Qualifying report

MotoGP Thailand GP: Bezzecchi beats Marquez to pole despite late crash

Aprilia dominant in qualifying, but Marc Marquez impresses to split Marco Bezzecchi and Raul Fernandez

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi claimed pole position for MotoGP’s season-opening Thailand Grand Prix despite crashing late on in qualifying.

Bezzecchi was on course to improve his early Q2 benchmark on his final flying lap, but lost his factory RS-GP under braking for Turn 12.

Although his earlier effort was fractionally slower than the outright circuit record he had set in Friday practice, he held on to pole position by just 0.035s from Ducati’s Marc Marquez.

At the start of qualifying, Bezzecchi carried over the fine form he had shown earlier in Buriram, breaking the 1m29s barrier on his first flying lap before pulling further clear with a time of 1m28.652s.

His factory Aprilia team-mate Jorge Martin also went under the 1m29s level to go second, while Fernandez came from Q1 on the Trackhouse Aprilia to go third-quickest.

At this stage, Ducati wasn’t even Aprilia’s closest challenger on the leaderboard, with KTM's Pedro Acosta holding fourth place ahead of the Marquez brothers.

But reigning world champion Marc Marquez responded on his second run to mount a serious challenge against pre-qualifying favourite Bezzecchi. After lighting up the timing screens with a string of fastest sectors, he appeared set to go to the top, only to fall just short with a 1m28.687s.

Meanwhile, Fernandez claimed third with his previous effort of 1m28.876s, ensuring two Aprilias on the front row of the grid.

VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio was the fastest Ducati rider after the first run, but ultimately finished in fourth place ahead of Martin, who ran over the gravel on his final flying lap.

Acosta slipped to sixth in the final order, but was still comfortably the fastest KTM rider on the grid, about four tenths off pole position.

Alex Marquez wound up seventh on the Gresini Ducati, while Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura made it four Aprilias inside the top eight.

The top 10 was rounded out by VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantonio and Honda’s Joan Mir. Brad Binder (KTM) and Johann Zarco (LCR) completed the Q2 runners.

Bagnaia eliminated in Q1

Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia was the highest-profile casualty in Q1, the Italian slumping to 13th on the grid after an error-strewn qualifying session.

The two-time MotoGP champion sat third after the opening run, but a switch to fresh soft tyres failed to deliver an improvement as he ran wide on all three of his subsequent flying laps.

He will line up on the fifth row of the grid alongside factory Honda rider Luca Marini and rookie Diogo Moreira, the latter impressing on his MotoGP debut to qualify 15th.

Fabio Quartararo led Yamaha’s charge in 16th place, but was more than nine tenths adrift of the fastest Q1 time set by Fernandez.

Three-time World Superbike champion Toprak Razgatlioglu will start his first MotoGP race from 21st on the grid, while Fermin Aldeguer’s stand-in Michele Pirro (Gresini) will complete the 22-bike grid.

MotoGP Thailand GP: Q2 results

Q2

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	6	1'28.652		184.929
2	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	8	+0.035 1'28.687	0.035	184.856
3	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	8	+0.224 1'28.876	0.189	184.463
4	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	8	+0.266 1'28.918	0.042	184.376
5	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	7	+0.349 1'29.001	0.083	184.204
6	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	8	+0.409 1'29.061	0.060	184.080
7	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	9	+0.425 1'29.077	0.016	184.047
8	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	8	+0.559 1'29.211	0.134	183.771
9	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	4	+0.669 1'29.321	0.110	183.544
10	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	8	+0.733 1'29.385	0.064	183.413
11	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	7	+0.750 1'29.402	0.017	183.378
12	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	8	+0.880 1'29.532	0.130	183.112
View full results

MotoGP Thailand GP: Q1 results:

Q1

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	8	1'28.784		184.654	336
2	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	6	+0.306 1'29.090	0.306	184.020	338
3	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	9	+0.564 1'29.348	0.258	183.489	341
4	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	7	+0.662 1'29.446	0.098	183.288	338
5	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	7	+0.705 1'29.489	0.043	183.200	340
6	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	9	+0.899 1'29.683	0.194	182.803	336
7	M. Viñales Tech 3	12	KTM	7	+0.990 1'29.774	0.091	182.618	336
8	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	9	+1.050 1'29.834	0.060	182.496	333
9	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	9	+1.283 1'30.067	0.233	182.024	332
10	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	8	+1.294 1'30.078	0.011	182.002	339
11	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7	Yamaha	8	+1.381 1'30.165	0.087	181.826	334
12	M. Pirro Gresini Racing	51	Ducati	8	+2.577 1'31.361	1.196	179.446	334
View full results