Marco Bezzecchi dominated the Thailand Grand Prix from start to finish on Sunday to make MotoGP history for Aprilia, the Italian rider becoming the first rider to win three successive races for the Italian manufacturer in a dramatic 26-lap race in Buriram.
Bezzecchi, who started from pole position but crashed from the lead of the sprint race 24 hours earlier, made immediate amends by demolishing the field to win by 5.543 seconds to add to his victories from the final two Grands Prix of 2025 in Portugal and Valencia.
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KTM’s Pedro Acosta, who won Saturday’s sprint race after a battle with Ducati’s Marc Marquez that saw the reigning world champion penalised by race stewards for “irresponsible riding”, retained the championship lead by finishing second ahead of Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez, while Marquez and his younger sibling, 2025 championship runner-up Alex Marquez, were two high-profile retirements.
Marc Marquez was behind Acosta in fourth place when the rear tyre of his Ducati came off the wheel rim at 170km/h with six laps remaining, the Spaniard fortunate to not crash as he crawled to a halt in his first race back after shoulder surgery after his accident with Bezzecchi in last October’s Indonesian Grand Prix.
Alex Marquez then crashed out of eighth place on the following lap, Ducati’s run of 88 races with at least one rider on the podium that dated back to the 2021 British Grand Prix snapped as Fabio Di Giannantonio (sixth) was Ducati’s leading finisher.
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Up front, Bezzecchi cleared away to a lead of over one second after just two laps, and led by six seconds on the penultimate lap before easing up to the emphatic win that always looked on the cards after he topped pre-season testing at the same circuit the previous weekend and led all three practice sessions before taking pole.
“Yesterday was a small mistake with big consequences,” Bezzecchi said.
“It was important today to try to bounce back. My pace was good with the medium [rear tyre], we worked super well all the weekend, so I knew I could be fast if I was in front. I tried my all to make a good start and the bike was perfect, the guys made an amazing job.”
Fernandez, third in Saturday’s sprint, looked a nailed-on second place for the majority of the race before fading late to be passed by Acosta with four laps to go, but Marc Marquez’s retirement ensured Fernandez, the 2025 Australian Grand Prix winner, was untroubled to take his third Grand Prix podium finish.
Australia’s Jack Miller, who started in 18th place, was 16th after seven laps but fell back through the field late in the race to finish 18th, ahead only of Ducati’s injury-replacement rider Michele Pirro, and was 47.848 seconds behind Bezzecchi after 26 laps.
Frenchman Fabio Quartararo, the 2021 world champion, was Yamaha’s highest-placed finisher in 14th place, half a minute behind the winner on a day that saw the Japanese manufacturer cast adrift at the back of the pack.
The second round of the 22-round MotoGP season will take place at Autódromo Internacional de Goiania Ayrton Senna in Brazil from March 20-22, the first race in the South American nation since 2004.
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