How ominous was Marquez's Thai dominance? (ad-free)
Added 2025-03-03 11:26:34 +0000 UTCIt wasn’t just Marc Marquez dominating the 2025 MotoGP season-opener - it was the Marquez family, as his brother Alex not only backed him up in qualifying and both races but was also allowed to lead much of the grand prix to ensure Marc dodged a likely penalty.
Has that set the tone for the whole season to come? In the Thai Grand Prix episode of The Race MotoGP Podcast, Simon Patterson, Val Khorounzhiy and Matt Beer look at everything that led to the Marquez domination including Pecco Bagnaia’s inability to challenge his team-mate all weekend.
The quirk of his team switch that led to Marquez being at risk of a tyre penalty is explained too, along with the effect of the ferociously hot temperatures on a weekend that left many riders literally burned by their bikes.
Star rookie Ai Ogura and what his performance means for Aprilia features too, and we pass judgements on weekends of both highs and lows for Honda and Yamaha, but mostly lows for KTM.
Comments
Pecco is getting a real taste of what Martin must have felt at Ducati last year; that realisation that you aren’t going to be the golden boy if when Marc is around.
awinthum
2025-03-06 16:43:08 +0000 UTCI’ll piggy back on your prediction, but instead of retiring after 26, Marc goes back to HRC to retire.
Aaron
2025-03-04 22:12:01 +0000 UTCAnother (not particularly) lairy prediction: Marc will win the 25 championship AND the 26 championship and retire prior to the rule reset. Remember Marc riding from 15th to 5th last year on a significantly less good bike than Pecco? Even with Pecco being the precision rider he is, I think Marc can give him a serious run for his money even on those weekends where all the stars are aligning for FB63. It's absolutely possible that Marc wins every race, and, for me, the championship is already a given.
awinthum
2025-03-04 16:01:14 +0000 UTCPecco looked after the race like someone who had just realized what Marc really means. Come on pecco, you already have one year on the gp24 under your Belt. (Yeah Yeah its updated whatever.. He knows the base bike). He can't be outperformed like that if he is the alleged legend that everbody talks about. To me he seems like a rider who has a fairly narrow window in which he can reach his peak. (But at his peak, pecco is very fast, no doubt) Still he profited massively from essentially only fighting a guy on a satellite bike for some years who on the second attenpt beat him. Thats now over. Marc in the other Box means business and Alex gelling with the GP24 adds more spice in the Mix. And with tardozzi and dall'igna loving Marc, he'll win the team over fairly soon.
Ben
2025-03-04 07:53:24 +0000 UTC
