With three of the four Thai riders in this weekend’s 15th round of the MotoGP World Championship appearing as wildcards, there was a lot of pride at stake on day two as the process of determining grid positions got underway this afternoon.
In the morning’s third free practice, Honda Team Asia’s contracted Moto3 rider, Nakarin Atiratphuvapat raised his game to finish seventh, though his promise faded as Qualifying got underway. As Moto3 wildcards worked on the conflict between track familiarity and machine unfamiliarity, it was Apiwat Wongthananon who made the best of it on the VR46 Master Camp KTM, ending up 15th on the grid for tomorrow’s race with a time of 1:43.071, which was eight tenths off the pole position time set by Italy’s Lorenzo Della Porter. Six places further back and three tenths slower, while AP Honda’s Somkiat Chantra ended up 24th. Somkiat was unlucky, getting skittled of by Lorenzo Dalla Porter on a quick-looking last lap of the session.
In Moto2, Thitipong Warakorn improved his lap times by a second from Friday, though his position on the timing screens remained unchanged, as the rest of the field took a similar step up. He qualified 26th for tomorrow’s race, 1.3 seconds off Lorenzo Baldassarri, who took pole position with a time of 1:36.374.
Tingnote faces a hard battle in Moto2, while all the Moto3 riders are expecting to improve their positions on race day.
