Jorge Martin tops first MotoGP practice at Buriram ahead of Maverick Vinales and Pol Espargaro – Francesco Bagnaia finishes tenth without a final attack
Jorge Martin secured the fastest time in the first free practice session of MotoGP in Thailand with 1:30.520 minutes. The Pramac-Ducati rider pushed to the top late on fresh tires to lead the classification ahead of Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) in second and Pol Espargaro (Tech-3-GasGas) in third.
For the first 45 minutes of practice at the Chang International Circuit, the field moved out in dry and sunny weather. Almost all riders opted for the soft front and hard rear tires at the start. Only KTM rider Brad Binder was also on the hard compound on the front wheel.
After the first flying laps, Vinales initially took the lead. The Aprilia rider topped the classification after run one with a time of 1:31.484 minutes. Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati) and eventual leader Martin were within eleven thousandths of a second of each other.
In general, the gaps at this point were extremely narrow. The entire field of 21 riders was separated by just 0.710 seconds, with Joan Mir (Honda) in last place.
In the second run, most of the riders concentrated on working with used tires. Aleix Espargaro switched to the hard front tire and took the best time from his Aprilia teammate for the time being. The pace then picked up in the closing stages as some went for fresh tires.
Among them was Martin, who was the first rider to set a lap time under 1:31 minutes, taking the lead. Vinales also cracked this mark as well. However, he was 0.238 seconds off Martin, which meant second place.
A huge lap from @88jorgemartin!
The Martinator is not messing around this morning! ThaiGP pic.twitter.com/kV6bGDyhiH
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 27, 2023
Aleix Espargaro was pushed out of third place by brother Pol at the end. Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha) completed the top 5, with Augusto Fernandez (Tech-3-GasGas), Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresni-Ducati), Raul Fernandez (RNF-Aprilia), Alex Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) lining up behind.
The reigning world champion and current world championship leader refrained from a final attack with fresh tires. In the end, he was just under a second off Martin’s best time.
Best Honda rider was Takaaki Nakagami in eleventh place, followed by Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) in twelfth and the KTM duo. Marc Marquez (Honda) finished the session in 18th place, 1.337 seconds behind. The field was separated by 1.601 seconds.
LCR rider Alex Rins will not be able to contest the race weekend in Thailand after undergoing another operation on his lower right leg. He will not be replaced. The Spaniard had already abandoned the weekend in Australia due to severe pain prematurely.
