MotoGP Thai GP: Marc Marquez Wins Season Opener Ahead of Alex Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia

Last year, Marc Marquez broke his winless record atop a Gresini Ducati. This year, he broke a bigger record riding atop the Factory Ducati by winning a season opening race — his first since 2014. He is also now the first rider to win on his debut with a team since Caset Stoner in 2007. Just like in the Sprint, he was followed by his younger brother Alex Marquez in second place and Francesco Bagnaia in third. The elder Marquez managed to bag pole, sprint win and race win during the weekend.

While Marquez looked fast throughout the weekend and was a prime contender for the win, his race was thrown in jeopardy when he got passed by his brother on Lap 7. While Marc had a decent lead of over a second on Alex, he suddenly slowed down and was overtaken. Initially, it looked like there was a technical issue that might lead to retirement, but the Spaniard was up to speed rather quickly and on the rear tyre of his younger brother. He had presumably slowed down due to a tyre pressure warning flashing on his dashboard. Since you are supposed to run 50% of the race at a defined tyre pressure, Marc might have chosen to get behind his brother to comply. Marc finally overtook Alex on Lap 23 on the final corner as the latter’s machine started to struggle for grip.

The top non-Ducati finisher was the Trackhouse Racing’s Ai Ogura. The rookie was the other star throughout the weekend thanks to his stellar performance in both the sprint and then in the race. He finished P5 and was the highest-scoring Aprilia on the grid. Ahead of him was Franky Morbidelli, who did a good job of negating his three-place penalty for impeding Bagnaia in qualifying. Raul Fernandez, the other Trackhouse rider, had to retire before the end of the race. Aprilia’s factory rider, Marco Bezzecchi, had a much better start compared to the Sprint and was able to finish in a respectable P6.

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The lead Yamaha on the grid was Jack Miller on his Pramac machine, finishing eleventh. Factory rider Fabio Quartararo had some struggles in the first few laps and fell all the way back to P18 at one point but did manage to snatch one point by finishing fifteenth. The Hondas fared slightly better in the race, with Joan Mir being the only casualty. The former world champion crashed on the final corner on Lap 16. Somkiat Chantra, on his MotoGP debut, could not score any points, finishing P18. Meanwhile, Johann Zarco quietly finished the race in P7, earning nine points.

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Just like most of last year, while Pedro Acosta was quick on his KTM RC16, he had trouble staying on the saddle. On Lap 4, the young rider went wide and crashed at Turn 1. He did remount but finished second to last. Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini brought home points in P8 and P9, respectively.