Marquez brothers lead first day of Buriram MotoGP test

Factory Ducati rider Marc Marquez set the quickest time on the opening day of the Buriram MotoGP test, leading his brother, Sepang pacesetter Alex Marquez.

The Spaniard set a best lap of 1m29.184s with just a few minutes remaining on Wednesday, finding nearly half a second over the benchmark set by Gresini’s younger Marquez in the morning session.

Marc Marquez had been sitting second and 0.126s off the top spot just when he made his late improvement in the final part of the session.

However, his time was still some way off the lap record, a 1m28.700s set by Francesco Bagnaia on his way to pole position in last year’s Thailand Grand Prix.

VR46’s Franco Morbidelli climbed to third place shortly after the chequered flag fell, ending up 0.034s down on Alex Marquez.

Meanwhile, Aprilia enjoyed its best showing of pre-season testing so far, with newly signed factory rider Marco Bezzecchi taking fourth place ahead of KTM's Pedro Acosta after recovering from an off-track excursion.

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Honda also put on a solid display in Buriram, with Luca Marini finishing sixth on the factory HRC bike and Johann Zarco ending up right behind him in seventh. They were the last of the riders to lap in the 1m29s bracket.

Two-time MotoGP champion Bagnaia fell just shy of that mark in eighth on the factory Ducati, with KTM’s Brad Binder also missing the cut - by just 0.041s - as he finished ninth.

While Yamaha stole the headlines at last week's Sepang test, the Iwata-based brand made a relatively low-key start to the Buriram test. Its highest-placed runner was Pramac’s Jack Miller in 10th, 0.863s slower than pacesetter Alex Marquez.

Yamaha factory duo Alex Rins and Fabio Quartararo finished another two tenths off the pace in 12th and 13th respectively, behind the Honda of Joan Mir.

The top rookie on Wednesday was Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer, who recovered from a crash at Turn 8 to set the 14th fastest time.

Trackhouse’s newcomer Ai Ogura also had a fall, at Turn 3, but he was able to finish 15th, two spots ahead of his more experienced team-mate Miguel Oliveira.

A total of 20 full-time race riders appeared on Wednesday, with Jorge Martin and Fabio di Giannantonio being absent due to injuries. Aprilia called in its test rider Lorenzo Savadori to replace Martin, bringing the list of total participants up to 21.