Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez believes the sudden rear failure that robbed him of a likely Thai Grand Prix podium was a freak incident without an obvious cause.
Marquez exited the season-opening grand prix while running in fourth place, his rear wheel rim having come apart in the Turn 4 run-off after he jumped the kerb.
Both Marquez and team principal Davide Tardozzi pinpointed the kerb strike as the culprit rather than anything that had happened prior.
A kerb strike causing such an issue is hardly unheard of in MotoGP, but Marquez believed there was no reason to expect it there.
"That kerb, I jumped 100 times in the test for example, or during practice. And what happened now never happened [before]..
"Because normally those kerbs are made that you can jump over [them] a good way. You need to be careful when you jump [back] in. So, I jumped out - but when I jumped out, I felt already that the rear tyre exploded, with a big hit also on the rim.
"Mid-corner already I felt like the rear slid a bit, more than usual, but I said 'OK', the tyre was used also. And then I saw that I was forcing too much the bike, I said 'OK, I don't want to take any risk, even if I lose time I jump out off the track and I will jump in again'.
"But that safe way today was not the best decision. I think it was fully unlucky to destroy the rim. We saw that many Moto3 riders, Moto2, jump [the kerb]. It was super strange."
Marquez wasn't the only rider to suddenly exit the race with a problem on the rear. In the case of his former Honda team-mate Joan Mir, though, there was no obvious trigger moment - and Mir simply lamented "an issue with an external supplier", seemingly pointing to a run-of-the-mill tyre failure.
Podium gone
The retirement was a costly mishap for Marquez, who remains far from his peak physical fitness after his major late-2025 shoulder injury, but was on course to salvage a strong haul of points amid a generally disappointing weekend for Ducati, dominated by Marco Bezzecchi and Aprilia.
"Personally speaking about all weekend, I am happy," he insisted. "Riding in a strange way [due to injury limitations], I was there.
"But it's true that in the end we scored zero points in the race - zero points are zero points. It's something that's always important, to score points."
Marquez had dropped to fifth in the early going, but had made his way back past Jorge Martin and was gaining on both Pedro Acosta and particularly a rear tyre-limited Raul Fernandez.
"Sure was P4... optimistic P3. And why not P2? Yeah.
"The first part of the race I was trying to manage my physical condition and also the tyres. Then, when 10 laps remained, I gave everything and then I was closing the gap especially to Raul, and to Acosta also, I was catching him step by step."
