Marc Marquez became the first man in MotoGP history to go through qualifying one and then take the pole position ahead of Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso at Buriram today.
Struggling through free practice, the World Championship leader was forced to go through Q1 for the first time since Barcelona this season. After some stunning laps, the Honda man comfortably made it through to the pole position shoot out along with Alex Rins.
When Q2 started, Marquez wasted little time in firing himself to the top of the timing sheets and then went further under his previous lap time and at the halfway point, the Spaniard was fastest by over three tenths of a second.
When the final runs came, Rossi came from nowhere to take the top spot away from Marquez. Unfortunately for the Italian, his time at the top was short lived as Marquez came straight back to go 0.011 seconds faster than Rossi.
Despite a late moment when being followed by Jack Miller, Marquez’ time of a 1:30.088 was enough to see him secure the pole position as nobody managed to get into the 1:29’s.
Dovizioso’s 1:30.227 was 0.128 seconds behind Rossi’s time, but good enough to get the sole factory Ducati on the outside of the front row.
Maverick Vinales put the second factory Yamaha in fourth place, backing up his goof free practice pace. Cal Crutchlow was fifth after a small mistake in the final corner of his flying lap, with Andrea Iannone sixth.
Dani Pedrosa was fastest in the test back in the winter, however the retiring Spaniard could only manage seventh with Johann Zarco and Danilo Petrucci joining him on the third row. Miller will start from tenth in front of Alex Rins and Alvaro Bautista.
