2024 Thailand Moto2 Grand Prix - Qualifying Results

Round eighteen, the Thailand Moto2 race, is perfectly poised to be a battle between Aron Canet and Ai Ogura, who only needs a top five finish to take the Moto2 crown.

Canet had topped the Friday standings, and his race run pace from that day was matched by Ogura on Saturday morning as the pair look set to do battle in Buriram.

Ai Ogura laid down the gauntlet with a new lap record in P2, and went on to top qualifying in a session which echoed the Moto3 session before as most riders left the pits too late. The MT Helmets - MSI rider took pole on his Boscoscuro with a lap set with nine minutes of the session left - a best of 1m 34.728s.

Canet arrived second fastest and was poised to take pole after being in the six riders on a live lap, but a huge moment at the last corner required a save aboard his Kalex and prevented any improvement, leaving the Fantic rider just 0051s behind his Japanese title rival.

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Diogo Moreira impressed in the morning session, the rookie arrived with the third best time after working to find a slipstream on track, alond with his teammate Dennis Foggia.

In qualifying the Italtrans rider brought more of the same, this time shadowing Canet in the early minutes of the session for third, just 0.074s off pole position.

Arbolino fourth before penalty

Tony Arbolino, now needing crutches to move between his Marc VDS bike and the pit garage after yesterday’s incident, had dropped to 14th, so was keen to get out and improve, also slotting in behind Canet. That took the Italian to fourth.

However, both Arbolino and Zonta van den Goorbergh, despite having made it straight to Q2 have penalties to serve.

Netherlands rider vd Goorbergh has a pitlane start despite earning  15th on the grid. The stewards awarded the sanction for ‘riding in an irresponsible manner and causing a crash’ after his incident where he ran into the back of Tony Arbolino in pit lane. Arbolino was given a three place grid penalty for ‘causing potential danger to himself and others’ while recovering his bike.

Marcos Ramirez had started the weekend quickest and still had strong one lap pace, finishing Q2 fifth for American Racing.

Filip Salac has improved in chunks over the weekend after a slow start, culminating in sixth even though he was frustrated with traffic in the closing stages on his Marc VDS bike.

Albert Arenas finished seventh quickest for Gresini, ahead of Australia’s polesitter and race winner, Fermin Aldeguer in eighth as the top Speed Up rider.

Sergio Garcia was the best of the riders who progressed from Q1, improving from 16th to eighth on his last lap, then losing a place to Arbolino who shuffled him back to ninth as he crossed the line. The MT helmets rider will gain the place back once his penalty is applied after the session.

Manuel Gonzalez did enough to hold onto a top ten start on the second Gresini entry, just ahead of Jake Dixon on the timesheets in eleventh for Aspar in a close session.

Q1  - Local hero Chantra progresses

There were audible cheers for Somkiat Chantra every time he roared past the stands in his special livery of was shown on the big screen.

In a session every bit as close as Q2 the Thai rider had to push hard, coming upon traffic on his final lap but still improving to move to Q1 with the best time.

Having only just returned from injury the Idenitsu Honda Team Asia rider went on to qualify 13th, which in the tight second qualifying session was still just under half a second off the pole time.

Darryn Binder just missed out on going directly to Q2 as his time slipped to 15th overall in P2 after a crash for the South African. Back on his Liqui Moly Intact GP bike for qualifying, he was second in Q1 on his way to 17th.

Garcia and Ayumu Sasaki (12th) were the two other riders moving on to in Q2.

That left no room for early contenders for the four progression slots Izan Guevara who starts 19th after being forced back to fifth in Q1 and Jorge Navarro.

Australian podium finisher Senna Agius is one place further back in 21st for Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP.

Crashes, injuries and replacements

Xavier Artigas crashed at the beginning of Q1 at turn twelve, leaving him last on the grid. There were no falls in Q2.

Joe Roberts is absent at American Racing, Navarro (20th) steps in for the Thai round.

Harrison Voight (28th) has a second shot in Moto2, following on from a home race in Australia with the Preicanos Racing team, in for Daniel Munoz.

Celestino Vietti remains out of action with a broken collarbone at Red Bull KTM Ajo and is not replaced.