The Spanish Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda RC 213 V) was unable to improve his time in the morning and finished fourth on the first day of free practice for the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix at the Chang International circuit in Buriram, in which the Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) emerged as the leader of the category.
Zarco set a best time of 1:30.281 with which he was barely 18 thousandths of a second ahead of the Italian Francesco "Pecco" Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), with the Spaniards Jorge Martín (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) and Marc Márquez in the following positions of the board.
Martín began as the leader of the second round of free practice with a time of 1:32.031, which was immediately taken care of by his teammate, the Frenchman Johann Zarco, as well as the also Spanish and leader of the morning session, Marc Márquez ( Repsol Honda RC 213 V), still far from the time he achieved in the morning, 1:30.523.
In a circuit in which only Marc Márquez has won since he entered the world championship calendar in 2018, once again it was Repsol Honda's that became a benchmark for his rivals with a 1:31.351 that was getting closer his morning record, although moments later the Italian Francesco "Pecco" Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) surpassed him by just 32 thousandths of a second.
There was a second run for all the drivers but none of them opted to ride a soft tire as they had done in the morning, probably waiting for that third run to look for the "time attack" that would make up the positions for the two classifications of tomorrow, given the very certain possibility that the rain will not allow the timing to be improved on the second day of training.
The fact is that none of the riders at the top of the table and the classification managed to lower their times in the morning until almost the end of the session and the first to do so, once again, was Jorge Martín, who also He took the lead by rolling in 1:30.471. His teammate, the Frenchman Johann Zarco, was the next to scratch tenths of his personal best, in his case to be seventh with 1:30.985, 226 thousandths behind Martín and just under two minutes of training ahead, in which all pilots had to do their best.
With soft compound tires, the records began to fall gradually, with "Pecco" Bagnaia as the new benchmark (1:30.299), while Marc Márquez began to set fastest lap times, but the fall of the British Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha YZR M 1) and the consequent yellow flags on the track, prevented him from improving his time, although with one more lap ahead in which he could not achieve his goal either.
The Repsol Honda rider encountered a lot of traffic on the track and in the end he was unable to improve his morning time, although this allowed him to stay close to the head of the standings, fourth, ahead of Fabio Quartararo and behind Jorge Martín.
The sixth place went to the Australian Jack Miller (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), who also ended the session upset when he was disturbed by other riders, ahead of the Italian Luca Marini (Ducati Desmosedici GP22), the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (KTM RC 16), the Spanish Alex Rins (Suzuki GSX RR) and the Italian Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha YZR M 1), who were the ones who managed to get into the top ten positions.
Riders such as the Spanish Aleix Espargaró and Maverick Viñales, who suffered a lot on their Aprilia RS-GP, Pol Espargaró (Repsol Honda RC 213 V), or the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati Desmosedici GP21).
