Francesco Bagnaia beat MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin by 0.214s to claim pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia trailed Pramac rival Martin by over three tenths of a second after the first runs, after the Spaniard broke the circuit lap record with a 1m30.245s.
However, after returning to the track on a new soft rear tyre, two-time champion Bagnaia managed to post a time of 1m30.031s on his final effort to make it back-to-back pole positions in the Misano double-header.
Martin was improving on his previous effort in the first half of a lap, but a slow third sector came to be his undoing, meaning he was unable to better his previous effort in qualifying and had to settle for second.
Third place in qualifying went to the other works Ducati bike of Enea Bastianini, the Italian posting a 1m30.564s lap in the closing minutes to book himself the final spot on the front row.
KTM’s Brad Binder came through from the opening segment of qualifying to take fourth place on the grid, despite having only a single soft tyre left for his time attack.
Binder’s performance was backed up by Tech3 GasGas’s Pedro Acosta in fifth place, while VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi took sixth in the best of the Ducati GP23 bikes.
As was the case in the San Marino GP earlier this month, Marc Marquez suffered an early crash in qualifying, the Gresini rider tucking the front into Turn 3.
Despite managing to return to the track on his second bike, which he had shunted earlier on Saturday in final practice, he was unable to improve on his first flying lap and qualified a distant seventh.
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Maverick Vinales was Aprilia’s best representative in eighth, while Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo put in a solid performance to take ninth ahead of Pramac rider Franco Morbidelli.
Aleix Espargaro was 11th on the factory Aprilia, while Trackhouse’s Miguel Oliveira made it three bikes from the Noale brand inside the top 12.
VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio missed out on a Q2 appearance by just over a tenth of a second and will line up 13th on the grid, ahead of the Trackhouse Aprilia of Raul Fernandez.
HRC rider Luca Marini was the fastest Honda rider in 15th, edging out his team-mate Joan Mir by 0.029s.
KTM’s Jack Miller endured a torrid opening leg of qualifying where he was six tenths off the pace of team-mate Binder. That means the Australian will line up 19th on the grid, only ahead of the LCR Honda of Takaaki Nakagami and Yamaha rider Alex Rins.
Rins sat out qualifying due to a fever that also prevented him from taking part in any running on Friday.
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Qualifying
Q2
Q1
