Promising start for Marc Márquez at the Thai GP, who is ready to fight for everything in the third consecutive World Cup event, without rest between races, since his last reappearance, and Aleix Espargaró’s worrying start to the title.
Against all odds, the first two sessions for MotoGP in Buriram took place on dry asphalt and it was new, and total joy in the Repsol Honda box, to see the eight-time world champion lead FP1. In Japan he had already been seen at the top of the time table, in FP2 and Q2, but those sessions were wet while the inaugural one in Thailand was dry. It is true that there was still some trace of the rain that fell in Moto3, which Marc himself verified when he left the line on his third lap and stepped on the wet run-off. That took him to the ground, but without consequences, and he was able to resume the march, return to the box and return to the track to enter the time attack game. All the riders mounted a new soft tire behind, in case it rained later in the afternoon, and the rider from Cervera came out the winner of the duel.
Already in the afternoon, FP2 was more as usual, working on the hunt for a good set-up for the race and the best possible pace, leaving only the final minutes for the search for the best time. This time the one who broke the corduroy was Zarco, ahead of Bagnaia, whom he beat by only 18 thousandths, Martín and Márquez, who had bad luck in his last two laps. In the first of them, he was affected by the yellow flag due to Crutchlow’s crash when he had been fighting for the fastest time. And in the second, Miller’s slight leak in the entry-to-finish corner hurt him when the Australian recovered the line. Miraculously they did not touch and the image of the two in parallel, one at the edge of the curb and the other off the track, was beautiful, but not at all effective, because it cost the Spaniard four tenths and having to settle for fourth place. Of course, the first non-Ducati in the time table.
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Aleix’s day was less productive. As feared, the Aprilia suffers more in this stop and go circuit and it happens both in his hands (he was 13th) and in those of Maverick (15th), who was seen pissed off in the box while explaining the problems to his technician that I had with the RS-GP. The third overall, 25 points behind Quartararo, who started fifth and angry with Marini for wanting to take a wheel, already said on Thursday that, given his situation, it was convenient for him to have a mess, that it be rainy all weekend. For now, on Friday the water gave a respite, but there is still a threat of liquid element for the weekend.
Returning to the leading positions, those who already have their homework done in case the asphalt is wet tomorrow in FP3 are Zarco, Bagnaia, Martín, Márquez, Quartararo, Miller, Marini, Oliveira, Rins and Morbidelli, all of them with provisional direct access to Q2. Further back, the two Aprilia and Pol riders finished 17th, Álex Márquez 19th and Fernández 22nd. Mir’s replacement on the Suzuki, Petrucci, started last, 24th, 2.4 off the lead and just 0.7 off Nagashima, who replaces the injured Nakagami.
