Practice report
MotoGP Thailand GP
MotoGP Thailand GP: Martin tops tight second practice despite crash
MotoGP title contender Jorge Martin led the times in a tight second practice for the Thailand Grand Prix despite suffering a late crash.
Lewis Duncan
Edited: Oct 27, 2023, 4:52 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
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 View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article MotoGP Thailand GP: Martin leads Vinales in FP1, Bagnaia only 10th
Next article Marquez: Honda MotoGP atmosphere hasn't changed since departure announcement
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Lewis Duncan
MotoGP 2025: Full rider line-up revealed
MotoGP
MotoGP
MotoGP 2025: Full rider line-up revealed
A year on from Marquez’s Germany MotoGP meltdown, has Honda improved?
MotoGP
MotoGP
German GP
A year on from Marquez’s Germany MotoGP meltdown, has Honda improved?
What’s behind MotoGP’s right-hander chaos in Germany practice?
MotoGP
MotoGP
German GP
What’s behind MotoGP’s right-hander chaos in Germany practice?
Latest news
Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
5 h
Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links
Did Haas make the correct decision in signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027?
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
7 h
Did Haas make the correct decision in signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027?
Frederik Vesti steps up to full-time role as Cadillac Racing details 2027 IMSA lineup
IMSA
IMSA IMSA 7 h
Frederik Vesti steps up to full-time role as Cadillac Racing details 2027 IMSA lineup
Rafael Camara to replace Esteban Ocon at Haas for F1 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
7 h
Rafael Camara to replace Esteban Ocon at Haas for F1 2027
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe