
Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi claimed pole place for MotoGP’s season-opening Thailand Grand Prix regardless of crashing late on in qualifying.
Bezzecchi was on target to enhance his early Q2 benchmark on his last flying lap, however misplaced his manufacturing facility RS-GP whereas path braking for Flip 12.
Though his earlier effort was fractionally slower than the outright circuit report he had set in Friday apply, he held on to pole place by simply 0.035s from Ducati’s Marc Marquez.
Initially of qualifying, Bezzecchi carried over the effective kind he had proven earlier in Buriram, breaking the 1m29s barrier on his first flying lap earlier than pulling additional clear with a time of 1m28.652s.
His manufacturing facility Aprilia team-mate Jorge Martin additionally went below the 1m29s degree to go second, whereas Fernandez got here from Q1 on the Trackhouse Aprilia to go third-quickest.
At this stage, Ducati wasn’t even Aprilia’s closest challenger on the leaderboard, with KTM’s Pedro Acosta holding fourth place forward of the Marquez brothers.
However reigning world champion Marc Marquez responded on his second run to mount a critical problem in opposition to pre-qualifying favorite Bezzecchi. After lighting up the timing screens with a string of quickest sectors, he appeared set to go to the highest, solely to fall simply brief with a 1m28.687s.
In the meantime, Fernandez claimed third together with his earlier effort of 1m28.876s, making certain two Aprilias on the entrance row of the grid.
VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio was the quickest Ducati rider after the primary run, however finally completed in fourth place forward of Martin, who ran over the gravel on his last flying lap.
Acosta slipped to sixth within the last order, however was nonetheless comfortably the quickest KTM rider on the grid, about 4 tenths off pole place.
Alex Marquez wound up seventh on the Gresini Ducati, whereas Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura made it 4 Aprilias inside the highest eight.
The highest 10 was rounded out by VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantonio and Honda’s Joan Mir. Brad Binder (KTM) and Johann Zarco (LCR) accomplished the Q2 runners.
Bagnaia eradicated in Q1
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia was the highest-profile casualty in Q1, the Italian slumping to thirteenth on the grid after an error-strewn qualifying session.
The 2-time MotoGP champion sat third after the opening run, however a change to recent delicate tyres didn’t ship an enchancment as he ran large on all three of his subsequent flying laps.
He’ll line up on the fifth row of the grid alongside manufacturing facility Honda rider Luca Marini and rookie Diogo Moreira, the latter impressing on his MotoGP debut to qualify fifteenth.
Fabio Quartararo led Yamaha’s cost in sixteenth place, however was greater than 9 tenths adrift of the quickest Q1 time set by Fernandez.
Three-time World Superbike champion Toprak Razgatlioglu will begin his first MotoGP race from twenty first on the grid, whereas Fermin Aldeguer’s stand-in Michele Pirro (Gresini) will full the 22-bike grid.
MotoGP Thailand GP: Q2 outcomes
MotoGP Thailand GP: Q1 outcomes:
Photographs from Thailand GP – Saturday
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