Marc Marquez tops Free Practice and breaks all-time lap record in Thailand.

The Gresini man continued his fine form from Australia, breaking the lap record by just over a tenth of a second in the final ten minutes of the free practice session, setting a 1.29.165.

Title leader Jorge Martin finished the session in second place, 0.110 seconds behind Marquez. He spent most of the session in the lower regions of the top 10 whilst he focussed on his race pace, where he seems, so far, the class of the field. Then in the final 15 minutes, he, and everyone else were on track for their fastest time attacks.

Following him in 3rd and 4th were the two factory Ducati riders of Bastianini and Bagnaia. Bastianini did well to recover from a clumsy crash at the start of practice to find himself just over a tenth and a half behind Marquez. Bagnaia will also be pleased with his best overall Friday since Assen, with a lot of time spent in and out of the pits trying new setups, eventually finishing just under two tenths off the top spot.

Maverick Viñales finished the session in 5th, improving from his 15th in FP1. The other Aprilia’s didn’t fair as well with Fernandez down in 14th, Salvadori in 21st and Espargaro in 22nd, who stopped after a few laps as he was still clearly struggling from his fast crash in FP1.

Pedro Acosta found himself the only KTM through to Q2 automatically, after bouncing back from one of the toughest weekends he’s had in Australia. Brad Binder on the factory KTM missed the top 10 by 0.001 seconds to the LCR Honda of Zarco who was, in my opinion, the most impressive rider of the session. Like in Indonesia, his Honda preferred the hot and sticky conditions, as he finished 0.517 seconds off the top spot.

The session was tight throughout the field, with Viñales in 5th and Marini in 17th separated by just over half a second, highlighting how crucial it is to make it automatically through to Q2.

Fabio Quartararo will be the most disappointed man of the day. Always going well round here, and showing great pace early in the session, being as high as second with ten minutes to go, means a 12th place finish (0.073 to 10th) will be frustrating for him. His teammate Rins was just over 4 tenths slower than him in 18th place.

In his final Grand Prix weekend of the season before he goes for shoulder surgery, Fabio Di Giannantonio finished the session in P16. This meant he was on the only Ducati to not feature in the top 10. Whether the shoulder injury was causing him grief, or it was just a lack of confidence in his setup, he will certainly be looking improve tomorrow to get through to Q2.

The main headline from practice is that the top 4 in the championship locked out the top 4 positions of the session. Martin and Bagnaia are closely matched in qualifying pace with Martin edging ahead in race pace. However, their nightmare of Marc Marquez is once again quick, and is out for himself. He claims he’s uninterested in the championship battle, likening his current scenario to the 2015 season, and is aiming to lock down 3rd in the championship ahead of Bastianini who he replaces next year at the factory team.

All of this sets us up for an exciting qualifying and sprint race tomorrow in Thailand.