MotoGP Thailand GP: Martin tops tight second practice despite crash

The Pramac Ducati rider comes into the Buriram event 27 points adrift of factory Ducati counterpart Francesco Bagnaia after losing the victory in Australia last week on the final lap.

With under half a second covering the top 18, Martin emerged as fastest of all with a final flying effort of 1m29.826s.

However, he did crash seconds later at the Turn 3 right-handed hairpin, but walked away unscathed.

The Aprilia duo of Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro completed the top three, with Australian GP winner Johann Zarco fourth from VR46 pairing Luca Marini and last year’s poleman Marco Bezzecchi.

Bagnaia arrested his recent run of Friday Q2 exits and ended the day seventh, ensuring a direct passage into the pole shootout session in qualifying on Saturday.

The championship leader’s session got off to a rocky start on Friday afternoon as some brake issues forced him to abandon his number one bike early on.

As this was going on, Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio – now favourite to replace Marc Marquez at Honda in 2024 – set the initial pace with a 1m30.945s, before Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo went top with a 1m30.835s.

Alex Marquez put Gresini back on top moments later with a 1m30.728s, which would stand as the benchmark until Vinales edged clear on his Aprilia with a 1m30.613s 25 minutes into the session.

With just under 13 minutes of the hour-long session to go, the field began switching en masse to the medium rear tyre (the softest option in Michelin’s range in Thailand).

KTM’s Brad Binder breached the top of the timesheets with a 1m30.247s on his fresh medium rear, before improving on his follow-up tour to a 1m30.121s.

Vinales dipped underneath the 1m30s bracket with 10 minutes to go on a 1m29.924s, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep him top of the order.

With two minutes remaining, Martin snatched first away from Vinales with a 1m29.826s, before dumping his Pramac Ducati at Turn 3 as he steamed into the corner a bit too hot.

Trailing the Aprilia duo, Zarco, the VR46 pair and Bagnaia came Quartararo on the Yamaha, with Binder ninth at the chequered flag.

The final direct Q2 spot went to Tech3 GasGas’s Augusto Fernandez, who denied Honda’s Marc Marquez by 0.065s.

Marquez was involved in an odd incident about halfway through the session when he was hit by a winglet broken off of Martin’s bike after he hit a pit-entry marker. Though clearly in some discomfort, Marquez suffered no serious harm.

Franco Morbidelli was unable to join his Yamaha team-mate Quartararo in Q2 in 12th ahead of KTM’s Jack Miller and Di Giannantonio, while Pol Espargaro (Tech3) headed the second factory Honda of Joan Mir in 15th.

Alex Marquez was 18th in the end, but only 0.541s off the pace, highlighting the closeness of the field in Thailand already.

MotoGP Thailand GP - FP2 results

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

         

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Rider	#		Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89		Ducati	22	1'29.826		182.512
2	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12		Aprilia	25	+0.098 1'29.924	0.098	182.313
3	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41		Aprilia	26	+0.160 1'29.986	0.062	182.188
4	J. Zarco Pramac Racing	5		Ducati	22	+0.180 1'30.006	0.020	182.147
5	L. Marini Team VR46	10		Ducati	27	+0.199 1'30.025	0.019	182.109
6	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72		Ducati	26	+0.208 1'30.034	0.009	182.091
7	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1		Ducati	23	+0.243 1'30.069	0.035	182.020
8	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20		Yamaha	26	+0.248 1'30.074	0.005	182.010
9	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33		KTM	23	+0.295 1'30.121	0.047	181.915
10	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37		KTM	24	+0.304 1'30.130	0.009	181.897
11	M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team	93		Honda	26	+0.369 1'30.195	0.065	181.766
12	F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing	21		Yamaha	24	+0.391 1'30.217	0.022	181.721
13	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43		KTM	27	+0.398 1'30.224	0.007	181.707
14	F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing	49		Ducati	26	+0.436 1'30.262	0.038	181.631
15	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44		KTM	21	+0.442 1'30.268	0.006	181.619
16	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36		Honda	23	+0.469 1'30.295	0.027	181.564
17	R. Fernández RNF Racing	25		Aprilia	23	+0.517 1'30.343	0.048	181.468
18	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73		Ducati	20	+0.541 1'30.367	0.024	181.420
19	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23		Ducati	24	+1.089 1'30.915	0.548	180.326
20	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30		Honda	27	+1.164 1'30.990	0.075	180.178
21	M. Oliveira RNF Racing	88		Aprilia	23	+1.278 1'31.104	0.114	179.952
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