2025 Thai MotoGP: Marc Marquez overcomes early scare to win opening round
Marquez dropped runaway lead but rallied late on
Marc Marquez completed the clean sweep at the 2025 MotoGP Thai Grand Prix as he brushed off an early scare to score his first grand prix win as a factory Ducati rider.
The eight-time world champion has made a perfect start to the 2025 season, his first with the works Ducati team, after claiming the pole/sprint win/grand prix victory clean sweep at Buriram.
Marquez led the way from pole and was over a second clear when on lap seven he dropped behind his brother Alex Marquez on the Gresini-run GP24 Ducati.
There was no evident signs of an issue, but Marquez sat behind his brother until lap 23 of 26 when he retook the lead at the final corner.
He quickly darted away to take the chequered flag by 1.732s, with Alex Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Factory) replicating Saturday’s sprint podium.
VR46 Ducati rider Franco Morbidelli was fourth after recovering from a grid penalty, while Ai Ogura completed the top five to cap off a stunning MotoGP debut for the Trackhouse Aprilia entrant.
Just as he did in Saturday’s sprint, Marc Marquez grabbed the holeshot at the start of the 26-lap race as team-mate Bagnaia briefly moved into second after a hard move on Alex Marquez at Turn 1.
Gresini’s Marquez was also jumped by Ogura on the run down to Turn 3, but vaulted back ahead of the rookie to get back into the podium places on the exit of the hairpin.
He then snatched second back from Bagnaia with a firm pass at Turn 8.
All of this allowed Marc Marquez to move almost six tenths clear of the field come the end of the first lap, with that gap growing to over a second by the start of lap five.
Bagnaia already found himself cast adrift of the victory battle, his deficit to Alex Marquez a second at the start of lap three.
But just as Marc Marquez looked like he was cruising away, he slowed coming out of Turn 3 on lap seven, which allowed Alex Marquez to come through to the lead.
There was no clear sign of an issue, with it thought the factory Ducati rider may have been trying to get his front tyre pressure up to avoid a penalty.
Alex Marquez led with his brother right on his tail until lap 23, when Marc Marquez scythed past into Turn 12 to re-establish himself at the front of the field.
That marked the end of the victory battle, with Marc Marquez cruising to the chequered flag to register his first season-opening grand prix win since 2014.
He leads the championship by eight points.
Alex Marquez registered a brace of seconds at Buriram to start his 2025 season off strongly for Gresini.
Bagnaia closed in on the leading duo in the mid-part of the race, but ended up 0.666s shy of Alex Marquez at the bottom of the podium.
Behind the top five came Marco Bezzecchi, who was sixth on his factory Aprilia debut, while Johann Zarco was top Honda in seventh ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder, his Tech3 counterpart Enea Bastianini, and VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio.
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.
