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 50th pole 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 1'30.088

“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 1'30.458

“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.”

MotoGP 2018
Qualifying Round 15   Thailand

Qualifying Classification

Sunny
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap
Location Information

Designed by German architect Herman Tilke, the Buriram International Circuit opened in 2014 and will see MotoGP™ making its debut this season. Located around 410km northeast from the country’s capital of Bangkok, the town of Buriram in the Buriram province literally translates into “city of happiness”, and its typically hot… read more.

Length 4.6 km / 2.83 miles
Width 12 metres / 39.37 ft.
Left corners 5
Right corners 7
Longest straight 1 km / 3280.84 ft.
Constructed 2014
Modified /

444 Moo 15 Buriram Chang Wat Buri Ram 31000, Thailand - View in Google Maps

bric.co.th

Records

Track Best lap 1m29.287s (183.6 Km/h) Jorge Martin (Ducati, 2023)
Pole Position 1m29.287s (183.6 Km/h) Jorge Martin (Ducati, 2023)
Race Lap 1m30.178s (181.8 Km/h) Jorge Martin (Ducati, 2023)
2023 Sprint Winner Jorge Martin (Ducati)
2023 Winner Jorge Martin (Ducati)