As they waited to mount their RC213V race machines tomorrow for the second winter test of 2018, at Thailand’s Buriram International Circuit, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa today had the opportunity to enjoy a few laps on the new-entry track aboard a Honda Scoopy i scooter.

Measuring just 4.6 kilometres and located around 400 km northeast of Bangkok, the Hermann Tilke-designed track will host three days of testing. Later in the season, on 5-7 October, MotoGP will make its Grand Prix debut.

Marc Marquez

“Today we did a lap on a scooter, which of course is very different from our bike, so to get a real impression is difficult. Still, all in all, I like it based on what I saw today. Many people compare this place to Malaysia, but while it’s true that it’s definitely hot here, it’s also different, with a different type of humidity. It’s a short track, fast in some areas like the two straights that require good acceleration, but in the middle there’s a tight, technical part that I expect to like. Anyway, tomorrow we’ll see what it’s really like. The most important thing today is to do good work with the team as we analyse the data we have, including that from World Superbike, so we can try to start with good base—especially the gearbox setting, because if you’re very far off with that, it takes a long time to recover. We’ll see. I’m eager to get on my bike tomorrow and get started.”


Dani Pedrosa

“Well of course we’ll really only understand this new track tomorrow when we ride our bike, but for a start you can get some good ideas just by looking at who has come here before us, like the Superbike guys. The gearbox setup is one of the most important things when you start at a new track. The lines are more intuitive, easier to understand once you start riding, but you have to enter the corners in the right gear, with the right speed. My first impression, apart from it being really, really hot, is that the track is quite narrow and short, which means it will be a little more important to be able take the right line and set up the gearbox. In the end, you just have to get on the bike and go trough the learning process!”