Marco Bezzecchi
Francesco Bagnaia accused Marc Marquez of ‘playing’ with his MotoGP rivals at the Thailand Grand Prix last weekend. And he may be right.
Marquez had set the pace during testing and he looked like a rider who had the entire field in his pocket at Buriram. He duly took pole position and controlled the Sprint race.
A tyre pressure issue threatened to deny him a clean sweep on Sunday – and potentially trigger a damaging penalty – but Marquez showcased masterful race craft. He dropped behind his brother Alex to get the pressures back in the permitted range, and then sailed back through with three laps to go.
The gap in itself wasn’t especially concerning. While Bagnaia was third in all the meaningful sessions, he lapped within two-tenths of polesitter Marquez on Saturday.
But on Sunday, he saw exactly what he was up against – not just a supremely fast rider, but a wickedly smart one too.
What’s more, Sylvain Guntoili was concerned by Marquez’s body language, suggesting he wasn’t pushing flat-out in the Sprint. If he comes under more pressure, perhaps he has more speed to unleash on his Desmosedici motorcycle.
Mat Oxley says Ducati engineers are already gravitating towards Marc Marquez
Writing in his column for Motor Sport Magazine, former Isle of Man TT winner Mat Oxley shared his observations on Bagnaia. He says the Italian has rarely looked as ‘forlorn’ as he did after the Thailand Grand Prix.
He had reason to, even though there are 21 rounds remaining. Oxley says that, ‘inside the Ducati garage’, engineers are already starting to lean towards Marquez.
Such is the way in MotoGP and motorsport generally – the team throw their weight behind the rider with the better victory chances. As it stands, that’s Marquez.
As such, the six-time premier-class champion is ‘taking control’ of a team he only joined a couple of months ago. This will be an especially difficult adjustment for Bagnaia, who’s been used to the number one status at the Bologna outfit.
Francesco Bagnaia needs to heed Pol Espargaro’s advice after worrying Thailand Grand Prix
Bagnaia wishes he could have pushed harder in Thailand. Every time he closed up to the top two, he had to drop back – likely due to the extremely hot temperatures.
The Argentina Grand Prix at the end of next week may be a different proposition. But Pol Espargaro has warned Bagnaia to take a different approach if he wants to beat Marquez.
He says the 28-year-old must be more aggressive from the outset on a Friday. Espargaro says he keeps letting his rivals establish an early advantage.
Bagnaia never really looked like a serious contender in Thailand. He had to progress through Q1 after a messy practice session that ended with Franco Morbidelli impeding him.
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