2024 Thailand Moto3 - Friday Practice Results

Becoming Moto3 champion has not slowed David Alonso down as he topped both the Free Practice and P1 sessions ahead of the Thailand Grand Prix, displaying record pace.

Alonso wasted no time in setting a new lap record in Buriram, taking just ten minutes of Free Practice to beat Deniz Oncu’s old Thai benchmark. Lowered again soon after, the #80 also became the first rider to hit the deck as he found the limit while in search of more time, off at turn three.

By the end of the first session, the old record had been smashed by over a second, to 1m 40.544s, with Alonso the rider to lower it every time.

By the timed P1 session, with times that count towards qualifying, the heat had kicked in and the track was slower, but the CFMoto Gaviota Aspar rider still managed to come out on top, close to his best with a late lap of 1m 40.703s.

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Rookie Angel Piqueras was closest to the Colombian in the first track session, just over half a second slower, with his Leopard teammate Adrian Fernandez third. The BOE Motorsports riders, Joel Kelso and David Munoz completed the top five in the morning session.

By practice one Kelso had managed to step up to the challenge, moving from seventeenth with just five minutes of the session to go to finish the day second overall, 0.385s behind Alonso.

Fernandez held onto third overnight for Leopard, with Holgado improving to fourth late on for Red Bull KTM Tech3.

There were five different manufacturers in the top five places with Collin Veijer, having held the provisional top spot for a spell, finishing Friday fifth for Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP.

Luca Lunetta was the top rookie on the opening day, sitting sixth for SIC58 Squadra Corse, just ahead of Ivan Ortola, who found huge improvements to set the seventh best time, the best of the MT Helmets - MSI riders.

David Almansa recovered from an early fall at turn nine for eighth for Rivacold Snipers, with Jose Antonio Rueda very close behind on times for Red Bull KTM Ajo.

Angel Piqueras struggled with traffic, dropping the second Leopard bike to tenth.

The remaining overnight progression slots are held by David Munoz, Riccardo Rossi, Scott Ogden and Ryusei Yamanaka.

Stefano Nepa slipped to 15th after pulling out of his final lap, with the chequered flag already waving for the LevelUp - MTA rider.

The first slice of track time saw Collin Veijer the best of the riders vying to be runner-up, in seventh ahead of Holgado in ninth and Ortola, who was off the pace in 20th.

There was a further fall in P1 for Matteo Bertelle leaving him 23rd, Alonso also suffered another soft spill as he pushed to find the limit yet again on his way to the top time.

A home round gave Tatchakorn Buasri a chance to shine briefly, starting inside the top ten, the Honda Team Asia rider slipped back to 21st at the end off FP, and 24th at the close of P1.

The Moto3 class begin the weekend with a full grid on track but Noah Dettwiler was not on track for the second session.