Marco Bezzecchi flew to a first MotoGP pole position with a stunning final effort in Q2 in Thailand, while Francesco Bagnaia out-qualified title rival Fabio Quartararo.
Bezzecchi hadn’t been in the conversation for pole all weekend, though looked to possess a decent turn of speed on Saturday morning before posting a time quick enough for fifth in the early stages of the pole shootout, though a decent way behind provisional pole-man Jorge Martin.
Title contender Bagnaia had elected to head out early towards the end of the session on his own in order to put together one of his customary pole charges, a strategy that once again looked to pay off as he banged in the fastest lap of the weekend with a 1:29.775s.
Martin had something to say though as moments later he managed a 1:29.692s to squeak ahead of the Italian.
His time at the peak of the timesheets was brief however as Bezzecchi strung together a stunning effort to launch himself to the top of the times, the VR46 racer’s 1:29.671s moving him clear of the Pramac Ducati rider by just 0.021s.
Martin had one final do-or-die attempt in order to snatch back the initiative, though he fell away in the final split and was thus forced to settle for second.
Bagnaia did what he needed to do in his pursuit of a maiden MotoGP riders championship by out-qualifying series leader Quartararo, though by only one place as Bagnaia held onto to third with the Yamaha man fourth, a decent job considering his power deficit along Buriram’s considerable straights.
Johann Zarco completed the top five on the sister Pramac entry ahead of Enea Bastianini’s Gresini-run Desmosedici, with Jack Miller making it six Ducati’s within the top seven – the Aussie looking to enjoy great speed though a problem of some kind looked to keep him from going out for a final run.
Marc Marquez was eighth for Honda having managed to escape Q1, the six-time premier class champion looking good for a top five start before a mistake came at the final bend on his last flying tour, the Spaniard only 0.462s adrift of pole despite his error that looked to have cost two to three tenths-of-a-second.
Luca Marini was ninth on the other VR46 Ducati while Alex Rins completed the top ten on his Suzuki, with KTM duo Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder rounding off the 12 pole shootout contenders.
The significant casualties of Q1 included both Aprilia men, with Aleix Espargaro ending up 13th on the grid having found extra speed towards the end of his session as he posted the fastest lap of the weekend up to that point, though it just fell short of the effort’s Marquez and Oliveira managed.
Franco Morbidelli took 14th on his Yamaha just ahead of Cal Crutchlow’s RNF-run M1, while Tech 3 KTM rookie Raul Fernandez did a good job to take 16th ahead of some well-established stars such as Maverick Vinales in 17th as well as Honda duo Pol Espargaro and Alex Marquez, who could scrape only 19th and 20th respectively.
LCR Honda stand-in Tetsuta Nagashima managed to out-do full-timer Darryn Binder for 22nd on the grid, while Danilo Petrucci completed the grid in 24th for Suzuki after posting his best lap of the weekend in Q1 – the Italian lapping 1.5 seconds slower than Marquez’s benchmark.
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