After a Friday practice sweep by Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi, MotoGP faces its first Qualifying and then Sprint race of the season on Saturday at the 2026 Thai Grand Prix.
Marco Bezzecchi dodged rain spots and strong winds to set a new lap record on Friday afternoon, pushing him almost half-a-second clear of Ducati’s reigning champion Marc Marquez.
Meanwhile, Marquez’s factory Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia was the most high-profile rider to miss out on a top ten place for direct Qualifying 2 access, and now needs to fight his way through Qualifying 1.
Behind Marc Marquez, fellow GP26 rider Fabio di Giannantonio, KTM’s Pedro Acosta, Aprilia’s Jorge Martin and Gresini’s Alex Marquez completed the Friday top six.
Joan Mir was the top Honda in seventh and Fabio Quartararo the leading Yamaha in 16th.
Joining Bagnaia in Qualifying 1 will be the likes of Luca Marini (Honda), Maverick Vinales (Tech3 KTM), Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia).
Marc Marquez took a perfect double victory from pole position on his factory Ducati debut a year ago, despite a tyre pressure scare early in the grand prix.
However, the nine-time world champion suffered three falls during this year’s test, when he was also battling sickness, and is competing in his first grand prix event since sustaining shoulder injuries at Mandalika last October.
Moto2 world champion Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) got the early edge over rookie rival and reigning WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu with 18th vs 21st on Friday, but Razgatlioglu was only a fraction behind fellow Yamaha riders Alex Rins and Jack Miller.
Saturday’s MotoGP action begins with a 30-minute free practice, immediately followed by Qualifying 1 and then Qualifying 2. The first Sprint race of the season starts at 3pm local time.
Saturday schedule:
10:10am (local) / 03:10am (UK) - MotoGP FP2
10:50am (local) / 03:50am (UK) - MotoGP Qualifying
3:00pm (local) / 8:00am (UK) - MotoGP Sprint
Sunday schedule:
10:40am (local) / 03:40am (UK) - MotoGP Warm-up
3:00pm (local) / 8:00am (UK) - Thai MotoGP
Pedro Acosta and Jorge Martin are the only riders in the top ten on the medium rear tyre.
Marco Bezzecchi is back in the Aprilia garage, and leaves on his spare machine (with soft tyres) with half of the session to go.
Bezzecchi is still fastest by 0.071s over Pedro Acosta, who has put ten laps on the medium rear.
Francesco Bagnaia, who will need to fight his way through Qualifying 1 shortly, moves ahead of team-mate Marquez. The Italian also has a 16-lap old soft front tyre, with a similar 10-lap old rear.
Marc Marquez is up to fourth place - behind Bezzecchi, Acosta and Alex Marquez - on an old soft rear tyre (12 laps).
Final practice leader Marco Bezzecchi loses the front of his RS-GP as he turns into the Turn 3 hairpin and crashes.
Rider OK, but the Aprilia rider has to leave his Aprilia and either get a scooter ride back to the pits or wait to try and restart it on the service road.
Either way, the accident is depriving Bezzecchi of medium tyre data.
Marco Bezzecchi is first into the 1m 29s this morning, with Acosta close behind.
Most riders have started the session on used soft tyres, front and rear, including Marc Marquez, who bucked the trend by running the medium for much of Friday afternoon.
Friday leader Marco Bezzecchi, Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta are among those on a new medium rear for the start of FP2.
The green lights are on and the 30-minute final MotoGP practice at Buriram begins.
As far as tyres, the soft rear was used by almost all riders in last year's Sprint, while the medium rear filled seven of the top eight places in the grand prix.
There are now only two front choices, both of which were used for last year's races.
The reference lap time from Friday is Marco Bezzecchi's new official lap record of 1m 28.526s. However, the emphasis this morning will be on race pace.
Moto2 practice ends, MotoGP next.
Here's a flashback to Friday, where Jorge Martin was the first faller of the season.
Aware of MotoGP's new restart rule, where stalled engines can only be restarted after a bike has been moved off-track to the service road - Martin clung to the clutch as he was sliding, kept the engine alive and was able to quickly rejoin.
The other thing clear in these pictures is how big the seat wings are on the 2026 RS-GP.
Martin finished day one in fifth place, meaning he's directly through to Qualifying 2, but was 0.7s behind pace-setting team-mate Marco Bezzecchi.
Jorge Martin crash, Friday, 2026 Thai MotoGP (Gold&Goose).
It's day two of the season-opening Thai MotoGP at Buriram, the Moto2 class are in the closing stages of their final practice session.
MotoGP FP2 starts in just under half-an-hour.