MotoGP

Martin, Marquez crash out of Thai GP qualifying, Bagnaia on pole

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
2 min read

Defending MotoGP champion Pecco Bagnaia obliterated the Buriram lap record to seal pole for the Thai Grand Prix.

His main title rival Jorge Martin - who holds a 20-point lead in the standings - crashed while trying to match his time, but was kept on the front row by other crashes.

Bagnaia had already overhauled Marc Marquez's lap record from the day before on his first run in Q2, but found nearly four tenths more on his second attempt to log a 1m28.700s.

But Martin, just half a tenth down at the halfway point in the session, was on course to at least challenge that benchmark, only to fall off at Turn 5.

Marquez - who had been running right behind Martin - had already gone down at Turn 3, while Martin's Pramac team-mate Franco Morbidelli crashed towards the end of the lap while on course for second or third.

It meant in the end that Martin - despite ending up 0.43s off Bagnaia - was relegated only one spot, by Bagnaia's works Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini.

A relatively favourable outcome for Bagnaia was not enough, however, to mitigate his irritation post-session - as, having done a poor practice start earlier in the day, he was denied the opportunity to do another by the bike being low on fuel, much to his chagrin.

Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) and Marquez - despite the crash - completed an all-Ducati top five.

Fabio Quartararo was a phenomenal sixth for Yamaha after a qualifying effort for the ages - having earlier dragged his M1 into Q2 with a spectacular effort at the very end of Q1, which came not long after he'd tucked the front and saved a certain crash.

Pedro Acosta, as the sole Pierer Mobility Group (KTM/Gas Gas) representative in Q2, placed seventh, followed by VR46 Ducati's Fabio Di Giannantonio and Gresini Ducati's Alex Marquez.

Maverick Vinales moved up to 10th as the lead Aprilia at the very end of Q2, with Morbidelli and Johann Zarco - who crashed late on - completing the order.

Quartararo's aforementioned last-gasp Q1 improvement had left Brad Binder eliminated in 13th on the grid, a tenth off advancing and three hundredths up on Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro - whose Friday had been curtailed by a painful FP1 crash but who was passed fit to continue with the weekend.

Binder's KTM team-mate Jack Miller will join them on row five.

With Zarco in Q2 by virtue of his Friday effort, the rest of the Honda contingent predictably came nowhere near joining him there - with LCR team-mate Takaaki Nakagami the best of them in 18th.

Thai GP grid

1. Bagnaia 2. Bastianini 3. Martin
4. Bezzecchi 5. M Marquez 6. Quartararo
7. Acosta 8. Di Giannantonio 9. A Marquez
10. Vinales 11. Morbidelli 12. Zarco
13. Binder 14. Espargaro 15. Miller
16. A Fernandez 17. Rins 18. Nakagami
19. Mir 20. R Fernandez 21 Marini
22. Savadori

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