Ducati Lenovo Team Manager Davide Tardozzi has revealed the cause of Marc Marquez’s puncture, and consequent retirement, in the Thai MotoGP race.

Marquez was running fourth and closing in (along with Pedro Acosta) on second-placed Raul Fernandez when he ran wide at turn four.

When he entered the run-off area, he immediately had a puncture. TV images showed that he had also picked up wheel rim damage.

Speaking after the race, Davide at Tardozzi said that Marquez had broken the rim by hitting the kerb on the outside of turn four, and that had caused the puncture.

“Unfortunately, he went to the kerb at turn four and he broke the rim,” Tardozzi said after the Thai Grand Prix when speaking to British MotoGP broadcaster TNT Sports.

“That’s why he lost air and he was forced to stop. 

“He hit the edge of the [kerb] and broke the wheel.”

Tardozzi added that he’s unaware of such an incident happening in the past.

“I don’t remember ever seeing something like that,” he said.

“We can say that it’s a mistake, but he’s been really unlucky because many riders went out in turn four and nobody had this problem. But, anyway, it’s like this.”

The Thailand weekend also proved to Marquez that this year will be a more difficult MotoGP championship battle than that he experienced in 2025.

“For sure he recognises that it will be more tough this year to win the championship,” said Tardozzi.

“But he is trusting a lot mainly in Gigi [Dall’Igna] and his engineers. He’s pissed, obviously, for this [missed podium] – he missed the podium because he was able to arrive at least to third because he [recovered] a lot on Fernandez mainly. 

“But in the end he’s trusting us, he’s trusting the bike, and I think that a few more weeks he will be even better on the right shoulder.”

Part of the reason the Thai Grand Prix was so difficult for Ducati, which didn’t have a bike in the top-three for the first time since the 2021 British Grand Prix, was the performance of Aprilia, but Tardozzi also said that Ducati wasn’t able to find the same performance from its own bike as it had in the Buriram test last week.

“Very difficult weekend because it seems that Aprilia grew up a lot, they were incredibly fast with four riders this weekend,” he said.

“So, chapeau because they did a fantastic weekend. 

“In the end, there is something strange that this weekend we found the bike completely different from the previous one when we were here for the test, and that’s something that we still have not understood.”