– Marc Marquez did not see the checkered flag at the 2026 MotoGP season opener in Thailand. The world champion retired on lap 21 with damage to the rear tire. The rim was also heavily damaged. The Ducati rider was able to prevent a crash. The trigger was apparently running over the curbs.
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“I was unlucky,” sighs Marquez, “because in this corner, for example, I went off the track a hundred times during testing. Or even in practice, and what happened now never happened then. Normally these curbs are made so that you can ride out there without any problems.”
“You just have to be careful when you go back [onto the track]. So I went out, but when I went back, I already noticed that the rear tire had burst. There was also a heavy blow at the rear.”
That happened in the fast left-hand Turn 4. “Yes, when entering Turn 4. Already in the middle of the corner I felt the rear wheel sliding a bit, more than usual. But I said to myself: ‘Okay, the tire is already used.'”
“And then I realized that I had to force the bike too much, so I said to myself: ‘Okay, I don’t want to take any risks. Even if I lose time, I’ll go out onto the asphalt and then come back in.'”
“It was strange because, as I said, I went a bit wide in Turn 4. It felt like I had hit a big stone, but it wasn’t a stone. Normally we often go out over the double curbs there.”
“Only this time my tire was destroyed and made to burst. So this safety path was not the best decision today. Because I think I was just completely unlucky that I destroyed my rear tire. I mean, we see that many riders go out there.”
Michelin manager Piero Taramasso also assumes in an initial statement that a curb was the cause of the damage. “Exactly, that’s what Marc told us,” said Taramasso in an interview with Canal+.
“He said: ‘The only mistake I made was that I was carried out too wide.’ He hit the same curb, the rim bent, which caused the air to escape and the tire to come off the rim. It’s really bitter for him.”
The tire damage for Marquez was the most serious of the entire weekend, but it wasn’t the only problem. “Many rims came back to us in the pit tent that were bent because it was extremely hot,” said Taramasso.
“The material is really soft, and the curbs are very aggressive. For example, Jorge Martin’s pressure loss [in the sprint] at the front was the same: he hit a curb, the front wheel bent and the air escaped.”
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“Jorge had a slow puncture, while Marc lost the air suddenly.” In the sprint, Martin therefore fell below the prescribed minimum pressure in the front tire. Since a slow puncture was the cause, there was no time penalty.
Joan Mir also retires with tire problem
In the Grand Prix, Joan Mir also had to give up with a tire problem. However, the tire did not jump off the rim for the Honda rider and he was able to drive slowly towards the pits. For him, the problem occurred just shortly after Marquez’s retirement.
“We first have to properly check what could have happened there, because it was very strange,” puzzles Mir. “Normally you feel everywhere when the tire degrades, but in this case I had to give up. I couldn’t even stay on the bike because it was dangerous.”
“It came quite unexpectedly because it happened from one lap to the next. Okay, in the end I think we all had a drop in the tire. Everyone here struggled a lot with tire management, but this was something else, so we have to understand that.”
“I had vibrations, and also the electronics didn’t work properly. The bike couldn’t handle this amount of slip, and probably in the end nothing worked properly anymore.”
Mir was in fourth place at the time of the retirement and was the best Honda rider. Marquez was fourth directly behind Pedro Acosta (KTM) before his tire burst. The duo quickly caught up to Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse-Aprilia) at the start of the final phase.
What would have been possible for Marquez? “Sure, it was P4. Optimistically P3. And why not P2? In the first phase of the race I tried to manage my physical condition and also the tires. But then when there were ten laps left, I gave it my all.”
“I closed the gap, especially to Raul, but also to Acosta: I got closer to him step by step. Looking at the whole weekend, I’m personally satisfied. Because even though I rode in a somewhat strange way, I was there.”
“But it’s true, of course: in the end we got zero points in the race,” sighs Marquez. With the nine championship points for second place in the sprint, he left Thailand in eighth place in the World Championship.
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