Good riddance: Marquez’s ruthless towing should be over soon

Over the course of the past three years, since faced with the cumulative efforts of both his career-threatening arm injuries and the currently-woeful Honda RC213V, it’s become an increasingly common sight to see six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez seeking out another rider to follow in order to ensure he sets a fast lap time in both practice sessions and qualifying.

But, with the Repsol Honda rider escalating his technique to a new level at this weekend’s Thai Grand Prix by first ensuring his passage from Q1 to Q2 by following Red Bull KTM rider Jack Miller – and then immediately overtaking the Australian, effectively disrupting Miller’s rhythm and denying him the chance to improve his own time in the session.

Speaking afterwards, it’s something that Marquez was quite unapologetic about, as well, expressing his opinion (as he has many times in the past) that hooking onto another riders’ rear wheel to ensure a qualifying time is simply part of MotoGP these days.

? @marcmarquez93 has chosen @jackmilleraus as his marker!

But while he was looking for Jack, @25RaulFernandez has knocked him out of the top two! ?#ThaiGP ?? pic.twitter.com/TakZdSaWzm

— MotoGP™? (@MotoGP) October 28, 2023

“The target in Q1 was the Gresini riders,” Marquez told The Race afterwards, referring to both his brother Alex and Fabio Di Giannantonio, who he’ll replace in 2024. “But their box is more in front, and I was late. That’s normal, sometimes it happens. If they’re fast, you’re late.

“Then we went out, many many riders waiting, and I will not be the first one to push. On the first tyre [run], I think I was behind Espargaro, Pol, but not super close.

“The last one, I was behind Jack, Jack was behind [Joan] Mir, Mir was behind [Enea] Bastianini. We were many riders behind each other but I was able to take the profit from it.”

And of course, in part Marquez is correct. He’s far from the only rider to adopt such a strategy, but with his high-profile presence on the MotoGP grid there’s rarely not at least one TV camera trained on him to ensure that his actions are broadcast to the world more than anyone else’s.

But there’s slightly more to it than just that. Firstly, while others might be guilty of picking the wheel of another rider to follow and not get anywhere near as much airtime it’s also fair to say that Marquez absolutely is one of the most regular repeat offenders of late, as he tries to wrest any possible advantage to make up for a bike that doesn’t work the way he wants it to.

And like it or hate it, the fact that he is Marc Marquez and that he gets a lot of airtime while doing it means that he’s setting an example for the lower classes, where the behaviour is both much more common and much more harshly-policed than it is in the premier class.

That makes sense, too, because it’s hard to overestimate the huge amount of danger posed by riders cruising around…