Rollercoaster fortunes at Aragon, Motegi and now Tha🐻iland have resulted in the pair suffering a total of three DNFs in the last three rounds.

Quartararo collided with Marc Marquez on the opening lap at Aragon, then struggled to a lowly 17th ꦯplace in the w꧅et Buriram race.

Meanwhile, factory Ducati’s Bagnaia crashed out while attempting a last lap pass on Quartararo at Moteg🥂i, but bounced back with third on Sunday.

All of which 🦂puts the pair almost even, wit♔h Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro also lurking 20-points from the top with 75 remaining.

So who would six-time MotoღGP champion Marquez🔴 put his money on?

“I bet on Pecco’s bike!” Marquez replied after his own fifth-place finish at Buriram. “I mean Ducati is Ducati and, as🌜 we see, m🌄any riders at Ducati are good.

“But Fabio is Fabio. Fabio is riding very good. His weak point is maybe in rain conditions, like today, but yeah it 🤡will be interesting to see on the track... I don’t want to bet [on a rider]!”

Ducati has won 1ꦬ1 of the 17𝓀 rounds this season; 6 by Bagnaia, 4 for Enea Bastianini and 1 for Jack Miller. Quartararo has claimed 3 victories for Yamaha, with the other M1 riders yet to even take a top ten finish in the dry this year.

Marquez: This is the problem when you are behind a Ducati!

Marquez got a first hand taste of Ducati’s technical streᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚngths as he chased Bagnaia for third throughout the middle stages of Sunday’s Buriram race, before being overtaken by the Pramac machine of Johann Zarco.

“I did a solid race, a bit like in Motegi,” Marquez said. “I started calm, found my rhythm and warmed the tyres. In the first five laps I was able to take more risk, but OK, it’s time to do these races noไw I believe. This is what I thought.

“Then step-by-step I got the rhythm and I was getting faster and faster, but it is the [usual] problem when y♊ou are behind a Ducati! To overtake you nee🐭d to be much, much faster because they are braking so late and especially they have amazing acceleration.

“When I caught Pecco I could not find a place to pass him because I was just a little🦋 bit faster but not enough.𓆏 Then Zarco overtook… when you have good speed and acceleration then it is easier.”

Zarco’s charge came to a sudden🧔 halt behind Bagnaia, the Frenchman later admitting he didn’t want to risk an incide♋nt with Ducati’s title contender and decided to settle for fourth.

“It’s true that Zarco was coming up very fast, overtook me a💎nd then stayed behind Pecco,” Marquez said.

“Ducati has not won🏅 the world championship since 2007 so it’s normal that when there is the ‘Ducati Cup’ in front they must take profit from it.

“They have the bes💮t bike on the grid. So their riders are in the front and they must use that power to win the championship”

Marquez: My first ‘full attack’ weekend

Bagnaia, Zarco and Marquez were all covered by just one second at the finish, wꦦith the Repsol Honda star only 2.9s from KTM race winner Miguel Oliveira.

More important to Marquez was that he not only put his healing right arm through a pun꧑ishing Aragon-Motegi-Buriram triple header but had been able to mount his first ‘full attack’ wee🎐kend since surgery in June.

“Honestly speaking, the rain conditions saved my life be🐓cause it’s true it was the first time I approached the weekend 'full-attack' from FP1. And I was riding as you could see on the TV; aggressive, moving the bike, shaking and saving some crashes.

“But today I got up and the arm was ‘blocked’, I felt like it was🐎 very stiff. In the warm-up the feeling was horrible, but then we worked in the Clinica and I was able to race in a good way. There was not any limitation from the physical condit🧸ion.”

But he conceded: “You can see there 🅘iꩵs a bit [of fatigue] as soon as I put the elbow up [on the bike], it means the arm is not working well and the fatigue is there.

“But during all weekend I was able to ride in a good way, with the elbow in a good position.𒆙 Today I was not riding perfect but in rain conditions, I need to say that there was not a limitation.”

Marquez wilܫl now headꩵ back to Spain for further rehabilitation before the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island on October 14-16.

“I would like to stay around here but work is work and I am working now to come back to the top," he said. "In Spain I must visit the physios, also the doctors, everything is OK, but just to control well and c✃o𒀰ntinue the work.

“Phillip Island will b🌟e a tough circuit, especially with the Honda because our weak points will be ‘concentrated’. But for me the most important thing is that from Aragon to the Thai GP I felt big [physical] steps.

“That was the target and I know in Australia 🌄maybe Honda will bring some new parts… Let’s see, we are working f🐭or 2023.”

Younger🃏 brother Alex Marquez was the next best Honda rider on Sunday, in eighth place.