“I promise, you won’t be crying this year.” – Marc Marquez
Welcome back, everyone. For the first time in 2025, it’s time to hit up the Race Reviews again, thank you as always for your continued readership, I genuinely smiled when I got to lift the Macbook open again.
For the first review of 2025, MotoGP had their unconventional season opener at fan favourite Buriram and the Chang International Circuit for the Grand Prix of Thailand. And well, there’s no other way of saying it – Marc Marquez is back. No, I’m being serious this time! Wait, don’t leave, where are you going?
Super Marquez Brothers: Wonder
There was only ever one angle that truly mattered for MotoGP going into 2025 – Was Marquez really this fast? The test indicated he was, looking more comfortable than ever exploiting the package of his GP24.9. His 2024 season told us the speed was still there, but with all the mystery of Pandemic-Era Marquez, you could never be 100% certain. Well… until Saturday, anyway.
Ever since he joined Ducati, Marquez has struggled in qualifying, often missing the front row via fighting his natural tendencies to ride the Ducati like his old Honda and leading to mistakes. This time though, pole position just ahead of his brother, and new teammate. That in hindsight should have probably been the sign that this was the one.
Marc dominated the Sprint from start to finish, leading lights to flag. He got a great start, took the holeshot and never looked back, slowly pulling away from brother Alex for Gresini, and Pecco Bagania only having the pace for third. The Italian wasn’t slow by any means, he just wasn’t Marc, and when he knew he couldn’t chase the Marquez Brothers, he backed off and took the easy third.
The Grand Prix nearly went the same way. Bagnaia and Alex Marquez tussled for second on the opening lap, with Bagnaia nearly tucking the front on the opening lap and going wide to drop to third. Marc was over a second clear and looking like he was about to dominate. But on Lap 7, he slowed down on the back straight towards Sector 2 and let Alex through. Why? His Ducati gave him the “slipstream” warning, as his tyre pressures had become dangerously low. So he tucked in behind Alex and followed him around for the bulk of the race. A good way of getting your tyre pressures back up? Sit in someone else’s dirty air for a bit!
Alex gave it everything he had, arguably the closest he’s ever been towards that elusive first GP victory, but he shredded his rear tyres trying to stay in front, and with three laps to go, Marc hit him with the final corner send to retake the lead. Three laps later, he was two seconds clear and celebrating his first victory in Ducati Red. Maybe MotoGP should take a page out of Mohammed Ben Sualyem’s book and fine Marc for playing with his food.
But it was a brilliant, virtually flawless weekend for both the Marquez brothers. Marc proved to the world that he was truly the best in the world in how he bent that race to his will, and Alex had arguably his best GP to date behind him. For them, it was their dream come true, being able to fight for a MotoGP win together for the first time as equals. As I said in Germany last year, I love my brother immensely, he’s my best friend and we share so much together. To be able to win a Grand Prix with him by your side… I can’t imagine anything more satisfying, and their celebrations in Parc Fermé afterwards summed it all up.
And it was a wonderful touch to see Rachat, the Marquez Superfan who famously cried in the crowd when Marc crashed at last year’s race just four months ago, come back and join in the celebrations. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll go back to cutting these onions…
Ogura Surprise Expectation!
The most satisfying thing about these first races is often seeing exactly how the performances fall into place now there’s no longer room to hold back. The biggest surprise of them all? Al Ogura.
Arguably the best rookie debut performance since Marc Marquez back in 2013. There were a lot of exaggerated question marks over Ogura’s hiring at Trackhouse because so many within the media became infatuated with the idea of an American rider on the American-owned team via Joe Roberts. But Davide Brivio has always had an excellent eye for talent, and I personally, always thought Ogura was a MotoGP-level talent. What I didn’t expect, was that he’d take to Aprilia so fast and be as quick as he was, straight away.
Fourth in the Sprint, staying with Pecco Bagnaia for the majority of the running, and following it up with fifth in the Grand Prix, despite being off strategy with a soft-rear tyre. Sensational performance, arguably the star of the weekend, and some more faith that Aprilia has something as a package here, and of course, Trackhouse’s best-ever result as a team in a GP. The last time that team had this kind of success, there was still a Petronas sticker on the side.
Oh, and that Gulf livery… phewie. What a shame it’s only going to be there for two rounds. Still, get a bike in the Top 5, and that might be a way of tempting some sponsors over…
The Lightning Round
Seriously though, is it not just a little embarrassing that the dominant leader of a MotoGP race has to give up a 1.5-second lead and follow another rider, just to make sure his tyre pressure is legal? Michelin’s presence in this sport is frustrating. It isn’t all on them, but it’s counter-intuitive to good racing, and this race was another example of its problems.
So for the first time in 1,931 days, Marc Marquez leads the World Championship. Or, in cooler timespans, 93 races ago. Funny that. PS: Dear big journos, going “I told you so” given one of the greatest ever is now on his greatest bike isn’t the flex you think it is. Don’t strip the nuance away, there were genuine questions to ask of Marquez, as recently as the end of this year. I wish we didn’t need everything in sports journalism to be a “Gotcha!” moment these days.
Props to Jack Appleyard in the pitlane, he was the first to put it out there that Marquez was under tyre pressure watch, and throwing it back to Assen last season. Seriously good broadcasting.
There’s hope for Team Japan again. Another unfortunate crash for Joan Mir, who tucked the front from 7th place and in comfortably in the second group (Seriously concerning, it’s his 11th DNF in his last 21 GP’s), but Johann Zarco was 7th, his best result since joining Honda, who across the board looked far more competitive, with Luca Marini also safely in the points in 12th. Jack Miller showed a lot of promise as top Yamaha on raw speed over the weekend, but ran into some of the usual Miller problems – A crash from P6 in the Sprint, and rear tyre problems dropping him into 11th in the race. Still better than Quartararo’s day mind you, who could only manage 15th. He’s never been a fan of Thailand…
KTM had Pedro Acosta running in the Top 6 before he overcooked Turn 1 and slid out on the front, so some hope there too, if a little erratic. And why is it that Enea Bastianini, who has been NOWHERE in 2025, suddenly discovers he’s him-othy in the final third of a race again? From out of the points to 0.1 seconds behind Brad Binder as the top KTM at the line. He doesn’t like KTM’s brakes, but no better time to learn than in the heat of battle. Still, I do wonder how the Italian feels about a Sprint that was 25 seconds slower than his Ducati GP24 run was just four months ago…
Oh, and isn’t it funny that Rachcat ended up on a Ducati GP25 before Jorge Martin did?
One more note, MotoGP’s new typeface and graphics package for 2025… is a bit of a downgrade, sadly. The MotoGP theme in general now is the best it’s ever been, a great bombastic anthem that suits the remixes it had in 2024 well and it felt epic. This more modern techno remix feels a little flat by comparison. As for the new typeface, it’s genuinely difficult to read at times, and removing the custom logos of the numbers feels like they’ve taken some of the character and personality away. I get it, they wanted a rebrand for the Liberty era, but some things don’t need to be tweaked. Still unlike FOX with IndyCar, at least they work. More on them tomorrow.
The Rating – 5/10 (Meh): Look, the curiosity of a new season always helps a little bit, but this wasn’t much of a weekend. Once again, these bikes are very hard when it comes to passing, and the intensity of close running at the front was somewhat negated by the overwhelming feeling that Marc Marquez was playing with his food… which he kinda was to avoid the 16-second time pressure penalty. Could be a long season for certain people. See you in Argentina.
