Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez thinks he was “lucky” to make it directly into Q2 in Thai MotoGP Practice as rain closed in in Buriram.

Marquez finished the session second, but was outside of the top-10 for much of the first half of the MotoGP Practice session as he worked on his race setup with used tyres.

Towards the halfway mark, clouds began to gather over the circuit and heavy rain seemed imminent, so several riders were forced to change strategy to try to get a time attack in before the rain arrived, although it ultimately never did, at least not with enough intensity to substantially reduce grip – proven by Marco Bezzecchi who set a new lap record at the end of the second practice.

Marquez said afterwards that he was “lucky” in Practice as the rain didn’t fall too hard, and he and Ducati were a little delayed in their reactionary strategy change as the weather closed in.

“Of course, already the team sent me a message but it was too late because I was already in the brake point of turn 12,” Marquez said of Ducati’s attempt to quickly change strategy in Practice, speaking to MotoGP.com.

“Then [...] I saw that I was out of the top-10, and we stopped and we did [the time attack] as soon as possible. 

“We were lucky that it was only some drops and not like Moto2 that was heavy rain.”

Marquez added that he was able to calm down a bit before his final time attack because he had already climbed well into the top-10.

“It was a tricky session, especially in the end because in one moment I was out of Q2 because the fact that I started the Practice with the medium [compound rear tyre] – we take a bit of risk there,” he said.

“When I saw that I was already in P5 I was quiet and then we were able to do the last time attack in a good way. 

“But it’s true that at the moment we need to keep working because Marco Bezzecchi is one step in front of everybody.”

Marquez said that it’s himself that needs to improve to match Bezzecchi and Aprilia, a combination which is able to extract more than anyone else from the harder construction rear tyre that Michelin takes to Buriram, as well as Mandalika where Bezzecchi was the fastest rider in 2025.

“I need to improve myself,” Marquez said.

“I need to keep working on my riding style. 

“Still I’m not riding in an ‘automatic’ way, so let’s see if tomorrow I can do a step. But at the moment it looks like Aprilia and Marco are riding very fast here. 

“For some reason they are able to make work really good that different casing that we have here, and also in Mandalika.”