It was another busy and exciting day of track action that took place on Saturday at the Chang International Circuit as Pedro Acosta and Augusto Fernandez faced the qualifying sessions later on followed by the Tissot Sprint of the PT Grand Prix of Thailand. After qualifying in 7th on the grid, Acosta sadly ended with another DNF after an early crash in the Tissot Sprint, while Augusto Fernandez completed the sprint in 16th.

Qualifying
Directly in Q2 after a strong Practice session despite the pain still present on his left shoulder, Pedro Acosta continued to get on with his Thai GP campaign on Saturday. After a FP2 used to confirm the setting for the races, the young Shark headed on track for Q2, one promising to be tight and challenging! Time to fight for pole position number 18 at stake this season. As all riders headed out, Pedro Acosta set an early time in 1’29.569 that placed him 6th after 3 laps and a garage return. The rookie then exited the pitlane for run number 2 right in the back wheel of Jorge Martin, the 2023 pole sitter in Buriram, but in no time, they became a group of 5 behind the current championship leader. Pedro was not able to improve straight away, but a late improvement to a 1’29.419 will see him start both the sprint and the main race from the 7th position on the grid. Despite being far in the standings at the end of play on Friday, Augusto Fernandez was just 1.2 seconds from the fastest time of Practice, a result that set the stage for a very competitive pre-qualifying stage on Saturday. FP2 just before was a good opportunity for the Spaniard to head to Q1 with the confidence of a P11 and a best lap time set in 1’30.498 (+0.610). After his first Q1 run, Augusto sat in 11th with a 1’30.836. Run 2 came for the final chance to try moving up a few positions on the grid. He made a strong improvement to 1’29.828 to provisionally take P5, but more than 2 minutes remained. That time remained his best to qualify him in P16 on the grid.

Tissot Sprint
Ready to take on the Tissot Sprint just one week following his crash in Australia, Pedro Acosta took a really good start as lights went out at 15:00 local time. He found the 5th place after the first corner and then moved up to 4th behind Enea Bastianini, Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia, with Jorge Martin close behind. While Bastia was already 0.6 seconds away, Acosta was overtaken on lap 2 by a pressuring Martin eager to be as close as possible to his title rival, Bagnaia. Unfortunately, the young rookie made a mistake in the next lap as a late braking in turn 3 saw him go out of trajectory and lose the front. He was able to rejoin the race quickly, but found himself at the back of the group, in P21, 1.140 seconds from Luca Marini. Progressively, the shark caught back with the HRC rider until he was able to move past him on lap 7. Takaaki Nakagami was then next up, but Acosta was forced to retire on lap 11 after his bike presented damages following his crash earlier on. That’s another DNF for the rookie, who will look to turn things around in Sunday's main race. Augusto Fernandez took a rather decent start to gain a few positions in the first corner, but dropped massively to P20 as he struggled to make his space in the following corners. He was 20th after the first lap, and then in 19th the next lap close in the back wheel of Takaaki Nakagami. Augusto Fernandez managed to move past the Japanese rider on lap 4 to find himself in P17 after teammate Acosta had crashed. 5 laps remained, and Augusto was still in 17th with now Maverick Vinales ahead after the Aprilia rider had dropped down from his 10th position on the grid, but Alex Rins was also not far behind coming back quickly, just 0.466 behind. While the #12 continued to drop, Augusto had to defend his ground on a pressuring Rins, but he was eventually overtaken on lap 11. Not wanting to let go, the Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 rider was finally the one to have the final say, as he overtook Rins in the final seconds to see the checkered flag in P16.

There’s more MotoGP™ coming for you fans, with Sunday’s main race at 15:00 local time (GMT+7) for 26 laps. Just a gentle reminder that there will be daylight saving time changes in some regions, so watch out on the clock!