Marc Márquez has started the World Championship on the wrong foot and already knows who his new main rival will be.

BarcelonaMarc Márquez's quest for a tenth World Championship has gotten off to a bad start. The rider from Cervera suffered a puncture and was unable to finish the first MotoGP Grand Prix of the season at the Buriram circuit in Thailand. Nothing has gone right for the reigning world champion, who has seen the Aprilias outperform the Ducatis. Before the puncture, Márquez was fighting for a podium finish, but always far behind the man who seems destined to be his new main rival: Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia RS-GP). At 27 years old, the rider from Rimini is the man of the moment. After dominating qualifying, he won with ease, always riding well ahead of his rivals. A protégé of Valentino Rossi seems determined to prevent Márquez from surpassing his mentor in titles. A rivalry that never ends.

It was a day to forget for Cervera, as Álex Márquez, the reigning runner-up, crashed and failed to score any points. In contrast, Pedro Acosta from Murcia celebrated his second-place finish, just a day after winning the sprint race. His KTM RC 16 was the only bike from a different manufacturer to compete against the Aprilias, and in fact, he now leads the World Championship standings with 32 points, ahead of Bezzecchi's 25. Raúl Fernández from Madrid (Aprilia RS-GP) finished third, ahead of Jorge Martín in fourth and Japan's Ai Ogura in fifth, all riding Aprilias.

Today was Bezzecchi's day. Third in the standings last season, he won the final two Grands Prix. In fact, with today's victory, he becomes the first Aprilia rider to win three races in a row. The Rimini native proved far superior at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, just as he had been showing in preseason testing, when Márquez admitted that he "is the clear favorite for the first race and will be competing for the world championship." After crashing out of the sprint race while leading, today he occupied the pole position He defended his first position with a good start, ahead of Marc Márquez. The Rimini rider's pace was far superior to his rivals, so he opened up a gap while the world champion battled with Fernández and Fabio di Giannantonio (Ducati 16). But it was Pedro Acosta who kept improving, overtaking Di Giannantonio, Jorge Martín, and Marc Márquez to move into second place. Álex Márquez (Ducati Desmosedici GP26) and Francesco 'Pecco' Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP26) were having an off day, finishing far from the podium. Bagnaia, who will almost certainly leave Ducati this year to race with Aprilia in the future, managed to finish in the top 10, while the younger Márquez brother crashed out, failing to score any points. In the final stages of the race, Márquez saw how much his tires had worn down, and on lap 21 he finally suffered a puncture while fighting for third place. The race confirmed the significant improvement of the Aprilias, who are poised to dethrone the Ducatis after their dominance last season. The second race of the season will be on March 20th at the Ayrton Senna circuit in Goiânia, Brazil, which is making its debut on the calendar.

Spanish dominance in Moto2 and Moto3

In the Moto2 World Championship, Spanish riders dominated. Manuel González (Kalex) from Madrid took the victory ahead of Izan Guevara (Boscoscuro) from Mallorca and Daniel Holgado (Kalex) from Alicante. In the Moto3 Junior Race, three-quarters of the field was also dominated, with David Almansa (KTM) from Puertollano winning ahead of Máximo Quiles (KTM) from Murcia and Valentín Perrone (KTM), who rides for Spain and is of Spanish and Argentinian descent.