Jorge Martín’s leadership in the MotoGP Thai GP practice session. The Prima Pramac rider was the fastest this Friday in Buriram, despite not avoiding a crash at the end of the session. Miguel Oliveira finished last once again.
Unlike the morning FP1, this was a session where lap times mattered. In the beginning, Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini/Ducati) led ahead of Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha), while some riders had laps cancelled for exceeding track limits.
Things didn’t start off well for Francesco Bagnaia. The Ducati rider complained of a front brake issue and lost some time in the initial phase.
The man who followed at the top was Quartararo, pursued by the Gresini duo: Fabio Di Giannantonio and Álex Márquez… with the Spaniard moving up to the lead on his fourth flying lap. With 41 minutes to go, Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) threatened to move to the top, but ended up in second. With 35 minutes to go, Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) pushed Álex Márquez off the top of the timing sheet. The #73 would also be beaten by Di Giannantonio later in the second half of the session. The clock showed about 12 minutes to the checkered flag when another rider led the table: Binder. In the following minutes, there were some changes. The South African was beaten by Viñales and Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac/Ducati). The Frenchman was shortly after overtaken by Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team/Ducati).Recent changes in the last three minutes. Viñales was dethroned by Martín, while Aleix Espargaró moved into third place. Martín fell shortly after reaching the top of the table, in an incident that occurred in turn three.
Nothing changed until the end, with Martín leading by 0.098s ahead of Viñales. Aleix Espargaró was third, Zarco finished fourth and Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team/Ducati) was fifth ahead of teammate Bezzecchi.
After setbacks at the start, Bagnaia was seventh and is back in direct qualifying for the second phase. The same was also achieved by Quartararo, Binder, and Augusto Fernández (GasGas Tech3/KTM) between eighth and tenth positions in the session. In 11th, Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) missed the goal by 0.065s.
Like in the first free practice, Oliveira (CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team/Aprilia) never had the arguments to fight for very advanced positions. He continued to struggle and finished in last place, 1.278s off the pace.
