Thailand

Listen to this article The Honda rider pushed hard from the off in Thailand as he came to Buriram feeling like his recovering right shoulder could stand up to the strain. Fastest in FP1 and qualifying eighth, Marquez went on to finish the rain-lashed Thailand race fifth and only missing out on victory by 2.9 seconds. But he admitted afterwards that he was glad of the wet conditions, as his arm felt "horrible" in the dry warm-up session on Sunday morning. "I mean, of course I'm very happy," Marquez said when asked to assess his first three races of his MotoGP comeback from a fourth major right arm operation. "Honestly speaking, the rain conditions saved my life. It was the first weekend where I approached the weekend full attack from FP1, and I was riding as you saw on TV; aggressive, moving the bike, [managing] some shaking, saving the crashes. "But [on Sunday] I got up and the arm was very stiff. In the warm-up the feeling was horrible, but then I worked in the … [Read more...] about Marquez: Wet Thailand MotoGP race “saved my life”

Listen to this article Quartararo qualified fourth at Buriram, but was immediately dropped to 11th after being forced wide at the first corner in the wet contest. He plummeted to 17th after running wide exiting Turn 4 moments later and could make no further progress up the order, seeing his championship lead wiped out by Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia – who was third – from 18 to two points. Quartararo stormed out of the Yamaha garage immediately after the race and cancelled all media duties, with the team at a loss as to explain his woes. “As you can imagine, that was not the situation we wanted to deal with,” Yamaha boss Massimo Meregalli said. “We did not talk to Fabio after the race, because he was probably very disappointed and frustrated and he went straight to his office to cool down. “It’s also difficult for us to judge until we speak to him. We have to talk to him and check the data and see if they match. “And it’s very difficult to understand. For sure … [Read more...] about Yamaha in the dark on Quartararo’s Thailand MotoGP disaster

Listen to this article The Portuguese rider stormed through from 11th on the grid to battle Ducati's Jack Miller for victory in the rain-lashed race at Buriram, making a decisive pass for the lead at the last corner on lap 14 of 25. Oliveira says Miller's early pace forced him into pushing hard from the off and he couldn't relent once in front because of the Ducati rider. "It was definitely a difficult race from a mental point of view," Oliveira said following his fifth career MotoGP victory. "Every wet race is difficult because a mistake at least costs you quite a lot and you can crash. So, I was definitely comfortable but not too comfortable. "I think Jack also put on a lot of pressure and pulled away at the beginning of the race, and made me be always in attack mode until the last lap. "I think that was good because I could never be relaxed. "So, it was definitely good. The beginning of the race was hard for all of us because we couldn't see that much in the … [Read more...] about Oliveira “never relaxed” in wet Thailand MotoGP win charge