The two heavy errors in Mandalika and Phillip Island do not seem to have affected Jorge Martin’s great moment of form, because also in Buriram it was the Prima Pramac Racing standard bearer who opened the proceedings, setting the best time in the inaugural free practice session of the Thai Grand Prix.
If you look at the gaps, you would say that the Madrilenian made a big difference, given that with his 1’30″520 he distanced himself by 238 thousandths from his direct pursuer, with the third man already almost half a second away. It must be said, however, who is also the only one among the top riders to have mounted the medium tire on the rear of his Ducati (this weekend the rear compounds are hard and medium).
The start of his rival, the world championship leader Pecco Bagnaia, was quieter, as he did a job aimed at bringing the medium rear tire as far forward as possible and in the end he finished with the tenth time, just under a second behind. In the Ducati garage, however, no particular alarms seem to have gone off, because it seemed like a typical Friday morning for the world champion, even if perhaps there were some difficulties in stopping the bike.
The surprise this morning were the Aprilias, because they were very competitive on a track that on paper was not very suitable for the RS-GP. Maverick Vinales is Martin’s direct pursuer and is the only one to have fallen below the 1’31” barrier other than his compatriot. Aleix Espargaro isn’t faring too worse, instead occupying fourth position at 651 thousandths.
There are also two KTMs in the top positions, but it is surprising that they are the GasGas Tech3 ones: Pol Espargaro hoisted his RC16 into third place at 492 thousandths, but Augusto Fernandez’s is also in sixth place. The curious thing is that instead the two factory team bikes lagged behind, with Jack Miller and Brad Binder in 13th and 14th position respectively.
The stiffer carcass brought to the Chang International Circuit to combat the high temperatures seems to have benefited Franco Morbidelli above all, who did well to bring the Yamaha to fifth position, albeit 750 thousandths behind. For now his teammate Fabio Quartararo has struggled more, credited with the 12th time at 1″1.
Excluding those of the two contenders for the title, therefore, there are only two Ducatis that for the moment have placed in the top 10 and these are those of Gresini Racing, with the revived Fabio Di Giannantonio, fresh from his first podium in MotoGP and finished in the sights of HRC, in seventh position and his teammate Alex Marquez ninth. Raul Fernandez’s Aprilia RNF then slipped between the two Desmosedici GPs of the Faenza team.
You have to go down to 11th position to find the best of the Hondas, that of the Japanese Takaaki Nakagami, the only rider fielded by Team LCR this weekend, given that Alex Rins has returned to Spain to undergo another operation on his right leg. The two RC213Vs with Repsol colors are in more difficulty because Marc Marquez is 18th at 1″3 and Joan Mir 20th.
The other Ducatis aren’t doing too well: the all-Italian trio made up of Luca Marini, Marco Bezzecchi and Enea Bastianini is compact between 15th and 17th position, with the winner of the Australian GP, the Frenchman Johann Zarco, which actually finds itself 19th, 1.3 seconds behind its Prima Pramac Racing sister bike.
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