The 2025 MotoGP season begins with a pair of Friday practice sessions at Buriram, the second of which will decide the top ten for direct Qualifying 2 access.
Reigning world champion Jorge Martin remains absent after suffering further hand injuries in training earlier this week and is replaced by Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori.
But Fabio di Giannantonio - also injured on day one of the Sepang test - is back for VR46.
Marc Marquez was fastest at the recent Buriram pre-season test, where he also delivered a peerless race simulation. The new Ducati Lenovo rider topped the timesheets ahead of brother Alex Marquez (Gresini), Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) and Pedro Acosta (KTM).
Last year’s title runner-up Francesco Bagnaia was fifth, as the factory Ducati team committed to keeping the GP24 engine, followed by the top Honda of Joan Mir with Fabio Quartararo in eighth for Yamaha.
FP1 takes place from 10:45 to 11:30am local time with afternoon practice from 3-4pm.
So, it's Alex Marquez from Marc Marquez at the top of Practice and Acosta third.
Bezzecchi takes fourth, ahead of Morbidelli, Mir, Fernandez, Quartararo, Ogura, and Zarco.
Vinales, Binder, and most notably Bagnaia all miss out and will have to contend with Q1 tomorrow morning.
Marc Marquez has just been bumped to second at the death there by his brother, Alex, who tops Practice with a 1:29.020.
Bagnaia on another lap now but it's gone away in the third sector thanks to Franco Morbidelli who was - not for the first time - cruising on the line.
Bagnaia now back to 11th thanks to an Ogura lap that put the rookie eighth.
Bagnaia has had his lap deleted for yellow flags and is back to 10th. Bezzecchi meanwhile has crashed at turn three.
Bagnaia up to seventh with his first lap, almost 0.3s off the top time of Marquez, though.
According to the timing screens, Bagnaia is out for his final time attack on a 3-lap-old soft tyre.
Bezzecchi up to second place, now, and Bagnaia is now down to 10th and on the Q2 bubble.
Second time attacks beginning now.
Quartararo up to third with the first lap on his second tyre, but he's bumped to fourth as Morbidelli goes second.
Bagnaia was on a personal best at the third sector on his second flying lap on his first tyre but he's pitted. He's ninth ahead of the final time attacks.
Just under seven minutes to go.
Not a brilliant first lap from Bagnaia - only ninth and 0.5s off the pace.
Ogura into the top 10 in ninth, and now Bagnaia is delivering his first time attack.
Marquez extends his advantage at the top with a 29.197, then Alex Marquez goes up to second with a 29.400.
Marquez's first time attack takes him back to the top, a 1:29.374 puts him clear by 0.124s over Acosta.
Acosta finally beats Zarco's time with a 1:29.509 and goes to the top and Morbidelli goes second.
Brad Binde rup to second with his first time attack lap. 1:29.804 for the KTM rider, but faster laps coming behind.
Quartararo third, and Acosta is on the way too.
Marini into the 1:29s with his latest lap. Looks like a time attack with a fresh soft tyre but he's behind Marquez, who hasn't done a hot lap yet.
Marquez done with that run now, still only four laps on that tyre. He did run wide at turn four, so perhaps something he wants to change.
Another 29.9 for Marquez. It's a good tenth or two better than we've seen in terms of race pace from anyone else.
Marc Marquez now out on a fresh hard compound rear tyre and going rather quickly. Just went away at the end of the lap there for Marquez but it's still a 1:29.9; but in the meantime Johann Zarco goes fastest on a 1:29.624.
Just under half-an-hour to go in Practice now, and it's still Marquez who leads. Bagnaia and Acosta both lapping in the low-1:30s at the moment, but Acosta is running with the hard rear tyre, Bagnaia the medium.
And as we say that, looks like Bagnaia is done with this run.
Bagnaia now doing some race running. Pace seemingly a couple of tenths shy of Marquez's but he's about comparable with Acosta in low-1:30s.
Joan Mir doing his best Toprak Razgatlioglu impression with a seemingly intentional stoppie braking for the final corner. Not the smoothest landing for the rear tyre, but this is looking increasingly promising for HRC and Mir, who actually looks relatviely comfortable on the RC213V for perhaps the first time since he jumped on it at the end of 2022.
Somkiat Chantra lapping in the low-1:36s at the moment and is the only Honda rider still running that pilot whale-ish tail unit.
