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Buriram MotoGP test: Honda's Marc Marquez ends day two on top

Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez made a late surge to the head of the times on the second day of testing in Thailand, beating factory Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa

Pedrosa sat at the top of the times for the bulk of the day, having set a 1m30.127s with a little over four hours remaining of Saturday's running to knock Marquez off the top spot.

The times remained static for some time after that as temperatures soared at the Buriram track, before numerous riders made improvements in the final hour.

Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller leapt up to second with just under half an hour to go with a 1m30.185s, before Marquez became the first rider to breach the 1m30s barrier 10 minutes later with a 1m29.969s.

That was enough for Marquez, who had earlier trialled a new aerodynamic fairing on his Honda, to beat Pedrosa by 0.158 seconds, with Miller a further 0.058s back in third.

Yamaha's Maverick Vinales had languished outside the top 10 for much of the afternoon before a late effort of 1m30.347s put him fourth, less than a tenth ahead of satellite Tech3 rider Johann Zarco.

Danilo Petrucci made it two Pramac bikes in the top six, just seven thousandths further back. Suzuki riders Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone sampled two new types of fairing on their GSX-RRs, and both suffered crashes during the day.

The pair ended up seventh and 11th respectively, split by Friday pacesetter Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and works Ducati pair Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo.

Valentino Rossi failed to improve in the latter stages and ended up 14th on the second of the factory Yamahas, nine tenths off Marquez's benchmark.

Bradley Smith again led the KTM runners in 16th place, one place ahead of top Aprilia Aleix Espargaro.

In his second day of MotoGP action, Tech3's Hafiz Syahrin was 2.029s off the pace, and eclipsed Avintia Ducati rider Xavier Simeon to avoid finishing at the bottom of the pile for a second day in a row.

Saturday test times

Pos Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 Marc Marquez Honda Honda 1m29.969s - 97
2 Dani Pedrosa Honda Honda 1m30.127s 0.158s 71
3 Jack Miller Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m30.185s 0.216s 69
4 Maverick Vinales Yamaha Yamaha 1m30.274s 0.305s 90
5 Johann Zarco Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m30.360s 0.391s 60
6 Danilo Petrucci Pramac Ducati Ducati 1m30.367s 0.398s 75
7 Alex Rins Suzuki Suzuki 1m30.446s 0.477s 56
8 Cal Crutchlow LCR Honda Honda 1m30.490s 0.521s 85
9 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati Ducati 1m30.494s 0.525s 78
10 Jorge Lorenzo Ducati Ducati 1m30.729s 0.760s 57
11 Andrea Iannone Suzuki Suzuki 1m30.775s 0.806s 76
12 Tito Rabat Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m30.855s 0.886s 69
13 Alvaro Bautista Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m30.883s 0.914s 89
14 Valentino Rossi Yamaha Yamaha 1m30.888s 0.919s 65
15 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda Honda 1m30.901s 0.932s 83
16 Bradley Smith KTM KTM 1m31.113s 1.144s 79
17 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Aprilia 1m31.130s 1.161s 65
18 Franco Morbidelli MVDS Honda Honda 1m31.185s 1.216s 68
19 Mika Kallio KTM KTM 1m31.598s 1.629s 99
20 Scott Redding Aprilia Aprilia 1m31.637s 1.668s 67
21 Karel Abraham Aspar Ducati Ducati 1m31.661s 1.692s 72
22 Thomas Luthi MVDS Honda Honda 1m31.994s 2.025s 71
23 Hafizh Syahrin Tech3 Yamaha Yamaha 1m31.998s 2.029s 49
24 Xavier Simeon Avintia Ducati Ducati 1m32.267s 2.298s 60

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