Marquez scores brilliant win on factory Ducati debut

Marc Marquez outduelled 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.

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, eventually winning the race by the best part of two seconds to secure the maximum haul of points from the Thai opener, having 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 once 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.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Ogura put on a stunning performance on his MotoGP debut to finish fifth for Trackhouse Aprilia, even beating the factory Aprilia of Marco Bezzecchi in sixth place.

LCR’s Johann Zarco charged from 12th on the grid to take an excellent seventh as the best of the Hondas, ahead of factory KTM rider Brad Binder and Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini.

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