MotoGP Thailand GP: Marquez scores brilliant win on factory Ducati debut

Marc Marquez outdueled his brother in a strategic masterclass to claim victory on his debut with the factory Ducati MotoGP team in the Thailand Grand Prix.

Polesitter Marquez purposefully sat behind Gresini’s Alex Marquez for a large section of the race and made the decisive move on him with four laps to run to claim what was an otherwise comfortable 1.7s victory at Buriram.

Alex Marquez made it a memorable 1-2 for the Spanish brothers, while Francesco Bagnaia had to settle for third position despite closing rapidly on the leading duo in the closing stages.

At the start of the race, Marquez pulled away cleanly from pole position to grab the holeshot, while a superior getaway allowed his team-mate Bagnaia to pass the Gresini bike of Alex Marquez for second into Turn 1.

Bagnaia and Alex Marquez appeared to make contact at the exit of the same corner, forcing the Spaniard wide off the track and behind Ai Ogura, but he quickly repassed both Ogura and Bagnaia to reclaim second position.

At the front, Marc Marquez extended to the best part of 1.5s and was seemingly on his way to a dominant win when he mysteriously slowed down at Turn 3 on lap 7, allowing his brother to snatch the lead at the following straight.

While it initially appeared the six-time MotoGP champion had hit mechanical issues, he was back up to speed right away, slotting in behind the Gresini bike for the next phase of the race. This suggested that he had purposefully slowed down to keep tyre pressures under control.

As the end of the race approached, it became clear that Marc Marquez had a pace advantage over his brother Alex, who was struggling with the rear grip on his GP24.

On lap 23, the 32-year-old sent his factory Ducati up the inside of Alex Marquez and pulled off the move to reclaim the lead.

The former Honda star quickly picked up the pace on the following lap to build a buffer for himself, eventually winning the race by the best part of two seconds to secure the maximum haul of points from the Thai opener. He had already won the sprint race on Saturday.

Alex Marquez didn’t have the pace to keep up with his brother on the last three laps, but did more than enough to hold off the other works Ducati of Bagnaia, who at one stage appeared to be in contention for race win.

Fourth place went to the VR46 Ducati of Franco Morbidelli, who dropped three seconds behind the podium runners after challenging Bagnaia for third during the middle section of the race.

Trackhouse rookie Ogura put on a stunning performance on his MotoGP debut to finish fifth, even beating the factory Aprilia of Marco Bezzecchi, who finished more than seven seconds behind in sixth place.

LCR’s Johann Zarco charged from 12th on the grid to take an excellent seventh on the best of the Hondas, ahead of factory KTM rider Brad Binder and Tech3’s Enea Bastianini, who also moved up the order in the final laps of the race.

Binder and Bastianini were the only points scorers for KTM as Maverick Vinales finished a distant 16th and Pedro Acosta wound up 19th after remounting on his bike following a crash on lap 3.

Completing the top 10 was Fabio di Giannantonio for VR46.

Raul Fernandez and Joan Mir were the only two riders to retire from the race.

MotoGP Thailand GP: Race results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	26	-				25
2	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	26	+1.732 1.732	1.732			20
3	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	26	+2.398 2.398	0.666			16
4	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	26	+5.176 5.176	2.778			13
5	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	26	+7.450 7.450	2.274			11
6	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	26	+14.967 14.967	7.517			10
7	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	26	+15.225 15.225	0.258			9
8	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	26	+19.929 19.929	4.704			8
9	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	26	+20.053 20.053	0.124			7
10	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	26	+21.546 21.546	1.493			6
11	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	26	+22.315 22.315	0.769			5
12	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	26	+23.940 23.940	1.625			4
13	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	26	+24.760 24.760	0.820			3
14	M. Oliveira Pramac Racing	88	Yamaha	26	+26.097 26.097	1.337			2
15	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	26	+26.456 26.456	0.359			1
16	M. Viñales Tech 3	12	KTM	26	+28.770 28.770	2.314
17	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	26	+31.095 31.095	2.325
18	S. Chantra Team LCR	35	Honda	26	+31.480 31.480	0.385
19	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	26	+42.115 42.115	10.635
20	L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team	32	Aprilia	26	+46.827 46.827	4.712
dnf	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	22	4 laps			Retirement
dnf	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	14	12 laps			Retirement
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