Marco Bezzecchi beats Alex Marquez to take MotoGP pole in San Marino GP by 0.088s margin, as Fabio Quartararo in third was 0.094s behind.
Q1:
Honda’s Joan Mir pulled out of Saturday running in MotoGP qualifying and sprint in San Marino GP at Misano after his fall late on Friday. The Spaniard cited neck pain as the reason, as he wanted to rest to try and make it for the main race, where he is likely to start from 12th after securing Q2 slot.
The first run in Q1 saw Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo take charge with a 1m30.842s lap, which was only 0.010s quicker than Gresini Ducati’s Fermin Aldeguer, in the fight to get in Q2. KTM’s Brad Binder was third from Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura.
The second run did not start well for Tech 3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini, who suffered a fall on his outlap. Teammate Maverick Vinales had no time against his name after multiple lap cancellations in the first run. Quartararo, meanwhile, stepped on it to improve on his lap time.
But it was deleted. However, he went again to set a 1m30.481s lap to get through into Q2 along with Aldeguer. Pramac Yamaha’s Miguel Oliveira improved to third, to be 13th overall. He led R Fernandez and Ogura in the Top 15, as Binder could only manage 16th in the end.
Vinales managed to put in a lap to be 17th from Yamaha’s Alex Rins and LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco, as Bastianini dropped to 20th, but finished ahead of Pramac’s Jack Miller, Yamaha’s Augusto Fernandez and LCR’s Somkiat Chantra – despite his early fall.
Q2:
The second part in MotoGP qualifying in San Marino GP saw Gresini’s Alex Marquez set the pace with a 1m30.222s lap ahead of Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi and KTM’s Pedro Acosta, with Ducati’s Marc Marquez only seventh after his first trial – two places behind teammate Francesco Bagnaia.
Having made it through Q1, Aldeguer had no timed lap after the first run, from the 11 riders to start the session with Mir missing. The second run Acosta have an early fall, but he managed to get back on the bike to continue on. It was intense last few laps as the lead changed hands.
Bezzecchi – with the help of Martin’s slipstream – made enough to secure MotoGP pole with a 1m30.134s lap in San Marino GP. He was 0.088s quicker than A Marquez, who kept his title chances alive. A late push from Quartararo wasn’t enough, as he had to be content with third.
The Top 3 was covered by just the 0.094s margin. M Marquez was fourth from VR46 Ducati’s Franco Morbidelli and Honda’s Luca Marini, who recorded his best result with the Japanese outfit. VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio was seventh from Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia.
Acosta had to be content with ninth after his gravel run, with Aldeguer 10th and Martin 11th, to round out the 11 runners.
Result: https://x.com/MotoGP/status/1966800717294776484
