Marco Bezzecchi beat Marc Marquez to pole position for MotoGP's 2026 season-opening Thai Grand Prix, despite crashing late on.
A 1m28.652s set on Bezzecchi's first run was short of his Friday benchmark but still enough to secure him pole, as he has now topped every session he's taken part in this Buriram weekend.
But Bezzecchi had crashed once already in pre-qualifying practice, and he went down hard under braking into the final corner late in Q2 while not at much lean angle - visibly shaken up by the impact with the ground, but seemingly unhurt.
Reigning champion Marquez was only seventh after the opening runs, but - using Ai Ogura as a distant reference point - pulled out a lap just 0.035s slower than Bezzecchi's.
Ogura's Trackhouse team-mate Raul Fernandfez had dominated Q1 and didn't even match his Q1 time in Q2, but still took a spot on the front row, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) and Jorge Martin (Aprilia), who followed team-mate Bezzecchi on his fastest lap.
Pedro Acosta was the lead KTM rider, completing the second row, while Joan Mir was the lead Honda rider in 10th - right behind Franco Morbidelli, who had advanced from Q1 despite a slow crash at Turn 3 in that session.
Thai GP grid
1 Bezzecchi 2 M Marquez 3 Fernandez
4 Di Giannantonio 5 Martin 6 Acosta
7 A Marquez 8 Ogura 9 Morbidelli
10 Mir 11 Binder 12 Zarco
13 Bagnaia 14 Marini 15 Moreira
16 Quartararo 17 Vinales 18 Miller
19 Rins 20 Bastianini 21 Razgatlioglu
22 Pirro
Two-time champion Pecco Bagnaia was firmly outmatched in Q1 to place only 13th on the grid, unable to get within half a second of session pace-setter Fernandez.
Facing a late deficit to Fernandez and Morbidelli, Bagnaia got loose on a kerb on his first push on a new tyre, then went wide at Turn 3 the next time around, then got Turn 8 wrong the following tour - and finally rolled out from his fourth attempt.
He never really looked fast enough to threaten, but at least saw off the Hondas of Luca Marini and Diogo Moreira for that 13th spot - Moreira tucking in behind Marini to secure a strong grid position for his debut.
Fabio Quartararo will be the lead Yamaha in 16th - but none of the new V4-engined M1s threatened for Q2 at all, with Quartararo six tenths off a transfer spot.
Toprak Razgatlioglu qualified 21st for his MotoGP debut, though was only a tenth off his closest Yamaha stablemate Alex Rins.
