Spain’s Marc Marquez completed a double with victory in the opening race of the MotoGP season at the Thailand Grand Prix.

The 32-year-old six-time former champion won Saturday’s sprint race at the Buriram International Circuit in his first competitive outing for his new team Ducati and started Sunday’s race as pole-sitter.

And for the second day in a row he beat younger brother Alex into second, finishing 1.732sec clear of his 28-year-old sibling.

Although Marc started strongly in the hot and humid conditions, Alex grabbed the lead in the seventh lap of the 26-lap race before his older brother regained the advantage with three laps to go to win the opening race of the season for the first time since 2014.

The 2022 and 2023 champion Francesco Bagnaia of Italy, who also rides for Ducati, was a further 0.666sec back for his second third place finish of the weekend.

Marquez made the switch from Gresini Racing at the end of last season.