On March 1, 2025, Marc Márquez made an outstanding impression in qualifying for the season-opening MotoGP Thai Grand Prix. Riding for Ducati, he claimed pole position in emphatic fashion to make a perfect start to his time with the factory team.
At Buriram, Márquez carried his impressive testing form into the race weekend. In Saturday morning’s qualifying session, he set a time of 1m28.782s to beat his younger brother Álex Márquez on the Gresini Ducati by 0.146 seconds. Álex had also impressed on his first run, becoming the first rider to break the 1m29s barrier with a 1m28.928s lap, but Marc soon went faster.
Marc Márquez had looked capable of breaking the circuit lap record on his second run, but a mistake at Turn 8 prevented him from doing so. Marco Bezzecchi and Márquez’s former team-mate Joan Mir then crashed in succession at Turn 3, bringing out yellow flags that disrupted his next bid to improve. Once it was clear that nobody could beat his opening benchmark, the six-time MotoGP champion abandoned his final attempt. He secured his first pole since the previous year’s Aragon Grand Prix, getting his factory Ducati campaign off to an excellent start.
Álex Márquez did not improve on his subsequent runs but held on to second. Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia went out early on his second run and moved up to third. Pramac’s Jack Miller followed Bagnaia out of the pits and produced a strong flying lap to secure fourth on the grid for Yamaha’s new satellite team, earning a place on the second row.
Trackhouse rookie Ai Ogura delivered a composed performance to lead the Aprilia riders in fifth, ahead of VR46’s Franco Morbidelli. Morbidelli would receive a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Grand Prix after impeding Bagnaia in Friday practice. Ogura’s team-mate Raúl Fernández was eighth, ahead of factory Aprilia rider Bezzecchi. Bezzecchi finished ninth after another crash at Turn 3, the same corner where he had fallen on Friday. Factory Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo was tenth, with Honda riders Mir and Johann Zarco completing the top twelve.
Both Bagnaia and Miller had advanced through Q1, with Bagnaia needing only one set of soft tyres to reach Q2. The qualifying result heightened anticipation for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Whether Marc Márquez could maintain his advantage to win in Thailand, and whether Ducati could demonstrate its dominance in the new season, remained questions for the race to answer.
2025 MotoGP Round 1 Thai Grand Prix qualifying results
| Pos. | No. | Rider | Team | Q1 time | Q2 time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Ducati Team | — | 1’28.782 |
| 2 | 73 | Álex Márquez | Gresini | — | 1’28.928 |
| 3 | 63 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati Team | 1’29.180 | 1’28.955 |
| 4 | 43 | Jack Miller | Pramac | 1’29.186 | 1’29.090 |
| 5 | 79 | Ai Ogura | Trackhouse | — | 1’29.134 |
| 6 | 21 | Franco Morbidelli | VR46 | — | 1’29.171 |
| 7 | 37 | Pedro Acosta | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | — | 1’29.320 |
| 8 | 25 | Raúl Fernández | Trackhouse | — | 1’29.367 |
| 9 | 72 | Marco Bezzecchi | Aprilia | — | 1’29.381 |
| 10 | 20 | Fabio Quartararo | Yamaha | — | 1’29.389 |
| 11 | 36 | Joan Mir | Honda | — | 1’29.422 |
| 12 | 5 | Johann Zarco | LCR Honda Castrol | — | 1’29.609 |
| 13 | 49 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | VR46 | 1’29.237 | — |
| 14 | 33 | Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | 1’29.468 | — |
| 15 | 54 | Fermín Aldeguer | Gresini | 1’29.484 | — |
| 16 | 10 | Luca Marini | Honda | 1’29.532 | — |
| 17 | 88 | Miguel Oliveira | Pramac | 1’29.587 | — |
| 18 | 12 | Maverick Viñales | Red Bull KTM Tech3 | 1’29.701 | — |
| 19 | 42 | Álex Rins | Yamaha | 1’29.733 | — |
| 20 | 23 | Enea Bastianini | Red Bull KTM Tech3 | 1’29.916 | — |
| 21 | 35 | Somkiat Chantra | Idemitsu Honda LCR | 1’30.076 | — |
| 22 | 32 | Lorenzo Savadori | Aprilia | 1’30.630 | — |
Positions are ordered by the Q2 and Q1 results. This table shows qualifying times and excludes subsequent grid penalties. Sources: MotoGP official Q1 classification, Q2 classification (© DORNA, 2025).
