MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

There’s a special kind of nerves reserved for the first race of a season, but Marc Marquez did his best not to keep us too tense for too long, taking off from pole position and only getting caught by the cameras over the next 13 laps. Marquez’s sprint victory returns him to the top of the world championship standings for the first time since his last title celebration in 2019, and this time he also shared the celebrations with his brother, as Alex Marquez was his closest challenger before settling for second place. Pecco Bagnaia found himself in a rather unexpected situation of having to defend a podium position from a rookie, but calmly managed that challenge to start his title bid with a third place. 

The poleman was untroubled at the start, helped by an early exchange between Alex Marquez and Bagnaia, but the Gresini rider had already reclaimed second by turn three. Ai Ogura and Jack Miller swapped places off the line, with Morbidelli settling in 6^th after an early attack, and Fabio Quartararo climbing into 7^th, ahead of Brad Binder, Pedro Acosta and Johann Zarco. The trio completed the top 10 on the opening lap, with Raul Fernandez and Marco Bezzecchi the big losers at the start – a moment off the line dropping the Italian to 19^th. 

By lap three, Marc Marquez was enjoying around six tenths of a second of space from brother Alex, who in turn had one second in hand over Bagnaia. The Italian had some closer company behind him, but Ogura was sensibly biding his time for an attack. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Acosta was really keen to harass teammate Binder in the battle for 8^th place and the Spaniard made a move stick on the following lap, setting off to chase Quartararo, seven tenths up the road. 

While under pressure from a rapid Ogura, Bagnaia finally got on the same pace as the Marquez brothers on lap four, but the Italian had a second and a half to find on the Gresini rider ahead. A couple of laps later and victory was slipping further out of his reach, as Marc had dropped Alex over a second behind as well. With Ogura still hot on Bagnaia’s tail, the duo had stretched a second of advantage over the rest of the pack led by Morbidelli, and missing Miller by lap seven – the Australian crashing out of 6^th place. That handed 6^th to Quartararo, but only briefly, as he now had Acosta breathing down his neck and the KTM man took advantage of the Frenchman’s mistake at turn eight one lap later. Another second back, Binder and Joan Mir were provisionally claiming the final points on offer, with Zarco not too far back, defending 10^th from Fabio Di Giannantonio.

By lap 10, it was that fight for 10^th that was getting most of the airtime, as the leaders were pretty spread out at the front, with Marc Marquez 1.3 seconds ahead of Alex Marquez, the same gap keeping Bagnaia away, but with more room to breathe as Ogura dropped some seven tenths back. However, all good things must come to an end and Zarco seemed to have settled the score for 10^th once Di Giannantonio dropped back and retired with a mechanical issue one lap later – Fernandez and Bezzecchi seemingly unable to mount a challenge and keep the action going.

The poleman started the final lap with almost a second and a half of advantage and kept much of that until the chequered flag, only losing a few tenths in an early celebration. Bagnaia crossed the finish line two seconds after the Marquez brothers, with Ogura securing a fantastic 4^th place on his premier class debut, less than a second behind the podium positions. Morbidelli took a lonelier 5^th place, with a six second chasm to Acosta in 6^th. Quartararo had to settle for 7^th, while Binder and Mir took the final points on offer. 

Results:

If there was little room for surprises in the other qualifying sessions of the day, the intermediate class at least decided to spice things up for the final couple of minutes of Q2. After giving Barry Baltus false hopes at a maiden pole, Manuel Gonzalez picked up the pace in the closing stages to claim a second career pole position in the final minute of the action. Having escaped from Q1 by the skin of his teeth and then spending most of Q2 at the bottom of the ranking, Celestino Vietti put in an excellent final couple of laps to climb straight into second place on the grid, only three hundredths of a second slower than the poleman. Meanwhile, Aron Canet was a bit more consistent on route to the final place on the front row. 

A late charge from Senna Agius also helped the Australian secure 4^th position, sharing the second row of the grid with Baltus, who got demoted to 5^th, and Q1 leader Darryn Binder. Marcos Ramirez, Jake Dixon and Alonso Lopez make up row three – the trio around four tenths of a second behind the leader – while Diogo Moreira completed the top 10. Izan Guevara and Deniz Öncü will be joining the Brazilian on row four, with Albert Arenas, Mario Aji and Dani Holgado on row five – the rookie easily escaping Q1. Fellow rookie Adrian Huertas also joined him in Q2, but had to settle for 18^th grid position, behind Filip Salac and Jorge Navarro, while Ivan Ortola missed out on Q2 by seven hundredths of a second. 

Results: 

Thailand was hotting things up to a muggy 36 degrees ahead of the lightweight class qualifying and pole position was almost as hotly disputed, with plenty of red sector times flashing on the timing screens in the closing stages of Q2. However, no one was capable of catching up with Matteo Bertelle, who had been giving strong hints at his speed on Friday and kept that going to secure his maiden pole position in the class. The change of team also served compatriot Stefano Nepa well, whose late charge rewarded him with a best ever qualifying performance in second place on the grid. Jose Antonio Rueda also continued his good run of form by completing the front row, less than a tenth of a second behind the poleman. 

Scott Ogden did well to climb into 4^th position, alongside Luca Lunetta, but all eyes on the second row were on Alvaro Carpe – the Red Bull Rookies champion headlining Q1 and now starting his first Moto3 race from 6^th place on the grid. David Almansa kept close in 7^th position, and will be in familiar company on the third row, with Joel Kelso and a much improved Taiyo Furusato, after a rather sluggish morning practice. 

David Muñoz completed the top 10 positions, ahead of a slightly underwhelming 11^th place for Adrian Fernandez and with Riccardo Rossi joining them on the fourth row. Returning Moto3 veteran Dennis Foggia managed to escape Q1 and climbed into 13^th grid position, lining up in front of some of the main actors from last year: Ryusei Yamanaka and Angel Piqueras. 

Some other notable performances included local hero Tatchakorn Buasri making his Q2 debut on home soil and qualifying 17th, while rookie Eddie O’Shea also escaped Q1 at the first try, to start 18th on the grid. Although showing good speed in practice, Guido Pini crashed out at the final corner of his final flying lap, while on course for a Q2-worthy time, and had to settle for 24^th on the grid. 

Results: 

Premier class qualifying brought the first real butterflies of the season and although the outcome hardly required a crystal ball, it still made for a good tale. Fresh off a nervy Q1, Pecco Bagnaia set the early reference in Q2, but the Marquez household immediately harassed him and dipped into the 1:28s. Marc Marquez seemed quite tempted by the lap record, but some late yellow flags put that to rest and the new factory Ducati recruit settled for a first pole position in red – a tenth and a half faster than brother Alex, who adds some Gresini blue to the front row. Meanwhile, Bagnaia’s own front row bid was being challenged by rookie Ai Ogura, but the experienced Italian regrouped on his second outing to reclaim third place on the grid. 

Benefitting from a solid reference from fellow Q1 graduate Bagnaia, Jack Miller also managed to sneak ahead of the rookie into 4^th position, but a top 5 in your first qualifying session and leading the Aprilia charge isn’t too shabby. Quite fantastic even. Miller and Ogura will be joined on the second row of the grid by Franco Morbidelli – at least in today’s sprint, as the Italian was handed a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race after impeding Bagnaia on Friday. 

Pedro Acosta opens row three with a time half a second off pole and lines up alongside the Aprilias of Raul Fernandez and Marco Bezzecchi – although the latter added another crash to the list with a turn 3 tumble in the final handful of minutes of Q2. All three riders will be benefitting from Morbidelli’s grid penalty on Sunday, dropping him to 9^th position. 

Fabio Quartararo in 10^th place was six tenths of a second slower than the leader and three tenths off the top Yamaha, opening the fourth row ahead of Joan Mir (who also ended the session in the gravel at turn 3) and Johann Zarco. Fabio Di Giannantonio narrowly missed out on Q2 by five hundredths of a second and will be sharing fifth row with Brad Binder and rookie Fermin Aldeguer. Luca Marini, Miguel Oliveira and Maverick Viñales make up row six, with Alex Rins fronting row seven ahead of Enea Bastianini and Somkiat Chantra. The home crowd was going wild for the rookie despite his early struggles and his grid penalty for riding slowly on the racing line, which will drop him behind replacement rider Lorenzo Savadori on Sunday’s grid.

Results:          

The final practice session for the premier class offered a familiar picture, with an all-Ducati top 5 on the timesheets, although the order was slightly different to one day ago. Keen to make up for the three-place grid penalty for getting in Pecco Bagnaia’s way yesterday, Franco Morbidelli sampled some fresh rubber in the final few minutes of FP2 and promoted himself to the top of the timing screens by seven hundredths of a second. Marc Marquez’s session got off to a slower start, while the Spaniard got tasked with testing some new aero, but he was soon back at the sharp end and showing off with his strong pace on 17-lap old tyres. Although unlucky on Friday, Bagnaia rejoined his teammate in the top three on Saturday morning, two tenths of a second off Marquez’s best time. 

Some new rubber at the end of the session helped Fermin Aldeguer jump into 4^th position, narrowly ahead of teammate and Friday leader Alex Marquez, while fellow rookie Ai Ogura was best of the non-Ducati rest, in 6^th place. Johann Zarco flew the flag for Honda in 7^th position, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio and home hero Somkiat Chantra. Fabio Quartararo completed the top 10 as the top Yamaha rider, four hundredths of a second quicker than Joan Mir and with similarly minuscule gaps behind them. Raul Fernandez, Luca Marini, Pedro Acosta and Marco Bezzecchi completed the top 15, although the latter struggled with some technical issues halfway through proceedings.

Results:

The intermediate class battled through a predictably hot start to Saturday at Buriram to work on their race preparation, but two men still shined at the top of the timesheets. After Aron Canet held the spotlight for much of proceedings, Deniz Öncü robbed him in the final handful of minutes to take top spot by five hundredths of a second ahead of the Spaniard. Zonta Van Den Goorbergh joined them in the top three, a couple tenths off the lead and narrowly ahead of a rather surprising Mario Aji.

Celestino Vietti managed to climb into 5^th position while in the middle of a very consistent run, just ahead of Barry Baltus and the quickest man on Friday morning, Manuel Gonzalez. The Spanish trio of Marcos Ramirez, Jorge Navarro and Albert Arenas completed a top 10 covered by half a second, with Filip Salac missing out by another tenth. Yuki Kunii was the top rookie in FP2 in 12^th position, ahead of Alex Escrig, Jake Dixon and Practice leader Diogo Moreira in the top 15. 

Rookies Dani Holgado and Collin Veijer sandwiched Alonso Lopez at the bottom of the top 20, with low key performances from the likes of Tony Arbolino and Joe Roberts just behind. Rookie Ivan Ortola was left down in 25^th position after an early tumble at turn 9. 

Results:

With the line-up for the two qualifying sessions already decided on Friday afternoon, the lightweight class had a more carefree – but by no means slow – start on Saturday.  Although it made no difference for proceedings, the same names gravitated towards the top of the timesheets for a second day in a row, but this time led by Jose Antonio Rueda with brand new lap record set in the latter stages of FP2. Adrian Fernandez also joined him under the old benchmark in second position, with Stefano Nepa sneaking into the top three in the final seconds of the session. 

Joel Kelso had to drop a position late on, completing the top five alongside David Almansa, while Alvaro Carpe impressed as the top rookie in the session, in 6^th place at the chequered flag. Dennis Foggia’s return to the class shows promising signs early on, with a 7^th position on Saturday morning, ahead of compatriot Luca Lunetta. David Muñoz in 9^th place was half a second off the leader’s time, while Ryusei Yamanaka completed the top 10. 

Friday’s leader, Matteo Bertelle, had a bit of a tougher start on Saturday – although he was not too far off the business end of the timesheets in 11^th position, his session ended with a minor tumble in the final few seconds of the action. Guido Pini was another of the standout rookies in FP2, settling in 12^th position after featuring even higher at times throughout the session. 

Some of the surprises lower down the order included Angel Piqueras struggling to break into the top positions – not helped by a track limits infringement that saw his best time cancelled and dropped him back down to 19^th place – and a subdued Taiyo Furusato ending the session at the very bottom of the pile, nearly two seconds slower than the leader. 

Results:

Alex Marquez has topped the timesheets at the end of the first day of practice for the MotoGP class. The BK8 Gresini Ducati rider put in a very fast lap as the clock ran out to jump a few hundredths ahead of his brother and ex-teammate Marc Marquez. The two Marquez brothers were the only riders to clock 1'29.0s, three tenths off Pecco Bagnaia's lap record from Q2 last year.

Pedro Acosta saved face for the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team, the Spaniard taking third ahead of Marco Bezzecchi on the Aprilia. Bezzecchi was on a fast time on his final lap when he crashed, bringing out the yellow flags and causing a bunch of fast laps to be canceled.

Franco Morbidelli was fifth quickest on the Pertamina Enduro VR46 Ducati, though the Italian is likely to face a grid penalty. After an incident this morning, where he crossed the track in front of riders trying to do practice starts, and earning him a stiff talking to from new chief FIM Steward Simon Crafar, Morbidelli was cruising on the racing line in the final minute of the afternoon session, getting in the way of Pecco Bagnaia and costing the Ducati Lenovo rider a slot in Q2. Bagnaia had already lost one fast lap to Bezzecchi's yellow flag, and Morbidelli's lack of attention cost him a final shot at saving himself from the bloodbath that is Q1. Bagnaia ended up with the 13th fastest time.

Joan Mir continued his impressive day on the Honda HRC Castrol bike, the 2020 world champion ending the session in sixth, just ahead of Raul Fernandez on the Trackhouse Aprilia, who scraped into Q2 with a late lap. Fabio Quartararo finished as seventh fastest on the Monster Energy Yamaha, while Ai Ogura made it three Aprilias in Q2. The Trackhouse Aprilia rookie has made a strong debut on his first day.

Johann Zarco rounded out the top ten on the Castrol LCR Honda, the Frenchman making it two Hondas in the top ten, and less than six tenths off Alex Marquez best time.

Results:

Results: