Ducati “strategy was a mistake” after Marc Marquez worry at Thailand MotoGP

The fault for Marc Marquez’s brief worry at the Thailand MotoGP has been placed on his Ducati engineers.

The factory Ducati grand prix debutant was leading at Buriram from pole position when he abruptly looked over his shoulder, and dropped to P2 behind his brother Alex Marquez.

It was unclear how serious Marc’s problem was until it was presumed a tyre pressure issue when he shot in front of Alex later, to claim victory.

TNT Sports’ Michael Laverty analysed: “One option is that the rim was leaking so it was losing temperature.

“But I think because the ambient temperature cooled, they worked on the assumption of what the tyre temperature would get to.

“But it never got there. Even when he was pushing and setting fast lap times.

“He dropped the hammer, but it never came up.

“He had a warning on his dash. So he looked behind, and dropped behind Alex.

“Then controlled the race.

“The light alerted him when he was over the minimum tyre pressure for 60% of the race so he dropped the hammer again, and pulled out almost two seconds.

“He was playing with the strategy.

“The strategy was a mistake on the Ducati engineers’ part, to have the front tyre pressure too low, in my opinion.

“But the fact is: Marc still made it happen.”

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Sylvain Guintoli added: “It would have been a 16-second penalty for the infraction.

“It’s a little bit surprising that Ducati set the pressure too low.

“You’d expect him, from pole, to be leading.

“They have software to calculate all of this.

“Unless he had a leak of air, or something like that?

“He had to step back to get the pressure back up.”

Laverty continued: “That was a statement when he passed Alex into the last corner.

“It was a perfectly executed pass. Not easy to put it up the inside of someone who brakes as late as Alex, and to not miss the apex.

“He turned it, squared it, drive up the corner, and off he went…

“He did exactly what he needed to do.”

Laverty said about Marquez’s dominance at Buriram: “To be leading the championship after the first round? First time he’s done it since 2014.

“A double victory? The only other time he’s done that is in Aragon last year.

“It’s a nice thing for the Marquez brothers, not just Marc.

“Alex was outstanding from the first practice to the chequered flag.”

The eight-time world champion won Saturday’s sprint and Sunday’s grand prix.