Ducati Sporting Club UK > News Items > Ducati Press Releases > Second place Marc Márquez and the Ducati Lenovo Team in Buriram Practice. Francesco Bagnaia is thirteenth

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MotoGP | Round 01 - Thai GP 2025 | Friday 28 February 2025

Second place Marc Márquez and the Ducati Lenovo Team in Buriram Practice. Francesco Bagnaia is thirteenth

• Alex Márquez the quickest rider on Friday aboard Gresini Racing Team’s Ducati machine

The Ducati Lenovo Team has completed the opening day of action for the 2025 MotoGP World Championship at the Buriram International Circuit in Thailand. Marc Márquez was second in today’s Practice, while Francesco Bagnaia finished the afternoon session in thirteenth position and will therefore be forced to partake in Q1 tomorrow.

Márquez displayed an excellent feeling with his Desmosedici GP #93 machine from the get-go, as he topped the Free Practice timesheets. In the afternoon session, Marc was in first place until the final moments, when he was leapfrogged by his brother Alex by only 52 thousandths of a second.

Bagnaia worked thoroughly on the set-up of his Ducati #63 machine throughout the two sessions and opted for the harder compound tyre at the front-end also for the time attack. In the latter stages of Practice, one of Pecco’s quick lap-times – which was worth of a top ten finish – was cancelled due to the yellow flags being deployed and was held back by an opponent in his final attempt before the chequered flag.

The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back in action at 10:10 local time (GMT +7) for Free Practice 2, which will be followed by Q1 (10:50) and Q2 (11:15). The first sprint race of the season will get underway at 15:00 and will be contested over a 13-lap distance.

Marc Márquez (#93 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 2nd
“I’m happy with how today went; I wasn’t expecting my ‘first day at school’ to be like this. We had a good Friday; we stayed focused and we’re happy. We tried all the tyre combinations available as the feeling is different compared to the we had, so we need to have a clear picture of what we need for the sprint race as well as for the Sunday encounter. It’ll be crucial to qualify on the front row, with a podium-finish being the minimum target.”

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 13th
“It was a positive day, because we kept improving throughout the two sessions. This was clear in Practice, as we were very fast with used tyres and only one tenth away from the quickest rider – marc. Unfortunately, the last twelve minutes were quite unfortunate; we started the time attack a bit late and we were a bit tight. We got our lap-time cancelled in our second attempt, one that would have translated into a direct seed to Q2. Now we need to focus on doing well in Q1 and then aim at a front-row start.”