What happened to Marc Marquez? The rider’s version and Michelin’s comment

Bitter retirement for Marquez and Ducati a few laps from the end of the MotoGP race in Buriram: the words of the rider and of Taramasso.

Marquez’s race in Thailand ended on lap 21 of the scheduled 24. After running wide at Turn 4, TV images clearly showed a damaged rear rim and a deflated rear tire. A truly disappointing epilogue for the reigning MotoGP champion, who was fourth at the time with the Fernandez-Acosta duo just ahead. A podium was a realistic goal in a race that wasn’t easy for Ducati, which, with his retirement, didn’t even place a Desmosedici in the top 5. The best was Fabio Di Gianantonio’s, sixth at the finish in Buriram.

The nine-time world champion spoke about his retirement to Sky Sport MotoGP: "In my opinion, the tire exploded on the curb. It’s true the rear stepped out on me, but that was normal because I entered the corner hard. Having understood the situation, I decided to do the safest thing, which was to go off the track and then rejoin. I would have lost time, but the goal was to finish the race. Normally you have to be careful when you rejoin, because that’s when what happened to me today can occur, but the problem is that it happened when I went off the track. I don’t know why; I think it was the curb that made the rim and tire explode. The lucky thing is I didn’t get launched."

Amid the misfortune of not finishing the race in Buriram, there was the good fortune of avoiding physical consequences. And Marquez is also aware that on a Sunday that wasn’t easy for Ducati, he was still ready to put his feet on the podium: "Today we suffered — he commented — but second place was possible. At the end of the race I felt strong enough to at least finish third and fight for second."

The Ducati Lenovo Team rider explained his approach to today’s race, which ended early due to an unforeseen incident: "The strategy was clear. At the start I needed to save my body and the tires, then give everything — physically and with the tires — with 10 laps to go. Initially I was losing a lot, then I recovered and made up ground. We weren’t lucky. In testing all the riders hit that curb a hundred times and nothing happened; today everything blew up."

Even if Aprilia looked strongest in Thailand, it’s too early to deliver a full verdict on the 2026 MotoGP grid hierarchy. Marquez is calm: "My feeling is that on a weekend when I wasn’t completely comfortable, I still wasn’t far off. We’ll see. I can speak more precisely about the pecking order after Jerez; we need to wait a few races to understand. In any case, we already saw in the second half of last season that the competition took a step forward. How am I physically? I need to recover. Now I’m going home and we’ll work for Brazil."

Piero Taramasso, Michelin’s manager, spoke to Canal+ about what happened to Marquez, given that some thought there might have been a prior tire issue: "Marc told us the only mistake he made was running wide. He hit the curb, the rim bent, the air escaped, and the tire deflated. It’s a shame for him, because at that moment he was the fastest on track. We had this issue all weekend; many rims came back to our box bent because it was very hot. The material is very soft and the curbs are very aggressive."