Like Thailand? If you’re part of MotoGP’s travelling roadshow, you’re in luck.
The Buriram International Circuit, five hours from Bangkok if you’re adhering to the speed limit, will host MotoGP for just the fifth time this weekend, but will become the sport’s new home away from home with two events in the next four Grands Prix thanks to a calendar quirk that sees the 2025 world championship open at the same venue.
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While the grid for that much-anticipated March date will look very different – nine of the current riders will be in new leathers for next year alongside three category rookies – Buriram this weekend is all about the here and now, and if Jorge Martin can keep Francesco Bagnaia at arm’s length for yet another round as the clock ticks down on this year’s title fight.
Martin – last year’s Thai GP winner and with a 20-point series lead over the reigning world champion with 111 points available – doesn’t need to win this weekend, but extending that gap by 18 points across Thailand and the following weekend in Malaysia could see him crowned champion before the series even arrives in Valencia for the season finale in mid-November.
It’s improbable, given the dominance of the Ducati GP24 which both riders have at their disposal, but not impossible; last weekend’s 10-point gain over Bagnaia at Phillip Island was the eighth time this year Martin has left a round with at least nine more points than the reigning champ. Do that twice more within a week, and the number 1 is his.
To do that, the Spaniard will have to master a circuit that’s the polar opposite of last weekend’s venue nestled against the Victorian coast. Buriram is all about long straights into brutally-hard braking zones, with data from MotoGP brake supplier Brembo rating this circuit as six – on a scale of 1-6 – for braking severity; Phillip Island, at a 1 on the same scale, is a fast, flowing track where riders grab the brakes less than anywhere else.
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Add that circuit characteristic to a scorching-hot forecast – those heavy jackets and beanies worn in Australia are already being freighted back to Europe – and it’s a very different playing field for Martin, Bagnaia and last weekend’s Australian GP victor Marc Marquez, the only rider to have won multiple races in Thailand, to tackle.
With the next Thai GP just around the corner – and a pre-season February test to boot – it’s a task some riders will relish, while others will have to learn to love in a country that’s MotoGP mad, and will be even more so when local Moto2 rider Somkiat Chantra steps up to the premier class next year with Honda.
With just three rounds remaining in 2024, here’s your Insider’s Guide to round 18 this weekend.
‘YOU ARE NOT ENJOYING’: MARQUEZ UNDERSTANDS TITLE TENSION
Marquez is realistically out of title contention – currently 79 points behind Martin, the Spaniard will mathematically be eliminated if he leaves Thailand 74 points or more from the lead come Sunday – but the six-time MotoGP champion has won three of the past six Grand Prix since Aragon, a period where Martin, Bagnaia and Bagnaia’s factory Ducati teammate Enea Bastianini have snared one win apiece.
Marquez inadvertently helped 2025 teammate Bagnaia at Phillip Island last weekend by passing Martin for the win and denying the series leader an additional five points, and while taking his first victories since 2021 have ticked the box on what he considers a successful season, he’s not planning on easing up even if that impacts the title fight.
“I have enough experience to try to manage the situation,” he said of potentially being involved in the Martin/Bagnaia battle.
“You never try an overtake thinking you will hit the other [rider], always you try to avoid. But in the end as we see in Australia, if I need to be strong and I believe in my potential, I will do.
“I’m fighting for that third place of the championship – it is not the first place but for me, it’s important. The main targets are done, but you always want to finish in a good way the season, try to be there on a constant way on the podium would be one of the targets. If I can win another race, why not?”
Marquez, who hasn’t won a title since 2019 after four arm surgeries since 2020 and a switch from Honda to Ducati for this season, says being in a tense title fight can take its toll.
“It’s not an easy situation for both of them, and I know … a long time ago, from what I remember … what you can feel when you are on that position,” he said.
“You are not enjoying, you are just suffering because you know in three races you will know if you are a world champion, or not. Martin has this small advantage, Pecco [Bagnaia] maybe needs to take a bit more risk to recover that, but Pecco already knows how to win a championship.”
Bagnaia feels the introduction of sprint races at every round from 2023 makes his 20-point championship deficit less of a hurdle to overcome than that margin once was.
“I feel like always, it’s the fourth season in a row I’m fighting for the championship,” he said when asked if he was feeling an extra pressure ahead of the antepenultimate round.
“It’s true that in ’21 I lost it with three races to go, in the last two seasons I was always behind or in front. The strategy is the same, being the leader or the hunter. It’s the risk that changes a bit.
“Two years ago when you were arriving with three races to go and 20 points [deficit] it was more critical … right now, every weekend you can take 12 points more [for the sprint]. It’s easy to gain a lot, lose a lot … 20 points at this moment is not a huge gap.”
BUSY HOME RACE BROUGHT ‘CALMNESS’ TO AUSSIE TEEN
Australian Senna Agius has spoken of the torrent of emotions he experienced after last Sunday’s Moto2 race at Phillip Island, where the Sydney teenager took his maiden world championship podium finish with third place in front of his home fans.
Agius, riding for the Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP team in his first full-time world championship campaign, came through from 13th on the grid to finish third after Spanish rider Alonso Lopez crashed out in front of him with three laps remaining.
Speaking to Fox Sports’ ‘Pit Talk’ podcast, the 19-year-old said it took some time to comprehend the gravity of what he’d achieved.
“Everything needs to start rolling forwards and you need to focus to try to do it again, but it definitely didn’t sink in the day after the race, even,” Agius said.
“It wasn’t until I got home on Monday night, when my family rolled in from driving [home from Melbourne], we all sat around and watched it. That was when it sunk in.”
PIT TALK PODCAST: In the latest episode of ‘Pit Talk’, Renita Vermeulen and Matt Clayton look back at Marc Marquez’s comeback win in Australia, preview round 18 of the season in Buriram this weekend, and catch up with Aussie Moto2 podium-finisher Senna Agius after his big breakthrough at Phillip Island.
Agius, who overtook Moto2 championship leader and 2025 MotoGP rider Ai Ogura for fourth with 11 laps left – which became third when Lopez fell in the shadows of the chequered flag – had thoughts on his family in the immediate aftermath of the biggest result of his young career.
“I couldn’t wait to get into parc ferme to see what my old man [dad Jonathan] would say, honestly,” Agius laughed.
“Family was the first thing that came to mind, and I could see all the fans at turn one over the fence, throwing their shirts around … it was like ‘oh my god, everyone is going to be so happy’. I couldn’t really believe it. I was just checking the big screens to make sure it was all good and nothing had changed.”
Agius’ best result came on a weekend where he’d never been busier when not on track, combining a full schedule of promotional appearances and sponsor engagements that, he felt, was more help than hindrance.
“I learned so much at the Island because it was the most time I’ve spent not doing my job ever,” he said.
“I didn’t see my [team] until about midday and quickly popped into the [pit] box in the evening most days to do a debrief, but the rest of the time it was events. But I felt the most at ease out of all the GP events I’ve done, so when I look at it, do I maybe over-complicate the ones that are not as hyped-up [as Australia]? You’re always in the racing mode and you don’t really switch off, whereas at Phillip Island, I was doing so many things … it came with way less stress. I had so many other things going on, but strangely enough that brought a sense of calmness. It was just an amazing experience for me.”
MILLER ‘EXPECTING’ AGIUS TO BREAK THROUGH
Miller felt the maiden world championship podium for compatriot Agius had been a long time coming, the 29-year-old having been impressed after racing him in a couple of end-of-season cameos in the Australian Superbikes Championship at The Bend in South Australia over the past two seasons.
The KTM rider didn’t feel Agius’ podium, nor that of Joel Kelso in Moto3 12 months earlier, was a particularly random result.
“He’s just solid,” Miller said of Agius.
“I’ve seen his training program … he’s extremely fit, extremely dedicated to his craft, so I knew it was going to happen for him. It’s a weird one but a good one to have, it’s awesome to be on the box [podium] at home and I made that very clear to him on Sunday night.
“I feel like Senna’s been strong all year. I’ve been fortunate enough to race against Senna in Aussie Superbikes and seen what he’s capable of when he’s feeling comfortable and has a decent qualifying position and is able to get to work.
“Obviously Phillip Island being a track that he knows pretty well from his days in Australia, I feel like your confidence is always there because you feel like you’ve got an edge over your opponents.
“Also, seeing how good he is on his tyres, both doing the Australian Superbikes round and also throughout this year, every time he’s had a decent qualifying position he’s been able to turn it into a decent result, so I was kind of expecting it.”
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Miller, whose chaotic Australian Grand Prix weekend saw him hit a hare that ran across the track during qualifying and smash into a seagull in the sprint race before crashing out, recovered to 11th in last Sunday’s Grand Prix at Phillip Island after getting pushed off track by Ducati’s Alex Marquez and falling to last at the first corner.
He said the scorching heat of Buriram always offers a stern test, and can leave its mark days afterwards when combined with the stop-start layout of the track.
“I got my roadkill done for the year [at Phillip Island], so it should be a bit safer around here,” he said.
“It’s always a really warm one here with the big straights, you’re a long time tucked in and copping a lot of heat off the bike. She’s a gruelling one, but a fun one at the same time.
“I rode the Honda, Ducati and now the KTM and they’re all equally pretty warm … it doesn’t matter what it is, you always finish the race with some burns and hot spots on the body, especially on the clutch side … it can make your legs really hot and your hands start cooking on the handlebars.”
ACOSTA SORE, BUT SADDLING UP
It’s been a bruising end to a mostly brilliant MotoGP debut season for Pedro Acosta, with the 20-year-old Spaniard set to return in Thailand after an eye-watering crash in last Saturday’s sprint race at Phillip Island saw him sidelined for the Australian GP.
The Tech3 GasGas rider, who came to Australia after taking pole and then crashing out of both the sprint and Grand Prix in Japan a fortnight earlier, had a torrid big-bike initiation to the Island when he qualified a season-worst 15th, and then high-sided his way out of the sprint with three laps to go while running outside of the points in 11th.
Acosta’s lap 11 accident was so violent that he dislocated his left shoulder as he was flung over the handlebars of his RC16 machine, the joint being slammed back into place in its socket after he hit the ground to cause what the team classified as “left shoulder trauma”.
The Phillip Island crash was Acosta’s 24th of the season, leading that unwanted stat category over Marc Marquez (22).
Acosta spent Saturday afternoon at the Island with his shoulder in a sling before being declared unfit by MotoGP’s medical team on Sunday for the 27-lap main race because of pain and inflammation in the joint, but will return this weekend at Buriram, where he finished second in his Moto2 title-winning campaign last year.
