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Bent rim, damaged rear tire: What caused the damage to Marquez

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A puncture ended Marc Marquez’s race in Thailand – the rim and tire were badly damaged in turn 4 – Michelin believes curbs were the cause

Marc Marquez did not see the checkered flag at the 2026 MotoGP season opener in Thailand. The world champion retired on lap 21 with damage to his rear tire. The rim was also badly damaged. The Ducati rider managed to avoid a crash. The cause was apparently riding over the curbs.
“I was unlucky,” Marquez sighs, “because I’ve ridden off the track a hundred times in this corner during testing, for example. Or in practice, and nothing like this ever happened. Normally, these curbs are designed so that you can drive off them without any problems.“

”You just have to be careful when you drive back [onto the track]. So I drove off, but when I drove back, I already noticed that the rear tire had burst. There was also a violent impact at the rear.“

That happened in the fast left-hand turn 4. ”Yes, when entering turn 4. Already in the middle of the turn, I felt that the rear wheel was slipping a bit more than usual. But I said to myself, ‘Okay, the tire is already worn.’“

”And then I noticed that I had to push the bike too hard, so I said to myself, ‘Okay, I don’t want to take any risks. Even if I lose time, I’ll ride out onto the asphalt and then ride back in.’“

”It was strange because, as I said, I rode a little too far out in turn 4. It felt like I had hit a big rock, but it wasn’t a rock. We often ride over the double curbs there.”

“Only this time, my tire was destroyed and burst. So taking the safe route wasn’t the best decision today. I think I was just completely unlucky to have destroyed my rear tire. I mean, we can see that a lot of drivers are driving out there.”

Michelin manager Piero Taramasso also assumes in an initial statement that a curb was the cause of the damage. “Exactly, that’s what Marc told us,” said Taramasso in an interview with Canal+.

“He said, ‘The only mistake I made was that I was carried too far out.’ He hit the same curb, the rim bent, causing the air to escape and the tire to come off the rim. That’s really bitter for him.”

Marquez’s tire damage was the most serious of the entire weekend, but it wasn’t the only problem. “A lot of rims came back to our pit tent that were bent because it was extremely hot,” said Taramasso. “The material is really soft, and the curbs are very aggressive. For example, Jorge Martin’s pressure loss [in the sprint] at the front was the same: he hit a curb, the front wheel bent, and the air escaped.”

“Jorge had a slow puncture, while Marc lost air suddenly.” As a result, Martin fell below the minimum pressure required for the front tire in the sprint. Since the cause was a slow puncture, there was no time penalty.

Joan Mir also retires with tire problem

Joan Mir also had to retire from the Grand Prix with a tire problem. However, the Honda rider’s tire did not come off the rim and he was able to slowly drive back to the pits. His problem occurred shortly after Marquez’s retirement.

“We first have to check what could have happened, because it was very strange,” Mir puzzled. “Normally, you can feel it everywhere when the tire deteriorates, but in this case, I had to retire. I couldn’t even stay on the bike because it was dangerous.“

”It came quite unexpectedly because it happened from one lap to the next. Okay, in the end, I think we all had a drop in tire pressure. Everyone here struggled a lot with tire management, but this was something different, so we need to understand it.”

“I had vibrations, and on top of that, the electronics weren’t working properly. The bike couldn’t cope with that amount of slip, and in the end, probably nothing was working properly.”

I was in fourth place at the time of the failure and was the best Honda rider. Marquez was fourth, right behind Pedro Acosta (KTM), before his tire failure. The duo quickly closed in on Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse-Aprilia) at the start of the final phase.

What else could have been possible for Marquez? “Sure, it was P4. Optimistically, P3. And why not P2? In the first phase of the race, I tried to manage my physical condition and also the tires. But when there were ten laps left, I gave it my all.”

“I closed the gap, especially to Raul, but also to Acosta: I got closer to him step by step. Looking at the whole weekend, I’m personally satisfied. Because even though I rode in a slightly strange way, I was there.“

”But of course it’s true: in the end, we scored zero points in the race,” sighs Marquez. With nine World Championship points for second place in the sprint, he left Thailand in eighth place in the World Championship standings.

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