Marc Marquez pips Alex, Quartararo third as Bagnaia takes Q2 tumble

A late lap record pole position, Yamaha on the front row, Bagnaia in the gravel: qualifying sets us up for a floodlit spectacular.

Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team) continues his run of qualifying supremacy with a new lap record pole position at Lusail, putting in a 1:50.499 on his final push to deny Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) by just a tenth.

In third it’s a stunning performance from Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) as Yamaha get back on the front row for the first time since 2022, meanwhile fortunes reversed for Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) as the #63 finds himself down in P11 after sliding out on his second run.

Q1: WILL HE, WON’T HE?
He tried. As he returns to action, it’s not about results just yet for reigning Champion Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing), it’s about getting back in the groove and gaining kilometers. It seems like it may well end up being both, however, as the #1 was sitting second behind rookie Ai Ogura (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) for much of Q1, potentially on to move through. In the end it wasn’t quite to be though, with Alex Rins (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) slotting in to second to join Ogura in the fight for pole.

Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) just pipped his teammate but finished the session third, missing out on Q2 by just 0.041s.

Q2: DESERT BLOCKBUSTER
Then it was the pole position shootout. Friday saw a gap of just 0.022s between Bagnaia and teammate Marc Marquez, and Franco Morbidelli (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) was ahead of both – teasing much from the potential pole position shootout.

Alex Marquez them around their first laps of Lusail and was briefly ahead before his brother pipped him to provisional pole. Morbidelli, Quartararo, Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) and Johann Zarco (CASTROL Honda LCR) was the top six after the first run, with Bagnaia P9 and looking for more. But in the final five minutes, it was all set to change.

BAGNAIA ON THE BACK FOOT
Eager to improve, the #63 was the first out for the second run but then it all came to a crashing sudden halt at Turn 4. The double MotoGP Champion tucked the front, spelling the end of his session too as he couldn’t get back in time to head back out. Di Giannantonio was on a storming lap though, good enough to put him on a provisional front row in second. Rins was also a huge improver, moving into P5, but teammate Quartararo was on his way to steal the show.

‘El Diablo’ put in an absolute stunner to take over on provisional pole as the clock ticked down, but Alex Marquez then just snatched it away from the #20. That left Marc Marquez down in P3 but lighting up the timing screens, with the spotlight on the #93. Could he get it done on his final push? Just. The Ducati Lenovo Team rider set a new lap record to take his fourth pole of the year ahead of brother Alex in P2, but Quartararo’s third is his and Yamaha’s first front row since Assen in 2022, showing the steps made by the Iwata manufacturer. And right on the back of his absolute showstopper of a start and Sprint at COTA…

THE GRID
The second row features Friday’s fastest Morbidelli, who was just ahead of Marc on track to improve late on, pipping teammate Di Giannantonio. Then comes another serious standout performer as Maverick Viñales (Red Bull KTM Tech3) makes it three manufacturers on the front two rows of the grid in sixth. The #12 also takes top KTM honours by some six tenths over Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), who had a quiet session to finish P12 as last of the Q2 runners.

Zarco just missed out on the top two rows but heads the third in P7, ahead of top rookie Fermin Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP), with his best grid position so far of P8. Rins is ninth ahead of Ogura, with Bagnaia slowly bumped down to P11 as he was forced to cede the floor after his crash. He and Acosta alongside him will be gunning for gains at lights out, and after Bagnaia took the holeshot from well behind the front row in Texas, they’ll be ones to watch…

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