Marc Marquez's tactic to drop behind brother Alex in the MotoGP season-opening Thailand Grand Prix was no pre-planned strategy but simply a bid to avoid a penalty.
Given Marquez had the best pace and seemed to be controlling the race from over a second in front, his decision to give up that gap and slot in behind Alex - and follow him for half the race from then on - raised eyebrows.
But given the very deliberate way in which he did it, first glancing over his shoulder at Turn 3 and then giving up just enough time on the next straight, suggested right away that it was a deliberate ploy to get himself out of clean air - with front tyre pressure the presumed culprit.
This was already the case last year at Assen, where Marquez waved Fabio Di Giannantonio past - albeit in that case he still ended up with a post-race penalty.
Marquez was seemingly a bit coy about the reasoning in the immediate aftermath of the Thai GP, likely in an attempt to completely deflect any blame from his new works Ducati crew headed up by crew chief Marco Rigamonti, but came clean in the press conference.
"I started and the first two laps I felt smooth, I was riding in a very good way - then I saw the tyre pressure was not in the correct range. It was too low. I started to brake harder alone for two laps to see if it could recover a bit, but I wasn't able to [get it back into range] alone.
"I decided to wait for Alex. I was counting the laps remaining and the laps I needed - and I just had three laps of margin. So for that reason I stayed behind him until three laps to go."
What is Marquez talking about?
Tyre pressure monitoring is relatively new to MotoGP, introduced mid-2023 due to tyre supplier Michelin's desire to ensure safety - with it felt that the front tyre in particular was being run dangerously low.
Under the current prescription, rather than a singular reading, the tyres need to be above the minimum pressure for a certain number of laps in a race. In a grand prix this equates to 60% distance, which in the Thai GP's 26 laps meant - rounded down - 15 laps above the limit.
Marquez came to realise he was running out of laps to complete a 'legal' tyre pressure stint, so dropped behind his brother as sucking up the heat from a bike running up front is the surefire way to keep the tyre pressure on the higher side.
"I was counting on the bike - riding, counting the numbers, the laps remaining, the laps I needed inside the pressure [range]. Super difficult to ride because the front was closing [because of the high pressure], but today I had the pace to absorb that problem."
Marquez said that even once behind his brother he was still riding in a very deliberate way to induce a higher front tyre pressure - deliberately accelerating less out of corners in order to be able to hammer the front brake into the next one.
"If I just arrived very close on the braking point in the slipstream, then I cannot brake hard.
"Then I was just rolling [off] a bit the gas, even sometimes on the straight, to [then] brake hard and load the front.
"My target all the race was just to keep the front temperature super high for the front pressure. Normally you try the opposite, but today was like this."
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How was his race so compromised? Marquez made sure not to place any blame on his crew and Rigamonti in particular, repeatedly emphasising - as he had done all off-season - how well he has gelled with the new personnel after switching over from the Frankie Carchedi-led Gresini crew.
"We need to understand why," he acknowledged of the pressure issue. "Because yesterday they calculated normally - but as I said before, I'm new to the team. And still they need to know me.
"And sometimes when I have the pace in the race on Sunday, I change the riding style, I'm riding differently, I'm pushing the front less because it's where you can crash, and it's the one thing I don't want to do.
"In this racetrack I was able to ride in two-three different ways, with the same laptime. So... maybe changing that riding style, the pressure was not correct, but it's experience for the future."
What his rivals said
Marquez's brother Alex wondered initially whether Marc was responding to a red flag, then whether he was suffering a mechanical issue.
But once he saw how close Marc was staying in his slipstream, he said he realised what the strategy was - and what the outcome of the race would most likely be.
Once clear of Alex after a lunge into the final corner - the elder Marquez knew he had the margin to overtake either there or into Turn 3 so felt confident he wouldn't have to get aggressive with his brother - Marc unleashed his true pace.
Pace on final three laps
Lap 24
Marc Marquez - 1m31.228s
Alex Marquez - 1m32.364s
Pecco Bagnaia - 1m32.070s
Lap 25
Marc Marquez - 1m31.622s
Alex Marquez - 1m32.051s
Pecco Bagnaia - 1m32.174s
Lap 26
Marc Marquez -1m32.095s
Alex Marquez - 1m32.319s
Pecco Bagnaia - 1m32.329s
Taking the evidence of that three-lap burst Bagnaia ascertained that, even with the context of the issue, Marc was "playing" with the others in this race and was never beatable.
"He was much faster," Bagnaia acknowledged - and said the onus was on his side of the garage to catch up.
