Race report

MotoGP Thai GP: Marco Bezzecchi's flawless Aprilia win ends Ducati's podium streak

Bezzecchi converts pole to victory at Buriram as Marc Marquez retires with tyre issues

Marco Bezzecchi dominated the Thailand Grand Prix from start to finish to claim an emphatic MotoGP victory for Aprilia, while Ducati failed to log a podium for the first time in five years.

Having crashed out of the lead in Saturday’s sprint, Bezzecchi didn’t put a foot wrong in the main race as he led every single lap en route to a 5.5s victory.

This was the Italian's seventh career victory in MotoGP, and third in a row; he had also triumphed in the final two races of the 2025 season.

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When the opening round of the 2026 season got under way, Bezzecchi made a perfect launch from pole position on his factory Aprilia, while Trackhouse rider Fernandez swept past Marc Marquez at Turn 7 to put two RS-GPs at the front.

Bezzecchi and Fernandez immediately began to clear in the opening phase of the race, benefitting from an intense battle for third between Marc Marquez, Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta.

Reigning champion Marquez initially appeared to struggle for rhythm and lost places to both Martin and Acosta in quick succession on lap 4. But as Martin and sprint winner Acosta fought for position, Marquez forced his way back into contention and even repassed both on lap 10 with a double move into Turn 4.

However, Acosta had the strongest pace of the trio, and soon reclaimed third with a decisive move over Marquez at Turn 8.

Pedro Acosta, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Lillian Suwanrumpha / AFP via Getty Images

But by this point, the leading two riders had checked out at the front, with Bezzecchi leading the race by two seconds and Fernandez having a buffer of three seconds over Acosta.

While Saturday’s half-distance race went down the wire, the grand prix was decided relatively early, with neither Fernandez nor Acosta putting together a late challenge on Bezzecchi.

Fernandez appeared on course to finish second but began to lose pace with seven laps to run, opening the door for Acosta to claim the runner-up spot.

The Trackhouse rider could have dropped out of the podium fight entirely but Marquez suffered a spectacular rear tyre puncture while running him in fourth, forcing the Ducati rider into retirement.

Marquez was following Fernandez and Acosta into the high-speed Turn 6 when the rear tyre on his GP26 suddenly delaminated and came off the rim, ending his race on the spot.

With the reigning world champion out, Fernandez hung on to the final spot on the podium, despite clearly struggling with a physical issue that had also troubled him during Sunday morning's warm-up.

Martin picked up a solid haul of points in fourth, while Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura produced an incredible recovery after dropping outside the top 10 to put all Aprilias inside the top five.

The best-placed Ducati was Fabio di Giannantonio in sixth, the VR46 rider beating KTM’s Brad Binder and team-mate Franco Morbidelli. The result ended Ducati's streak of podiums stretching back to the 2021 British GP.

RACE

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	26	39'36.270		179.3		25
2	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	26	+5.543 39'41.813	5.543	178.9		20
3	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	26	+9.259 39'45.529	3.716	178.6		16
4	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	26	+12.182 39'48.452	2.923	178.4		13
5	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	26	+12.411 39'48.681	0.229	178.4		11
6	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	26	+16.845 39'53.115	4.434	178.1		10
7	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	26	+17.363 39'53.633	0.518	178.0		9
8	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	26	+18.227 39'54.497	0.864	178.0		8
9	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	26	+18.340 39'54.610	0.113	178.0		7
10	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	26	+19.101 39'55.371	0.761	177.9		6
11	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	26	+19.903 39'56.173	0.802	177.8		5
12	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	26	+23.386 39'59.656	3.483	177.6		4
13	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	26	+24.686 40'00.956	1.300	177.5		3
14	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	26	+30.823 40'07.093	6.137	177.0		2
15	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	26	+32.955 40'09.225	2.132	176.9		1
16	M. Viñales Tech 3	12	KTM	26	+36.545 40'12.815	3.590	176.6
17	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7	Yamaha	26	+39.194 40'15.464	2.649	176.4
18	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	26	+47.848 40'24.118	8.654	175.8
19	M. Pirro Gresini Racing	51	Ducati	26	+1'03.598 40'39.868	15.750	174.7
dnf	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	23	+3 Laps 36'04.638	3 Laps	174.1	Retirement
dnf	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	21	+5 Laps 32'38.163	2 Laps	178.6	Accident
dnf	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	20	+6 Laps 31'11.314	1 Lap	179.5	Retirement
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