Marquez’s Sprint Domination: “Perfect Saturday” But “More Margin to Push”
Marc Marquez stormed to victory in the Thailand Sprint, but he insists there he still has more to explore. Can he repeat his success in the Grand Prix?
Factory Ducati newcomer Marc Marquez completes the Thai triple in Buriram. The Spaniard takes a dominating win ahead of his brother Alex Marquez and teammate Pecco Bagnaia.
Like on Sprint Saturday, Marquez led the field from the get-go and was set for a even more dominating race win until the middle of the race when he deliberately let his brother Alex Marquez by.
Crew Chief Rigamonti confirmed after the race, that his rider encountered very low front tyre pressure. In order to not receive a time-penalty after the race, Marquez decided to fall back into the slipstream of his brother Alex.
With three laps to go and Bagnaia closing in behind, the eight-time World Champion dropped the hammer, took P1 and ran for it. Marquez finished the race with a comfortable 1.7s lead ahead of his brother.
Pecco Bagnaia completed the podium ahead of VR46 Academy colleague Franco Morbidelli. The latter fought his way through the pack starting from 9th on the grid and took 4th off of rookie Ai Ogura with ten laps to go.
The Japanese led the way for Aprilia ahead of Bezzecchi and Honda’s best Johann Zarco. The race looked doomed for KTM when the Austrians’ best Pedro Acosta crasged out of the race early on, but Brad Binder and Enea Bastianini, starting further back, managed to salvage two Top 10 results.
Jack Miller slid out of top six contention late on to end up 11th on the leading Yamaha for Pramac Racing, while Luca Marini was the sole factory team Honda at the chequered flag in 12th after team-mate Joan Mir crashed out of seventh on lap 15.
Fermin Aldeguer was 13th on his MotoGP debut with Gresini, while Pramac’s Miguel Oliveira and factory Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo completed the top 15.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez pulled out of the race with four laps to go. KTM’s Pedro Acosta crashed at Turn 1 on lap four, but rejoined to finish a distant 19th.
