MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

If the sprint (and the rest of the weekend) was anything to go by, Sunday’s outcome seemed a foregone conclusion, but the hotter conditions managed to bring just a little bit of spice to proceedings. Although the race started as a copy-paste job of Saturday’s action, things got slightly more interesting when Marc Marquez willingly gave up the lead of the race in favour of his brother, only to take his trophy back in the closing stages and safely secure his first grand prix victory with the factory Ducati squad – perhaps meaningfully his 63^rd in the premier class. Although left to enjoy some time at the front, Alex Marquez had to admit defeat once again and was happy enough with second place, while Pecco Bagnaia completed the podium in a deja-vu from 24 hours ago. 

Marc Marquez made another solid start to keep the lead off the line, but this time his teammate was immediately on his tail, with Alex Marquez losing some ground after a slight contact with Bagnaia at turn 1 and briefly allowing Ai Ogura a taste at podium positions. However, the Gresini rider retaliated by the end of the opening lap, demoting both Ogura and Bagnaia to chase down his brother, who was already six tenths of a second ahead. Behind the same familiar quartet from Saturday’s action, Franco Morbidelli was busy finding a way past Raul Fernandez and Jack Miller to make up for his penalty and join the top 5 on the second lap, with Marco Bezzechi, Pedro Acosta and Joan Mir completing the top 10 early on. The KTM man didn’t last there for much longer though, crashing out at turn 1 a few laps later. 

By lap three, Marc Marquez maintained his early advantage, while Alex’s red hot pace put him 1.3 seconds ahead of Bagnaia, who again had Ogura on his tail but also Morbidelli – making the battle for third a party of three. One lap later, the leader dipped into the 1:30s to keep his brother over a second away, but it wasn’t as smooth sailing as one day ago, as the poleman seemed to get into trouble on the exit of turn 3, handing the lead to Alex Marquez at the start of lap 7. There was no real indication of what that trouble actually was, but the elder Marquez quickly regrouped to catch up with the new leader and was in no rush to make a move. The odd incident gave Bagnaia some hope as it allowed him to bridge the gap to half a second one lap later. Morbidelli was still a contender as well, while Ogura started dropping around a second behind the Italian but with a solid buffer of three and a half seconds over the chase led by Miller.

Alex Marquez continued to enjoy prime spot over the next few laps, although the thought of Marc Marquez glued to his rear tyre was probably making it even less enjoyable than the sweltering heat gnawing at him and his tyres. Given that the Ducati Lenovo man seemed happy to tag along for the ride sparked suspicions of tyre pressure issues but whatever the reason, it all felt like the calm before the storm, as Bagnaia and Morbidelli were looking like a threat to the Marquez hegemony at the halfway point of proceedings. 

Despite the shrinking gaps at the front, there was no change of positions going into the final 10 laps, the main change in the top 10 being Mir handing 7^th position to Bezzecchi after crashing out at the end of lap 15, and the Italian making good use of that to swiftly depose Miller of 6^th. That seemed to be the best the Italian could hope for, as colleague Ogura was flying the Aprilia flag over seven seconds up the road. Meanwhile, Miller started fading and dropped into Johann Zarco’s clutches, with Fabio Di Giannantonio not far behind either. The final top 10 place was being disputed by Brad Binder, Luca Marini, Raul Fernandez and, against all odds, Enea Bastianini. 

Lap 20 took another contender out of the victory battle, as Morbidelli lost touch with Bagnaia, leaving the headliners from Saturday to decide the trophies between themselves. While Marc was still keeping close enough to touch Alex, Bagnaia’s deficit hovered around eight tenths of a second until a moment for the leader at turn 11 allowed him to close right back in for the final four laps. The poleman started showing the leader a wheel over those last four laps, but Alex Marquez was not making it easy for his brother, who had to wait until the end of lap 23 to get ahead at turn 12. Once he got past, however, the elder Marquez stretched over a second of advantage in the blink of an eye, while the Gresini rider focused on controlling both his unruly Ducati on long-suffering tyres and a threatening Bagnaia. 

Marc Marquez started the final lap in control of proceedings by 1.7 seconds and finished it the same way to complete a perfect weekend in Thailand. Although it was harder work than 24 hours ago, Alex Marquez fended off Bagnaia for second place, while Morbidelli took a lonely 4^th place. Ogura continued his exceptional debut in the premier class with a 5^th place in his first full length race, while Aprilia colleague Bezzecchi climbed up to 6^th. Zarco led the charge for Honda in 7^th, with Binder the lead KTM in 8^th place. After a thoroughly underwhelming start to his KTM era, Enea Bastianini had a surprisingly good Sunday to climb into 9^th position, with Di Giannantonio completing the top 10. 

A great weekend for the Marquez household leaves them leading the world championship standings, Marc getting the full 37 points to lead Alex by 8 points. Bagnaia leaves Thailand with a 14-point deficit to his teammate, with Morbidelli and Ogura in the top 5. 

Results: