Marquez brothers lead first day of Buriram MotoGP test

Factory Ducati rider Marc Marquez set the quickest time on the opening day of the Buriram MotoGP test, leading his brother, Sepang pacesetter Alex Marquez.

The Spaniard set a best lap of 1m29.184s with just a few minutes left on the clock on Wednesday, finding nearly half a second over the benchmark set by Gresini’s younger Marquez in the morning session.

Marc Marquez had been sitting second and 0.126s off the top spot just when he made his late improvement in the final part of the session.

However, his time was still some way off the lap record, a 1m28.700s set by Francesco Bagnaia on his way to pole position in last year’s Thailand Grand Prix.

Meanwhile, Aprilia enjoyed its best showing of pre-season testing so far, with newly signed factory rider Marco Bezzecchi taking third place with a time that was just two hundredths off Marc Marquez.

VR46’s Franco Morbidelli climbed to fourth place with just 10 minutes left on the clock, demoting the top KTM of Pedro Acosta to fifth place.

Honda also put on a solid display at Buriram, with Luca Marini finishing sixth on the factory HRC bike and Johann Zarco ending up right behind him in seventh. They were the last of the riders to lap in the 1m29s bracket.

Two-time MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia fell just shy of that mark in eighth on the factory Ducati, with KTM’s Brad Binder also missing the cut – by just 0.041s – as he finished ninth.

While Yamaha stole the headlines at Sepang, the Iwata-based brand made a relatively low-key start to the Buriram test. Its highest-placed runner was Pramac’s Jack Miller in 10th, 0.863s slower than pacesetter Alex Marquez.

Yamaha factory duo Alex Rins and Fabio Quartararo finished another two tenths off the pace in 12th and 13th respectively, behind the Honda of Joan Mir.

The top rookie on Wednesday was Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer, who recovered from a crash at Turn 8 to set the 14th fastest time.

Trackhouse’s newcomer Ai Ogura also had a fall, at Turn 3, but he was able to finish 15th, two spots ahead of his more experienced team-mate Miguel Oliveira.

A total of 20 full-time race riders appeared on Wednesday, with Jorge Martin and Fabio di Giannantonio being absent due to injuries. Aprilia called in its test rider Lorenzo Savadori to replace Martin, bringing the list of total participants up to 21.