Marc Marquez “should scare” rivals, gap “maybe worse than we realised”
Fear expressed for MotoGP rivals after Marc Marquez's start in Thailand
Marc Marquez’s MotoGP rivals should fear his dominance after a breath-taking opening round, they have been told.
On his factory Ducati debut, Marquez claimed pole then won the sprint and the grand prix at the Thailand MotoGP last weekend.
He sits top of the standings already - arguably the best rider ever on the best bike of today, a fearsome combination.
His closest competitor on Sunday in Buriram was his brother Alex Marquez, who finished second.
“That plays into Marc’s hands,” Peter McLaren told the Crash MotoGP podcast. “If there’s anybody he’d like to be fighting with…
“If there’s anybody Marc wants between himself and Pecco, it’s his brother!”
He added: “We never saw Marc pushing the limit of the bike! There was one moment in Saturday practice when he tried a different setup, then they realised ‘we don’t need to push the limit’.
“Pecco said ‘Marc was playing with us’ and that’s how a lot of people saw it. He rode at the pace needed to win, and that’s it.
“Take Marc out of the equation and we have an even fight between the satellite Ducatis.
“But Marc looks a step ahead of everybody.”
Marc Marquez 'should scare some of his rivals'
Marquez claimed afterwards that he felt like the best version of himself since 2020, the year where his injury nightmare began.
Lewis Duncan added: “It says a lot about where he’s at, in his head, now.
“For the last few years we have seen a rider who is reserved about his potential after the injury.
“He never spoke about 2020 as a year where he could have kicked on.
“It should scare some of his rivals.
Analysis: Marc Marquez’s rivals were spared an even more brutal beatdown
“If that’s the mind-set he’s in, that’s the form he’s feeling, on a bike that is infinitely better than the Honda ever was, you look at his rivals and think ‘how could they possibly even think about getting on level terms with him’.
“Bagnaia being on the back foot has maybe exaggerated the gap a bit. The practice analysis after Friday showed there was under two tenths between them.
“In theory, Pecco should have been closer in the sprint and the grand prix.
“To be that far off, straight away - he was a second behind second-place after three or four laps - is a massive amount just to get ahead of Alex Marquez!
“It’s maybe worse than we realised in the winter.
“The challenge facing everyone is a lot, lot harder.
“I didn’t think Pecco could win [in Thailand] but he needed to be in the ballpark. But he starts even further back than we thought possible. That’s where the real concern will be.”
Worryingly for everybody outside of the Marquez camp, the second MotoGP round on March 14-16 is in Argentina.
The championship heads to the Circuit of the Americas afterwards.
That means after his dominant start, Marquez heads to two of his classic favourites next.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
