Aleix Espargaro took MotoGP pole in British GP in a new lap record, ahead of Ducati pair of Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini.
Q1:
The first part in MotoGP qualifying in British GP at Silverstone saw a logjam at the front after the first run where GASGAS Tech 3’s Pedro Acosta matched the 1m58.651s lap time of Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez in a close show.
Pramac Ducati’s Franco Morbidelli was third from Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez, who is riding the latest RS-GP spec from Silverstone onward. He led his teammate Miguel Oliveira, who continued on an old-spec as the previous weekends.
The second run saw further improvements. It was R Fernandez who blinked first to put himself on the top but Acosta upped his pace to set a 1m58.373s lap to dethrone him and make it into Q2. He had few hairy moments during the course of the session.
In a misery for the Trackhouse rider, A Marquez improved too. He ended up only 0.035s behind Acosta to make it in Q2 as Morbidelli was third to start 13th which dropped R Fernandez to only 14th ahead of his teammate Oliveira.
LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco was 16th from Tech 3’s Augusto Fernandez, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, Honda pair of Luca Marini & Joan Mir, LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and Yamaha’s Remy Gardner to round out the 12 runners in Q1, where the Australian became the official replacement to Alex Rins who pulled out after Friday crash.
Q2:
The second part in MotoGP qualifying in British GP saw some heavy lap times being set at the onset of the session itself. It was Ducati 1-2 at the halfway stage with Francesco Bagnaia leading after setting record 1m57.517s lap.
He headed teammate Enea Bastianini, Pramac’s Jorge Martin and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro where the Top 4 dipped under Zarco’s lap record from before. The Top 5 had Gresini’s Marc Marquez, who found himself in a respectable position after Friday woes.
The second run was scrappy for the lot due to traffic situation. On top of that, Bagnaia was forced to withdraw from his fast lap when a sticker of his own helmet stuck on his visor and Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales had a crash to end his running.
But his teammate Espargaro took the mantle to go even faster after a 1m57.309s lap to secure MotoGP pole in British GP after lap record ahead of Ducati pair of Bagnaia and Bastianini in the front row, with Martin dropping to fourth in the order.
A Marquez improved to fifth from KTM’s Brad Binder as a frustrated M Marquez was down to seventh after being held up by a VR46 Ducati rider. Despite his crash, Vinales was eighth from Acosta, VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio, KTM’s Jack Miller and VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi to round out the Top 12.
Result: https://x.com/MotoGP/status/1819686157795328487
