Raul Fernandez surprised everyone in Q1 at Buddh and set the fastest time in the session to secure his passage to Q2, with Alex Marquez joining the spaniard.
At the end of the first two laps it was Di Giannantonio leading, with Brad Binder in second, but it was the south african who improved straight away to take the lead of the session by 0.238s over Raul Fernandez, now second.
With four laps and the session halfway over, all the riders were in their teams’ garage. Binder and Fernandez were leading, with Franco Morbidelli third and Augusto Fernandez fourth, ahead of Alex Marquez.
Two minutes later, it was now or never, and for the time being it was R. Fernandez who shone, with a lap that earned him first place, with A. Marquez in second.
Shortly afterwards, A. Marquez crashed when Binder was about to start Q2, but the lap was cancelled.
In the end, it was Fernandez who held on to first place, as did Álex Márquez.
However, the Spaniard was visibly uncomfortable and in pain, so it remained to be seen whether he would be in Q2.