Franco Morbidelli saved Francesco Bagnaia at bay to assert his first MotoGP podium since 2021 in third, having cleverly managed the gentle rear tyre.
After intentionally letting brother Alex lead within the Thai season opener, a small mistake by Marc at Flip 1 on lap 4 put the Gresini rider forward on Sunday.
“This time I pushed!” Marc mentioned in parc ferme.
The Marquez brothers quickly had firm within the type of VR46’s Morbidelli, who rolled the cube by sticking with the gentle rear tyre whereas a lot of the grid moved to the medium.
Morbidelli’s tempo started to fade at mid-distance, leaving a Marquez vs Marquez victory duel and organising a Morbidelli vs Bagnaia battle for the ultimate podium place.
Alex, who had a touch higher tempo than Marc on the medium rear tyre in warm-up, gained a couple of bike lengths when the #93 suffered a leg-off scare with ten laps to go.
However the eight-time world champion rapidly recovered and was crawling everywhere in the again of the Gresini machine once more.
The youthful Marquez held agency and Marc’s first lunge, on the Flip 5 hairpin with eight laps to go, backfired when he ran extensive.
Marc tried once more with 5 laps remaining and held his line to safe victory.
The podium battle was settled in Morbidelli’s favour by simply half-a-second from Bagnaia, who trudged disappointedly into the Ducati storage after the race.
Fourth within the Dash, entrance row starter Johann Zarco felt the medium rear may assist him declare Honda’s first podium of the post-Marquez period.
The Frenchman put up a spirited early problem, swapping third with Bagnaia earlier than Morbidelli surged via.
Zarco then misplaced out on fifth place to Morbidelli’s team-mate Fabio di Giannantonio, on the gentle tyre, on the very last lap.
KTM’s Brad Binder completed nearly seven-seconds behind Zarco in seventh, with Trackhouse Aprilia rookie Ai Ogura recovering effectively to eighth forward of Binder’s pissed off team-mate Pedro Acosta.
Joan Mir accomplished the highest ten for HRC, with Alex Rins the main Yamaha in eleventh after a troublesome weekend for the M1s.
2023 Argentine winner Marco Bezzecchi hit the again of Rins’ team-mate Fabio Quartararo into Flip 1. The Aprilia rider crashed closely, whereas Quartararo dropped to the again of the sector.
The FIM MotoGP stewards dominated no additional motion whereas Raul Fernandez later acquired an extended lap penalty for inflicting Enea Bastianini to crash.
