You will have noticed it, if Marc Marquez annoys with his style and has not only made friends on the track, he has never had trouble with Andrea Dovizioso. And bearing in mind, the two crossed swords many times. HAS Buriram, they experienced their fourth duel for victory until the last corner in fourteen months. And upon arrival, they fell into each other's arms...
This shows that it is possible to play with limits, to give in completely, without getting angry afterwards. A situation that DesmoDovi highlighted as follows: “cIt's good when a race goes like this. Either with a lot of overtaking, but within the limits of correctness and safety. I would be happy if we continue like this ».
The opening MotoGP race in Buriram was the fourth time in fourteen months that Dovizioso et Marquez were fighting for victory in the last corner. During the three previous editions, Dovizioso had imposed itself. But this time, Brandza made a crucial overtake on his rival in turn 5 of the Thai track, and the Ducati rider's immediate retaliation proved futile.
The last option of Dovizioso was to try a "block pass" at the last turn, but Marquez parried the blow and managed to win by a tenth of a second. The Ducati rider explained that his attempts to immediately regain control of the race ultimately compromised his chances: “ unfortunately, my strategy was not perfect, because I did not know the positive and negative points of Marc, since I was always in front of him“, said the Ducati official.
« When he overtook me at turn 5, I tried to respond immediately, because I thought I had no chance of counterattacking before the last corner. But it didn't work because I lost time in turn 6 and realized in turn 10 that he had tire problems. I didn't realize it until it was too late. I was able to recover a few meters, but not enough to be very close to stopping it in the last braking zone. If I hadn't tried turn 5, I could have played differently in the last turn ».
Marquez commented for his part: “ I tried to do like in Austria with Jorge, to arrive in the lead in the last sector and that was the main target for me. On the Red Bull Ring, I wasn't able to do it because I lost too much at turn 3, but I prepared the whole race for this overtake at turn 5 in Buriram, and there I succeeded ».
« With three laps to go, I was already trying to imagine how it was going to go, but I couldn't stop the bike, it was jumping a lot from the rear and it was starting to chatter. I couldn't brake properly. “Then I said to myself, 'OK if Dovi comes out on top, he's going to win.' But then I tried to play my cards another way and it worked well but it was very close. We both deserved the victory because he had a very good race ».
Thai Grand Prix, Buriram, MotoGP J.3: classification
| 1 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda | 39'55.722 |
| 2 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | +0.115 |
| 3 | 25 | Maverick VIÑALES | Yamaha | +0.270 |
| 4 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | +1.564 |
| 5 | 5 | johann zarco | Yamaha | +2.747 |
| 6 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | +3.023 |
| 7 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | +6.520 |
| 8 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Ducati | +6.691 |
| 9 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ducati | +9.944 |
| 10 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati | +11.077 |
| 11 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | +15.488 |
| 12 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | Yamaha | +17.691 |
| 13 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | +21.413 |
| 14 | 21 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Honda | +22.802 |
| 15 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | KTM | +23.628 |
| 16 | 45 | Scott REDDING | Aprilia | +23.804 |
| 17 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | Ducati | +32.507 |
| 18 | 10 | Xavier SIMEON | Ducati | +37.216 |
| 19 | 81 | Jordi TORRES | Ducati | +39.204 |
| 20 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Honda | +39.421 |
| 21 | 44 | Pol Espargaró | KTM | +53.388 |
| 22 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Honda | 2 lapses |
| Not Classified | ||||
| 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 8 lapses |
