Marc Marquez leads family one-two at Thailand GP

Six-time champion Marc Marquez is the early leader in the standings as he chases his first title since 2019

Spain's Marc Marquez completed a double with victory in the opening race of the MotoGP season at the Thailand Grand Prix.

The 32-year-old six-time former champion won Saturday's sprint race at the Buriram International Circuit in his first competitive outing for his new team Ducati and started Sunday's race as pole-sitter.

And for the second day in a row he beat younger brother Alex into second, finishing 1.732sec clear of his 28-year-old sibling.

Although Marc started strongly in the hot and humid conditions, Alex grabbed the lead in the seventh lap of the 26-lap race before his older brother regained the advantage with three laps to go to win the opening race of the season for the first time since 2014.

The 2022 and 2023 champion Francesco Bagnaia of Italy, who also rides for Ducati, was a further 0.666sec back for his second third place finish of the weekend.

Marquez made the switch from Gresini Racing at the end of last season.

"Yesterday I was happy, today I am super happy," said the winner, who is chasing a first world title since 2019. "I mean it's a dream."

"For one moment I thought I might hold on to win," admitted Alex. "But he was able to not use a lot of rear tyre and I was using up everything."

"I gave my all," said Bagnaia. "But Marc, he was playing with us all day. So maximum ambition was to finish in P2 but it we finished in P3."

The opening races took place without defending world champion Jorge Martin, who is recovering from fractures to his right hand and left foot after a crash during pre-season testing in Malaysia.

It is not yet clear when the Aprilia rider will be back in action but he will miss the next races of the season in Argentina on 15 and 16 March.

Results

Thailand Grand Prix result:

1 Marc Marquez (Spa) Ducati 39 minutes 37.244 seconds

2 Alex Marquez (Spa) Ducati +1.732 secs

3 Francesco Bagnaia (Ita) Ducati +2.398 secs

4 Franco Morbidelli (Ita) Ducati +5.176 secs

5 Ai Ogura (Jpn) Aprilia +7.450 secs

6 Marco Bezzecchi (Ita) Aprilia +14.967 secs

7 Johann Zarco (Fra) Honda +15.225 secs

8 Brad Binder (SA) KTM +19.929 secs

9 Enea Bastianini (Ita) KTM +20.053 secs

10 Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ita) Ducati +21.546 secs

Overall standings:

1 Marc Marquez (Spa) Ducati 37 points

2 Alex Marquez (Spa) Ducati 29

3 Francesco Bagnaia (Ita) Ducati 23

4 Franco Morbidelli (Ita) Ducati 18

5 Ai Ogura (Jpn) Aprilia 17