew Alex was super fast on that Turn 11-12, but there if you don't do any big mistake it's super difficult to overtake. So just I'm very strong on the brake points, that is my strong point, so it's there where I just focused.
"Be precise, brake in a correct way and just manage all the weak points, and as a Ducati rider I know where are the strong points of Alex and Pecco.
"I didn't watch the race [back] but the [other] bike was super close. Alex was very fast. And I knew that Alex in the sprints, normally he's using a lot the rear tyre and he's very fast.
"The problem is that sometimes you want [to attack] and you can't. It's like in Silverstone [in the sprint]. I was close to him but I couldn't attack him. Looks like you can, but if the rider in front has a good drive [out of the corners] and is braking late, and doesn't do any mistakes, then it's super difficult to overtake.
"And then - I don't know if he tried everything or not, but my strong points and my bike set-up, I need to say, that it's just for the brakes. Here for that reason I'm struggling more - you have only three braking points. But it's where normally the riders overtake."
