Vinales leads FP1 as Marquez suffers heavy fall
Full Thailand MotoGP FP1 results
Maverick Vinales has topped the opening practice session ahead of the Thailand MotoGP while there was a major scare for world championship leader Marc Marquez who suffered a huge high-side.
Full Thailand MotoGP FP1 results
Maverick Vinales has topped the opening practice session ahead of the Thailand MotoGP while there was a major scare for world championship leader Marc Marquez who suffered a huge high-side.
While Marquez led the majority of FP1 during the opening runs, the Repsol Honda rider’s session was cut short in the final five minutes by an off-throttle high-side at Turn 7 during his out-lap ahead of his soft tyre run.
The 26-year-old required assistance from the track marshals and was duly taken to the medical centre in an ambulance.
With the Repsol Honda rider out of action for the late qualifying-style runs, Vinales duly profited to take top spot with a last lap of 1m 30.979s for Monster Yamaha to edge out Fabio Quartararo by 0.191s on the Petronas Yamaha.
Marquez’s earlier time was still enough to hold on to third place for Repsol Honda ahead of title rival Andrea Dovizioso on the Ducati.
Jack Miller surged up to fifth place for Pramac Ducati to continue his fine form from Aragon with Valentino Rossi slotting into sixth place albeit half a second behind his timesheet-topping team-mate.
Franco Morbidelli capped a solid session for all Yamaha riders in seventh place for Petronas Yamaha ahead of Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci and Suzuki’s Joan Mir.
Francesco Bagnaia rounded out the top 10 for Pramac Ducati, which could prove useful if rain arrives across the next two practice sessions, as he pushed Alex Rins into 11th place after the Suzuki rider suffered a mechanical issue at Turn 1 with just over 10 minutes to go in FP1.
Aleix Espargaro claimed 12th place for Aprilia directly ahead of his brother Pol Espargaro on the Red Bull KTM on his comeback from left wrist surgery.
Takaaki Nakagami claimed 14th place for LCR Honda in front of Andrea Iannone on the Aprilia with Tito Rabat impressing to take 16th place for Avintia Ducati.
Miguel Oliveira bounced back from a first lap fall for Tech3 KTM, suffering what looked like the same cold tyre crash Marquez endured later on at Turn 7, with Cal Crutchlow down in 18th place for LCR Honda.
Jorge Lorenzo had a low-key FP1 for Repsol Honda in 19th place ahead of Mika Kallio (Red Bull KTM), Hafizh Syahrin (Tech3 KTM) and Karel Abraham (Avintia Ducati).
