Ducati’s Marc Marquez took a dominant lights-to-flag victory in the opening MotoGP Sprint of the 2025 season at Buriram.
Marquez earned his first Sprint victory aboard the factory Ducati by finishing over a second clear of brother Alex Marquez on the Gresini.
The eight-time world champion got the best start from pole position and was easily able to maintain his lead into Turn 1 ahead of teammate Francesco Bagnaia.
Alex Marquez was overtaken by Bagnaia on the run down to the first corner, but was able to regain his position going into the second corner of the race.
Rookie Ai Ogura also made a fantastic start on the Trackhouse Aprilia and looked to challenge the Ducati in third before coming under pressure from Franco Morbidelli in fifth.
Brad Binder gained six places on the opening laps and put in a strong move on Johann Zarco to move into ninth, just behind teammate Pedro Acosta and the Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo.
Acosta looked to make a move on Quartararo but ran wide allowing his teammate through, though the Spaniard would regain the place one lap later.
Jack Miller was running in sixth for the Pramac Yamaha team but suffered the first crash of the season.
Quartararo made a mistake shortly afterwards to promote Acosta with five laps to go.
The rest of the race saw the riders in the points hold their positions, with the battles coming for the minor places. Rookie Fermin Aldeguer had an out-of-seat moment which allowed Marco Bezzecchi to take advantage, while Fabio Di Giannantonio pulled off the track with a technical problem.
Out front, Marquez took the chequered flag to complete a dominant Saturday, 1.185 clear of his brother in second place.
Bagnaia completed a Ducati lockout on the podium with an assured third place, 3.423s behind his teammate.
Ogura took a stunning fourth on debut to keep ahead of Morbidelli in fifth.
Acosta completed his Sprint debut with the factory KTM team in sixth, with Yamaha’s Quartararo in seventh and teammate Binder in eighth.
Joan Mir earned the final point for Honda as he led LCR’s Johann Zarco over the line.
Raul Fernandez was 11th for Trackhouse Aprilia, ahead of the struggling factory machine of Bezzecchi in 12th.
Aldeguer came home in 13th after a scary moment with three laps to go, over a second clear of Maverick Vinales who was 14th on his Tech3 debut.
Luca Marini narrowly trailed Vinales in 15th, while Miguel Oliveira took 16th on the Pramac Yamaha.
Factory Yamaha’s Alex Rins was 17th as Enea Bastianini continued with his struggles aboard the Tech3 in 18th.
Home hero Somkiat Chantra was 19th on his MotoGP debut while Lorenzo Savadori completed the finishers in 20th.
Miller crashed out of sixth place and did not finish while Di Giannantonio retired due to a bike problem with two laps to go.
