Aprilia back on top in Buriram MotoGP warm-up
Raul Fernandez leads morning warm-up for the Thai MotoGP, despite an arm issue - Marc Marquez watches Pedro Acosta last-turn move.
After Marco Bezzecchi’s Sprint mistake ended Aprilia’s Thai MotoGP dominance, an RS-GP was back on top of the timesheets for morning warm-up at Buriram.
But it wasn’t pole qualifier Bezzecchi, but Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez who set the pace during the ten-minute session, despite suffering some kind of pain in his left arm or shoulder.
Fernandez, third behind Pedro Acosta and Marc Marquez in the Sprint race, appeared to have hurt his arm as his bike kicked under braking.
Like all riders, Fernandez switched from the soft to medium rear tyre in warm-up, ahead of this afternoon’s 26-lap grand prix.
Raul Fernandez arm pain:
VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio got closest to Fernandez (+0.117s), with reigning champion Marc Marquez 0.167s from the top.
Marquez spent the closing stages shadowing Acosta, the rider he duelled with for victory in the Sprint - until receiving a drop one place penalty for a hard move on the KTM rider.
This time it was Acosta forcing another rider wide at the final corner, as he made a late braking attempt on his own team-mate Brad Binder.
While Acosta apologised to Binder, Marquez passed them both.
KTM's tangle ahead of Marc Marquez:
Alex Marquez, Ai Ogura and pole qualifier Marco Bezzecchi filled the rest of the top six in warm-up. However, Bezzecchi was the only rider to start warm-up on a used, rather than new, medium rear.
Fabio Quartararo’s challenging weekend continued with a front-end save on the way to 18th.
Fellow Yamaha riders Jack Miller and Toprak Razgatlioglu helped push a powerless Diogo Moreira back to the pits at the end of the session.
After warm-up, the Pramac duo entertained the fans on their way to victory in the team-by-team TukTuk race.
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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.
