Marc Marquez penalized: "I don't cry, I've never done it." Tardozzi furious

Marquez loses the Sprint win at Buriram due to a penalty: here’s his response and Tardozzi’s.

The 2026 Thai Grand Prix already has its first controversy. At the final corner of the penultimate lap of the MotoGP sprint race, Marc Marquez overtook Pedro Acosta, with the latter ending up off track after the Ducati rider’s move. The FIM Stewards Panel ruled it irregular and imposed a penalty (drop one position) on the reigning champion, who had to relinquish the lead to the KTM rider and settled for 9 points.

A result that remains positive, even though Marco Bezzecchi’s crash on lap two seemed to have flung the door wide open for him to win today at Buriram. But Acosta pushed his KTM beyond its limits and managed to fight him to the end.

Interviewed by Sky Sport MotoGP after the Sprint, Marquez began by commenting on the episode involving Acosta and the penalty he received: "It was very much on the limit. When he was passing me at that point, I would have ended up off as well if I had stayed on the outside, but I slowed and tightened my line. Our bike slows down quite well at that point. The only thing a rider can do is adapt to the limit set by Race Direction. We know what you can’t do... The new MotoGP is like this".

The nine-time world champion doesn’t want to stir up too much controversy or go complain to the stewards: "I can’t say anything today - he explains - because otherwise I’m the one who cries. I have never cried in my career and I’m not crying now, I adapt".

When Bezzecchi crashed, it seemed everything could be easy for Marquez, who responded on this point: "I saw the track was scorching hot and very critical, after Bezzecchi’s crash I told myself I should stay in front at the pace I wanted. I wanted to push in the last 2 laps, but I messed up Turn 5, the rear almost stepped out. But if you had told me I’d start with 9 points in the Sprint, I would have signed. Obviously, when you see the win close, you always want more".

The Ducati Lenovo MotoGP rider confirmed he’s not yet at 100% with the Desmosedici GP26; for some reason he’s not managing to extract the maximum possible potential: "I can’t say whether it’s the new package or me, but it’s still not all in place. I know I have to make some steps. I did a Sprint trying to control it, without taking risks. Today I knew Bezzecchi was stronger, but he made a mistake, so we’ve already taken 9 more points than him. Is Bezzecchi the biggest threat of the season? I’ll say at Jerez, until 4–5 races go by you can’t know. It’s a 22-race championship, we have to be up front all the time".

Davide Tardozzi, Ducati Lenovo team manager, had the chance to comment on Sky Sport MotoGP about the penalty handed to Marquez and was blunt in judging it unfair: "It wasn’t warranted. It’s clear he made a decisive move, but he didn’t touch Pedro and he stayed on the track. We’ve seen many situations like this in the past, if we just want to comb dolls, so be it... This is a sign that Race Direction wants a different kind of motorcycling. We’ve seen plenty of overtakes like that. Sometimes you suffer it, sometimes you do it... ".