Alex Marquez’s Thai MotoGP exit happened “in a strange way”

After the high of starting last season with a pair of runner-up finishes behind brother Marc, Alex Marquez left this year’s Thai MotoGP without scoring a point.

The Gresini Ducati rider, elevated to factory-spec GP26 status after last year’s title runner-up heroics, qualified in seventh place.

However, any chance of Sprint points disappeared when he tangled with Fabio di Giannantonio on the opening lap of the Saturday race.

Alex then held his grid position early in Sunday's grand prix but couldn’t make an impact on the riders ahead and lost a place to Honda’s Joan Mir.

Then, when the Spaniard tried to attack in the closing stages, he lost the front and crashed out, just a lap after Marc Marquez’s retirement.

“I’m alright,” Alex told MotoGP.com. “The race has been super hard for us, super difficult.

“We were there just trying to be calm all the race, trying not to overheat everything and take it easy.

“And then in the end I said ‘ok, now it’s time to try to push a bit’ because the group behind wasn’t so big.

“But then I lost the front in a really strange way.”

“The same lap times as last year”

Like Francesco Bagnaia, just behind, Alex Marquez matched his 2025 race-leading pace until the midway stage of the MotoGP, then suffered a rapid decline.

“We saw that we have a problem: The others did a step, and we are riding more or less in the same lap times as last year,” Alex confirmed.

“So we need to analyse, but not take too many specific conclusions because I think this rear casing can also create problems for us.

“But sorry to the team because I made a mistake with the crash.”

Temporary team-mate Michele Pirro, riding in place of the injured Fermin Aldeguer, finished 19th and last.