Thailand MotoGP: Unstoppable Marquez leaves rivals in the dust

The 2025 Thailand MotoGP could have easily been called the Marc Marquez show as the Spaniard dominated the race from the word go. Starting from pole, Marquez crossed the finish line 1.732 seconds ahead of his brother, Alex, followed by his teammate and two-time MotoGP world champion, Francesco Bagnaia. Marquez also became the first Ducati rider to win a Grand Prix on debut since Casey Stoner in 2007.

Marc Marquez: A tease or genuine trouble?

As expected Marc made a blistering start and led the way forward with Alex and Bagnaia shadowing him. After a couple of laps, it became quite clear that no one could come close to the Ducati rider and the six-time world champion was going the dominate the race from start to finish. Out of the blue, Marquez began to slow down on lap 7 as his brother took the lead for the majority of the race. Marc later explained that he slowed down to manage the tyre temperature. 

The GP may have taken an interesting turn, but Marc was always breathing down his brother’s neck, while Bagnaia remained isolated and was unable to challenge the Marquez brothers. On lap 26, Marc made his move, overtaking Alex with ease to secure the win at the Thailand GP.

Marc was playing with us: Bagnaia

Bagnaia would have loved to start the new season with a win, but throughout the weekend, the Ducati rider was third-best. After the race, he said, “I’m here to win, so I’m not happy but satisfied (not fully) as it could be worse.” Asked when he closed in on Alex Marquez, was he in the fight for a second? With a quick smile, he said, every time I was closing the gap, I was losing it due to the tyre pressure. “The only possibility to overtake him (Alex) was to have the pace as Marc because he was playing with us,” Bagnaia added. 

Dream start for rookie Ai Ogura

Debutant Ai Ogura showed he wasn’t going to be overwhelmed on the biggest stage as he finished fifth behind VR46’s Franco Morbidelli. The Trackhouse rider consistently outperformed his teammate Raul Fernandez as the Japanese rider finished four in the sprint race and qualified fifth for the Sunday race. Even though it is only the first race of the season, Ogura finished ahead of Aprilia factory team rider, Marco Bezzecchi, who came sixth. 

Johan Zarco of LCR Honda was the only rider from a Japanese team to come in the top ten as he came seventh ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder, Tech 3’s Enea Bastianini and VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio.