Maverick Vinales took his first MotoGP pole since 2021 in Valencia GP as Francesco Bagnaia was second from Johann Zarco.
Q1:
The first part in MotoGP qualifying in Valencia GP saw Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez set early pace with a 1m29.483s lap after he pipped Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia to top sport after early run, as GASGAS Tech 3’s Augusto Fernandez was close third.
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was a distant fourth with Tech 3’s Pol Espargaro in fifth. The final run saw Bagnaia go quicker on both of his laps to set a 1m29.054s lap and finish on top to make it in Q2 along with Marquez, who retained second place.
Fernandez was close to Marquez but missed out on Q2 by 0.037s to be 13th for the sprint and main race. Ducati’s Enea Bastianini was 14th from Quartararo with LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami in 16th ahead of VR46 Ducati’s Luca Marini.
Espargaro eventually ended up 18th from Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli ahead of returning LCR’s Alex Rins, with Aprilia wildcard Lorenzo Savadori in 21st to round out the standings after Honda’s Joan Mir was ruled out due to practice crash and injury to his neck.
Q2:
The second part in MotoGP qualifying in Valencia GP saw KTM’s Brad Binder lead the way with a 1m29.171s lap ahead of title contender Jorge Martin in his Pramac Ducati as the other KTM of Jack Miller was third from VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi.
The Top 5 was rounded by lone RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez with Miguel Oliveira out due to Qatar GP crash. The first run from Bagnaia was done on old tyres to be just 11th as he ran out of sequence where he completed his run earlier than others.
He did a 1m29.023s to go fastest as others started to come through with their laps. Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales surprised with a 1m28.931s lap to go fastest with Miller slotting in third, as Honda’s Marc Marquez and Martin were glued together on their laps.
Marquez eventually crashed out as brother A Marquez too had a crash few corners later. It was Vinales with his first MotoGP pole since 2021 in Valencia GP as he set a lap record, with Bagnaia doing well in second from Pramac’s Johann Zarco in the Top 3.
He pipped Miller in a late improvement, with Binder jumping Martin on his final lap after the latter made mistake in his final attempt to be only sixth. Bezzecchi was seventh from A Marquez, M Marquez, Fernandez, Gresini’s Fabio di Giannantonio and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.
Results: https://x.com/MotoGP/status/1728363840390475799?s=20
