Moto3 Thailand FP1: Tatsuki Suzuki opens hostilities in the wet!

Arriving at the Thai Grand Prix on the Buriram circuit, Izan Guevara (Autosolar GASGAS Aspar Team) which remains on two consecutive victories is 45 points ahead of its teammate Sergio García, thus making the Moto3 category the least open of the series. Behind the two men of Jorge Martinez, we find Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) already at 63 points then Ayumu Sasaki (Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max), 2nd at the Aragón GP and 3rd in Japan but who is already 80 points behind the leader.

Before looking at those who would like to take advantage of the disrupted weather conditions to show off, let's take a look at the latter. As expected, it's raining this morning, lightly, but the weather radar announces that it will probably get worse in the next hour, before a possible lull for several hours afterwards. For Moto3, it's over, for the others we'll see...

 

 

Contrary to usual in our regions, the rain here combines with temperatures of around 25°, and with the weekend predicted to be more than wet, the drivers will not be choosy for very long once the track is open. …

Here is the table which summarizes past references:

Thailand Buriram Moto3™	2019	2022
FP1	1'42.789 Andrea Migno	1'51.520 Tatsuki Suzuki
FP2	1'43.107 Gabriel Rodrigo
FP3	1'54.989 Ai Ogura
Q1	1'43.579 Celestino Vietti
Q2	1'42.599 Celestino Vietti
Warm up	1'43.027 Albert Arenas
Course	Arenas, Dalla Porta, Lopez
All time lap record	1'42.235 Marco Bezzecchi (2018)

 

When the red lights go out...Tatsuki suzuki (Leopard Racing) starts first and almost everyone follows, apart from Sergio García et Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Tech3).

Ryusei Yamanaka (MT Helmets – MSI) set a first reference in 1'57.095 followed by Tatsuki Suzuki in 1'54.490 and 1'53.917 on the following passages. This is already faster than during FP3 in the wet in 2019.

 

 

Tatsuki suzuki keeps the lead in 1'53.341 but is stolen by Diogo Moreira (MT Helmets – MSI) in 1’52.868 then 1’52.697.

 

 

The Japanese did not give up and scored 1'51.859 at the end of the first quarter of an hour. Tatsuki suzuki then precedes Diogo Moreira half a second, the others more than a second and a half!

Deniz Oncu has still not achieved a time and still seems to be suffering from his hand since his fall in Japan.

 

 

He finally sets off 16 minutes from the checkered flag.

 

 

Meanwhile, Ayumu Sasaki (Sterilgarda Husqvarna Max) came within the same second as the two leading men, while the championship leader, Izan Guevara, is only 27th.

At the start of the last quarter of an hour, Tatsuki Suzuki improves to 1'51.768, an excellent time less than 10 seconds behind the times achieved in the dry.

Jaume Masia (Red Bull KTM Ajo) comes between the two leaders in the last 5 minutes but the Japanese rider from the Leopard Racing team adds another layer, in 1'51.520 on his last lap.

 

 

Results of FP1 of the Moto3 Thailand Grand Prix in Buriram:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com