Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) has his sights firmly locked on his 2nd World Championship trophy, and is looking in fine fettle ahead of what will be his first chance to take it at the OR Thailand Grand Prix. The Championship leader already dominated Friday's track action and has now found an extra gear on Saturday morning as he improved his time to an impressive 1:35.297. Fermin Aldeguer (Beta Tools SpeedUp) was the closest contender to the title protagonist – almost half a second back in 2nd place! It was an all-Spanish top three on the combined times following the three Practice sessions. It was the Rookie Sergio Garcia (Pons Wegow Los40) who rounded out the top three as the #11 improved his time by almost a second on Saturday morning.
Acosta will be licking his lips as they head into qualifying. Whilst the Spaniard walks on water his title rival Tony Arbolino (Elf MarcVDS Racing Team) will be forced to fight his way through Q1 after finishing in 22nd on combined times following a fast crash at Turn 4.
Not what @TonyArbolino needed! 💥
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 28, 2023
It's going to be a busy 23 minutes trying to get that bike repaired after this crash 👀#ThaiGP 🇹🇭 pic.twitter.com/NeBGQaCv8d
Barring the gap to the leader, it was as close as ever in Moto2™ as the main protagonists bagged themselves Q2 spots. Marcos Ramirez (OnlyFans American Racing) was only 0.039s back from the top three in P4 as he pipped Jake Dixon (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) by 0.051s. The Brit was then just another 0.015s up the road from Albert Arenas (Red Bull KTM Ajo) who finished in P6 ahead of his compatriot Aron Canet (Pons Wegow Los40). Next up was the Italian Celestino Vietti (Fantic Racing) who took P8 ahead of Jeremy Alcoba (QJMOTOR Gresini Racing Moto2™) in 9th spot with Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools SpeedUp) rounding out the top ten.
Make sure to tune in for Moto2™ Qualifying which is at 14:15 local time (GMT +7)!
Top 10
| 1 | Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) |
1:35.297 |
| 2 | Fermin Aldeguer (Speed Up Racing) |
+0.496 |
| 3 | Sergio Garcia (Pons Wegow Los40) |
+0.693 |
| 4 | Marcos Ramirez (American Racing) |
+0.702 |
| 5 | Jake Dixon (GASGAS Aspar Team) |
+0.783 |
| 6 | Albert Arenas (Red Bull KTM Ajo) |
+0.798 |
| 7 | Aron Canet (Pons Wegow Los40) |
+0.827 |
| 8 | Celestino Vietti (FANTIC MOTOR) |
+0.870 |
| 9 | Jeremy Alcoba (Gresini Racing Moto2™) |
+0.873 |
| 10 | Alonso Lopez (Speed Up Racing) |
+0.886 |