Never one to take the easy route, Marc Marquez today scored the first MotoGP pole ever at the Buriram Circuit, at the same time becoming the first rider to earn pole position from Q1! His umpteenth historic result is also his 50thpole in the Premier class, the 78th in his career.
Marc had to go trough Q1 after suffering a crash at Turn 4 during his final flying lap of FP3, in which he finished just outside the top 10, in P11. Dani Pedrosa was sixth in FP3, and although he was able to improve in qualifying, he was just 0.039” away from the second row and 0.370” from pole.
Tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Thailand will get underway at 2 p.m. local time, 9 a.m. Central Europe Time.
Marc Marquez (Pole): “It’s fantastic to be on pole, and it seems it’s a record to have done so going trough Q1 but I honestly would have preferred to pass directly to Q2! This morning we were very unlucky because when we fitted the new rear tyre at the end of FP3, we had a little issue and had to quickly swap to the other bike. It wasn’t the same, and I lost the front while I was improving my lap time. Anyway, after that we managed everything in a good way, and in QP1 I was able to ride very well. We’re very happy because a front-row start was our target. Now we have a very important race tomorrow, and a very long one. I’m happy with my race pace but we must wait and see what the conditions are like and where we and our opponents are. On paper, at the moment there are a few riders who should be able to be fast. It will be important to manage the tyres and the physical conditions well. Our target will be the podium.”
Dani Pedrosa (7th): “Today in qualifying I lacked a couple of tenths on my flying lap, and that was enough to be just off of the two first rows. Our first tyre wasn’t as good as the second one, and we had to play all our cards in our final run. I managed to improve my performance, and that was actually my best lap of the weekend, but it still wasn’t enough. Anyway, we’re closing the gap to the top, and that’s the positive part. For the race, we’ll see. I think the rear-tyre choice is still open, so we need to analyse everything very well before making our decision for tomorrow.”
Qualifying Classification
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
| 1 | MARQUEZ MARC | 93 | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 1’30.088 |
| 2 | ROSSI VALENTINO | 46 | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1’30.099 / 0.011 |
| 3 | DOVIZIOSO ANDREA | 4 | Ducati Team | Ducati | 1’30.227 / 0.139 |
| 4 | VINALES MAVERICK | 25 | Movistar Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 1’30.328 / 0.240 |
| 5 | CRUTCHLOW CAL | 35 | LCR Honda | Honda | 1’30.356 / 0.268 |
| 6 | IANNONE ANDREA | 29 | Team Suzuki Ecstar | Suzuki | 1’30.419 / 0.331 |
| 7 | PEDROSA DANI | 26 | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 1’30.458 / 0.370 |
| 8 | ZARCO JOHANN | 5 | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 1’30.471 / 0.383 |
| 9 | PETRUCCI DANILO | 9 | Alma Pramac Racing | Ducati | 1’30.599 / 0.511 |
| 10 | MILLER JACK | 43 | Alma Pramac Racing | Ducati | 1’30.660 / 0.572 |
| 11 | RINS ALEX | 42 | Team Suzuki Ecstar | Suzuki | 1’30.738 / 0.650 |
| 12 | BAUTISTA ALVARO | 19 | Angel Nieto Team | Ducati | 1’30.976 / 0.888 |
| 13 | MORBIDELLI FRANCO | 21 | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 1’30.923 Q1 |
| 14 | NAKAGAMI TAKAAKI | 30 | LCR Honda | Honda | 1’30.995 / 0.964 |
| 15 | SMITH BRADLEY | 38 | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 1’31.207 / 1.176 |
| 16 | ESPARGARO ALEIX | 41 | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 1’31.243 / 1.212 |
| 17 | ABRAHAM KAREL | 17 | Angel Nieto Team | Ducati | 1’31.374 / 1.343 |
| 18 | SYAHRIN HAFIZH | 55 | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 1’31.389 / 1.358 |
| 19 | ESPARGARO POL | 44 | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | 1’31.399 / 1.368 |
| 20 | SIMEON XAVIER | 10 | Reale Avintia Racing | Ducati | 1’31.686 / 1.655 |
| 21 | TORRES JORDI | 81 | Reale Avintia Racing | Ducati | 1’31.819 / 1.788 |
| 22 | LUTHI TOM | 12 | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | Honda | 1’31.830 / 1.799 |
| 23 | REDDING SCOTT | 45 | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 1’31.835 / 1.804 |
