Marco Bezzechi put in a stunning lap at the closing stage of MotoGP qualifying for the Thailand Grand Prix at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram to take his first ever pole position in the premier class. This would also be the first pole position for Valentino Rossi’s Mooney VR46 Racing Team after previously scoring their first podium finish back in Assen.
In what was a tight and thrilling session, the Italian rookie put in a brilliant effort to pip Pramac’s Jorge Martin for pole position and by also breaking the record for the fastest lap time around the Chang International Circuit with a time of 1:29.671.
Q1 saw Aleix Espargaro being demoted down to 13th place. The Spaniard who sits 3rd in the world championship standings was unable to make it out of the session with what seemed to be an issue with tire grip. The Aprilia man would miss out on Q2 by just 0.103 seconds.
But Q1 was all about Marc Marquez on the Repsol Honda and Miguel Oliveira on the factory KTM as they both managed to pull clear of the rest and get into Q2.
Q2 would fail to be equally graceful for the 8 times world champion as he only managed to put his Repsol Honda in 8th place. He was on a used set of soft tires and later boxed but slightly lost balance coming out of the last corner that saw his lap time take a hit.
Bezzechi’s teammate, Luca Marini will start 9th with Alex Rins on the Suzuki, Miguel Oliveira on the KTM and his teammate Brad Binder making the final 4 of the top 12.
Motegi race winner Jack Miller had a rather troubled qualifying. Initially setting the fastest time, he found himself struggling with rear end issues on his factory Ducati and had to sit out the rest of the session. He managed to finish 7th in the session however.
Enea Bastianini completed the second row on the Gresini Ducati in sixth place. Above him were Pramac’s Johann Zarco in fifth and a lonely Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo in fourth place as he put up a brilliant show to stay amongst the dominant Ducatis.
Jorge Martin set blistering pace late in the session as he would go on pole by beating the all time lap record previously held by Fabio Quartararo. But Marco Bezzechi would go on to put up a lap of his lifetime to narrowly snatch pole position from the Pramac man. Martin went on for a final flying lap but missed out on reclaiming his pole position and finished behind Bezzechi by just 0.021 seconds.
In third was Francesco Bagnaia on the factory Ducati. The second placed man in the championship would like a good getaway to establish a gap from the feisty Fabio Quartararo who starts behind him on the front row.
It all builds up for an exciting 26-lap race in Buriram for tomorrow. The focus will be on the Bagnaia and Quartararo. Aleix Espargaro will have a lot of work to do if he wants to mount a challenge on the two men ahead of him in the championship standings as he starts the race from a lowly 13th place.
Image credits: MotoGP media
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