Aprilia fires warning shot during FP1 at the Thai MotoGP
Aprilia riders fill three of the top four places during Free Practice 1 for the Thai MotoGP season opener.
After an Aprilia one-two at last weekend’s Buriram test, the Noale factory made it three out of the top four during FP1 for the Thai MotoGP season opener.
Marco Bezzecchi was again the rider on top, ruling the timesheets for all but the opening minutes.
Like the rest of the field, Bezzecchi ran the medium rear tyre this morning, setting a best time of 1m 29.346s compared to his 1m 28.668s soft-rear best at the test.
VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio was the top Ducati rider with a 1m 29.456s, putting him ahead of Bezzecchi’s team-mate Jorge Martin.
Martin was the only faller of the session, but avoided MotoGP’s new service-road restart rule by grabbing the clutch during his final turn lowside, keeping the engine alive and allowing him to swiftly rejoin.
The former world champion was 0.2s from Bezzecchi, while Trackhouse rider Ai Ogura was among the few late improvers, fitting new medium tyres front and rear to set the fourth fastest time.
Ogura is yet to match his brilliant MotoGP debut at Buriram one year ago, but was second at the pre-season test, when he also delivered the fastest Sprint race simulation.
Pedro Acosta put his KTM fifth in FP1, ten places ahead of the next best RC16 rider.
Reigning champion Marc Marquez, still recovering from last weekend's sickness, was sixth, just ahead of Ducati Lenovo team-mate Francesco Bagnaia.
Bagnaia was the final rider within half-a-second of Bezzecchi - whom he is rumoured to be joining at Aprilia next year.
Luca Marini took tenth place and top Honda, ahead of Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) and HRC team-mate Joan Mir.
Alex Rins was the top Yamaha rider in 13th place, the fastest of the new V4s being 0.9s from the front.
Factory team-mate Fabio Quartararo had several moments during the session as he continues to struggle for rear grip on his way to 18th. The former world champion later smoked his rear tyre in frustration all along the straight during a practice start.
Diogo Moreira was the top rookie in 16th place (+1.029s) with WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu 21st and 1.763s from Bezzecchi.
That’s slightly closer than at the test, underlining Razgatlioglu’s words about struggling more with time attacks than on used tyres.
Razgatlioglu was running rear aero on his Pramac machine this morning.
Michele Pirro, replacing the injured Fermin Aldeguer at Gresini, completed the 22-rider field.
Practice, which will decide the top ten places for direct Qualifying 2 access, starts at 3pm local time.
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Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
