MotoGP Thailand GP: Marquez claims emphatic pole on…

Marc Marquez carried forward his scintillating pace from testing to claim pole position for the MotoGP season-opening Thailand Grand Prix.

Making his debut with the factory Ducati team, Marquez posted a best time of 1m28.782s to beat his brother and Gresini rider Alex Marquez by a tenth-and-a-half in qualifying on Saturday morning.

Alex Marquez was the first rider to break the 1m29s barrier this weekend with a time of 1m28.928s on his first run, but his brother Marc demoted him from the top just seconds later.

Marc Marquez was on an even quicker lap on his second run, but his chance of breaking the lap record was scuppered by a mistake at Turn 8.

Yellow flags due to separate crashes for Marco Bezzecchi and former team-mate Joan Mir at Turn 3 ruined his next chance and the six-time MotoGP champion backed out of his final attempt when it became clear no one would be able to beat his initial benchmark.

The result secured Marquez his first pole position in MotoGP since last year’s Aragon GP and marked a perfect start to his stint at the factory Ducati team.

Alex Marquez held on to second place despite not improving on his previous flying lap, while Francesco Bagnaia jumped to third on the factory Ducati after going out early on his second run.

Pramac’s Jack Miller followed Bagnaia out of the pitlane and followed him throughout on his flying lap, securing an impressive second-row start for Yamaha’s new satellite team in fourth.

Both Bagnaia and Miller had made their way through Q1, with the former managing to progress into the second session with just a single set of soft tyres.

Trackhouse rookie Ai Ogura put in a solid performance to lead the Aprilia contingent in fifth place, beating VR46’s Franco Morbidelli, who has a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race for impeding Bagnaia in Friday practice.

Ogura’s team-mate Raul Fernandez finished eighth ahead of factory Aprilia rider Bezzecchi, whose late crash at Turn 3 - a replica of his incident from Friday - left him ninth.

Fabio Quartartaro was classified 10th on the factory Yamaha, while Hondas of Mir and Johann Zarco (LCR) rounded out the top 12.

Alex Marquez was the first rider to break the 1m29s barrier, posting a 1m28.928s flyer on his first run, before his brother Marc Marquez moved the goalposts with a 1m28.782s.

Q2 results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	9	1'28.782		184.659
2	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	8	+0.146 1'28.928	0.146	184.355
3	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	8	+0.173 1'28.955	0.027	184.299
4	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	8	+0.308 1'29.090	0.135	184.020
5	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	9	+0.352 1'29.134	0.044	183.929
6	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	8	+0.389 1'29.171	0.037	183.853
7	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	8	+0.538 1'29.320	0.149	183.546
8	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	9	+0.585 1'29.367	0.047	183.450
9	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	6	+0.599 1'29.381	0.014	183.421
10	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	9	+0.607 1'29.389	0.008	183.405
11	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	7	+0.640 1'29.422	0.033	183.337
12	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	8	+0.827 1'29.609	0.187	182.954
View full results

Photos from Thailand GP -Saturday

Q1 results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	4	1'29.180		183.834
2	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	7	+0.006 1'29.186	0.006	183.822
3	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	7	+0.057 1'29.237	0.051	183.717
4	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	7	+0.288 1'29.468	0.231	183.243
5	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	9	+0.304 1'29.484	0.016	183.210
6	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	7	+0.352 1'29.532	0.048	183.112
7	M. Oliveira Pramac Racing	88	Yamaha	7	+0.407 1'29.587	0.055	182.999
8	M. Viñales Tech 3	12	KTM	7	+0.521 1'29.701	0.114	182.767
9	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	8	+0.553 1'29.733	0.032	182.702
10	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	8	+0.736 1'29.916	0.183	182.330
11	S. Chantra Team LCR	35	Honda	8	+0.896 1'30.076	0.160	182.006
12	L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team	32	Aprilia	8	+1.450 1'30.630	0.554	180.893
View full results