Like Thailand? If you’re part of MotoGP’s travelling roadshow, you’re in luck.
The Buriram International Circuit, five hours from Bangkok if you’re adhering to the speed limit, will host MotoGP for just the fifth time this weekend, but will become the sport’s new home away from home with two events in the next four Grands Prix thanks to a calendar quirk that sees the 2025 world championship open at the same venue.
While the grid for that much-anticipated March date will look very different – nine of the current riders will be in new leathers for next year alongside three category rookies – Buriram this weekend is all about the here and now, and if Jorge Martin can keep Francesco Bagnaia at arm’s length for yet another round as the clock ticks down on this year’s title fight.
Martin – last year’s Thai GP winner and with a 20-point series lead over the reigning world champion with 111 points available – doesn’t need to win this weekend, but extending that gap by 18 points across Thailand and the following weekend in Malaysia could see him crowned champion before the series even arrives in Valencia for the season finale in mid-November.
Martin’s 10-point victory over Bagnaia at Phillip Island last weekend was the ninth time this year that he finished a round with at least nine more points than the defending champion, but it’s unlikely given the superiority of the Ducati GP24 that both riders have at their disposal. The number one will be his if you do that twice more in a week.
To do that, the Spaniard will have to master a circuit that’s the polar opposite of last weekend’s venue nestled against the Victorian coast. Buriram is all about long straights into brutally-hard braking zones, with data from MotoGP brake supplier Brembo rating this circuit as six – on a scale of 1-6 – for braking severity; Phillip Island, at a 1 on the same scale, is a fast, flowing track where riders grab the brakes less than anywhere else.
