Marc Marquez has revealed the reason for slowing down on the seventh lap of the 2025 MotoGP Thailand, which allowed Alex Marquez to overtake him. Marquez dominated the opening round of the 2025 MotoGP season at the Buriram Circuit. Besides securing pole position, the Spanish rider also won the sprint race.
The rider, famous for his number 93, went on to claim victory in the full race as well. However, despite his win on Sunday (March 2), questions arose regarding his sudden deceleration after Turn 3 on the seventh lap of the full race.
The mystery behind Marquez’s unexpected slowdown was due to a technical factor: front tire pressure. If he had continued to push his bike aggressively, he risked receiving a penalty.
“Yes,” Marquez responded briefly when asked by TNT Sport about the tire pressure issue, as reported by Crash.
“It was a very challenging race because I felt really good from the start. I thought, ‘Okay, I can go fast,’ and I immediately created a gap,” he explained.
During the race, Marquez realized that tire pressure issues forced him to slow down.
“I only had a margin of three laps, and that’s why I only overtook Alex in the last three laps. If I had done it earlier, I wouldn’t have been able to finish the race without violating the regulation. It was quite critical because a penalty would have been a disaster. But we worked well as a team, and we managed to handle it,” Marquez said.
According to the current regulations, a rider must maintain a minimum front tire pressure of 1.8 bar for at least 60% of the race. Failure to meet this requirement results in a 16-second time penalty.
