Buriram MotoGP test: Honda’s Marc Marquez ends day two on top – MotoGP

Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez made a late surge to the head of the times on the second day of testing in Thailand, beating factory Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa.

Pedrosa sat at the top of the times for the bulk of the day, having set a 1m30.127s with a little over four hours remaining of Saturday’s running to knock Marquez off the top spot.

The times remained static for some time after that as temperatures soared at the Buriram track, before numerous riders made improvements in the final hour.

Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller leapt up to second with just under half an hour to go with a 1m30.185s, before Marquez became the first rider to breach the 1m30s barrier 10 minutes later with a 1m29.969s.

That was enough for Marquez, who had earlier trialled a new aerodynamic fairing on his Honda, to beat Pedrosa by 0.158 seconds, with Miller a further 0.058s back in third.

Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales had languished outside the top 10 for much of the afternoon before a late effort of 1m30.347s put him fourth, less than a tenth ahead of satellite Tech3 rider Johann Zarco.

Danilo Petrucci made it two Pramac bikes in the top six, just seven thousandths further back. Suzuki riders Alex Rins and Andrea Iannone sampled two new types of fairing on their GSX-RRs, and both suffered crashes during the day.

The pair ended up seventh and 11th respectively, split by Friday pacesetter Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) and works Ducati pair Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo.

Valentino Rossi failed to improve in the latter stages and ended up 14th on the second of the factory Yamahas, nine tenths off Marquez’s benchmark.

Bradley Smith again led the KTM runners in 16th place, one place ahead of top Aprilia Aleix Espargaro.

In his second day of MotoGP action, Tech3’s Hafiz Syahrin was 2.029s off the pace, and eclipsed Avintia Ducati rider Xavier Simeon to avoid finishing at the bottom of the pile for a second day in a row.

Saturday test times