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The long wait is over and we were able to see the riders in action racing at Chang International in Buriram for the Thai Grand Prix, which kicked off the 2025 MotoGP season. There was obviously a lot of anticipation because everyone wanted to understand how much of everything we saw in winter testing could be confirmed and what could perhaps be the surprises.
The first confirmation came without a doubt from Marc Márquez, author of a perfect weekend with pole position and two wins ahead of his brother Alex. Another nice surprise was the impressive debut of Ai Ogura, with the Aprilia Trackhouse rookie being able to showcase performances like a veteran. But there were also less positive surprises, and the first was perhaps seeing Pecco Bagnaia in slightly more difficulty than expected. This is how our very own Carlo Pernat saw the race, as always accompanied by an excellent glass of Prosecco DOC.
"So guys, the World Championship has started, I think the story then in the end is always the same, we left the World Championship with Ducati dominating, we come back with the 2025 championship with the top three places always for Ducati. There are a few things to say, first of all Marc Marquez showed that he was okay, he showed that he was that almost certainly pre-accident rider, he even joked about it. In my opinion if there wasn't that little problem of the tyre pressure, and he maybe even played around with it a little bit, he would have won by 5-6 seconds, he really dominated. Another positive note for sure is that of his brother Alex Marquez, who with the 2024 bike is proving to be a very strong rider, he has won two World Championships on the other hand, so we are talking about the Marquez family that is multi-decorated.
A psychological thrashing for Bagnaia who did not have the bike set up right, maybe with some development still not done, maybe the tyre. He needs to get it together now because when his teammate gives him these thrashings it starts to get pretty tough. I would say we can make a point about the manufacturers. Aprilia is officially the manufacturer that can fight it out with Ducati, it has had the misfortune of not having Martìn and will probably not have him until Qatar or the first race in Europe. But with its rookie Ogura, who is a first-time MotoGP rider, and with Bezzecchi, it has shown that it has an ultra-competitive bike. So much so that it is the first time that in the top ten positions there are five Ducatis, two Aprilias and two KTMs, and one Honda.
So I would say it's a championship in which Ducati is coming a little bit closer to its rivals, even though it's still unbeatable at the moment. KTM has problems, apart from the financial issue, in the development of the bike. It has no resources, it is a difficult bike to ride with a very rigid frame. If KTM listens to Bastianini, who made a great comeback from 18th to ninth, something can be done. But you need KTM to follow those directions, because the bike, as Pedro Acosta rides it, requires you to ride it hard, so you risk mid-race either crashing or having completely worn tires.
Yamaha surprised a little bit in the negative, something more was expected from them. The Honda is getting closer to a lot of riders, they are developing a little bit with the four riders they have, however in the end it must be said that they did not go badly, although there is still a long way to go. At least Yamaha with Miller showed something good, while Quartararo was completely lacking n competitiveness.
Still, it's a good world championship that will always definitely be in Ducati's favor. I repeat, the only one to come close to them are Aprilia, which is very unlucky because it lost Martìn, and so it lost everything. Bezzecchi took up the development all upon himself, he didn't have a bad race, however, he finished behind Ogura which is a very good result for Aprilia, it means that with the bike they worked well. We will have a lot of fun, let's wait for a week and then see a bit in Argentina how it will go. A very difficult track, because it's been two years since anyone raced there, no one has raced there since, so you can't understand the track conditions. We'll see if Marquez repeats the result and if Bagnaia can change his pace from today's race."
