Francesco Bagnaia held the upper hand in qualifying for the Thailand Grand Prix as he notched up his fourth pole position of the season in Buriram, while MotoGP title rival Jorge Martin suffered a crash.
The Italian was in command throughout the Q2 session as he exerted his grip on the top spot with his first flying effort before going on to lower that twice more en route to a timesheet-topping 1m28.700s effort.
Coming into the event chasing down a 20-point deficit to Martin with three rounds and six races to come, the factory Ducati rider’s psychological edge was strengthened further by his title rival blotting his copybook with a fall.
The Pramac rider had looked set to challenge Bagnaia’s pole-winning benchmark only to low-side off at turn five. Nevertheless, he remains well-placed on the front row in third, the championship fighters split by Enea Bastianini in second.
Martin wasn’t the only rider to hit the deck during Q2 with Marc Marquez, Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco each ending their session in the gravel trap.
With the subsequent yellow flags limiting opportunities for late gains, it allowed Gresini rider Marquez to escape with a second row start in fifth just behind fourth-place man Marco Bezzecchi, while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo broke the Ducati deadlock with sixth having come through Q1.
Tech3 GasGas’s Pedro Acosta heads up row three, which he shares alongside Fabio di Giannantonio and Alex Marquez as Maverick Vinales and felled duo Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco make up row four.
Elsewhere, Brad Binder – on the podium in Buriram last season – failed to make it past Q1 in 13th, while Aleix Espargaro gets away from 14th place despite losing track time on Friday in the wake of his heavy FP1 tumble.
Q2 results:
Q1 results:
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