Marc Marquez rules over Qualifying on Buriram Circuit. Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso took up the rest of the front row.
The first round of Qualifying for the MotoGP category of the World Championship takes Marc Marquez’s name. He gained another pole position (his 50th in MotoGP, and the 78th in his career) on the Thai track after he had to go through Q1 due to a mistake during FP3. After he experienced some issues in Aragón, Valentino Rossi surprisingly finished 2nd, just 11 thousandths behind the current World Champion. Andrea Dovizioso will be filling up the third place on the starting grid, and he is clearly determined to make an outstanding performance on Sunday. The MotoGP race will start tomorrow at 8 AM UK time.
After he ended up in Q1, Marquez immediately started to set an unmatchable pace that took him all the way to the top of the temporary ranking. Just behind him, there were Ducati riders Dovizioso, Miller and Petrucci. The battle for the pole fired up in the last few minutes, with 4/5 riders fighting for the best position: eventually, the World Champion managed to defend his leading position and left Valentino Rossi a few thousandths behind, who will be on the front row together with Andrea Dovizioso. Maverick Viñales got the 4th place ahead of Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Iannone, while Dani Pedrosa will be opening the third row ahead of Johann Zarco and Danilo Petrucci. The final Q2 ranking is completed by Jack Miller, Alex Rins and Alvaro Bautista.
Marquez didn’t lose a second, and he is the first to leave the pit lane to compete for the top position in Q1. He managed to gain the head of the ranking in just a few laps, with the rookie Morbidelli temporarily 2nd behind him and a ready-to-fight Rins 3rd. The latter was really determined to enter Q2, and he eventually managed to overtake Franco Morbidelli for just 2 thousandths. Needless to say, the World Championship leader Marc Marquez was uncatchable and managed to pass to Q2 effortlessly. All the Aprilias remained far behind: Aleix Espargaró ended up 16th and Scott Redding got only the last position on the starting grid.
Q2 ranking
The starting grid
