Pecco Bagnaia closes Day 1 of the Thai GP in Buriram in second position. Jack Miller ends sixth overall.

The first two sessions of the Thai GP, the seventeenth round of the 2022 MotoGP season scheduled for this weekend at the Chang International Circuit in Buriram, were held in dry conditions, despite the rain that fell early this morning and during the lunch break. This allowed the MotoGP riders to take full advantage of the track time available today and to get reacquainted with the Thai circuit, which is back on the calendar after three years.

The two Ducati Lenovo Team riders quickly regained confidence on the Thai track. Pecco Bagnaia, sixth after this morning FP1, ended Friday with the second fastest time overall, just 18 thousandths behind fellow Ducati rider Johann Zarco, first with the Desmosedici GP of the Pramac Racing Team. Jack Miller, who was third after the first session, was also competitive in the afternoon. Still, due to traffic and the many yellow flags on the track during the final minutes of FP2, he was unable to complete his time attack and eventually ended the session sixth overall.

Johann Zarco’s teammate Jorge Martín completed an all-Ducati trio by finishing with the third fastest time in 1:30.471.

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) - 2nd (1:30.299)
[i"I’m happy because we were able to solve some of the problems we had in Japan, and being able to improve so much in the afternoon was very satisfying. In the dry, we showed that we had a very fast race pace, and we were also competitive in the time attack. Even if it rains tomorrow, I am still confident that we can do well: thanks to the steps forward we made today, I think we can be fast in the wet as well" [/i]

Jack Miller (#43 Ducati Lenovo Team) - 6th (1:30.588)
[i"We were expecting two wet sessions today, but with this tropical weather, it is always difficult to predict the weather, and in the end, we were lucky and were able to ride in the dry all the time. I felt comfortable on the bike right away, and I struggled a little more in the afternoon because of the wind. We worked mainly with the soft tire, and our pace is good. If the conditions are similar tomorrow, we will also try to understand the behaviour of the other compounds. In the last minutes of FP2, I could not improve because of the yellow flags, but we know we still have some margin to step forward tomorrow. I am satisfied with this first day and confident we can qualify well here in Buriram" [/i]

The Ducati Lenovo Team riders will be back on track tomorrow at 10:50am local time (5:50am Italian time) for FP3, while qualifying for the Thai GP will be held in the afternoon, starting at 2:25pm local time, after FP4.