Italy’s Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) grabbed pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) by 0.214 seconds. He set a lap record of 1 minute 30.24 seconds during qualifying at Misano.  

Martin had initially claimed provisional pole with a lap record of his own but Bagnaia went more than two-tenths of a second faster to claim his second pole at the circuit in as many weeks. Martin leads Bagnaia in the championship by a mere seven points.

Third place in qualifying went to Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) with South Africa’s Brad Binder (KTM) taking fourth place on the grid.

Tech3 GasGas’s Pedro Acosta will start in fifth place, while VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi will take sixth. The Spaniard Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing), currently in third position for the championship, suffered an early crash in qualifying and will start from the third row. 

‘Marini was the fastest Honda rider’

Aprilla Racing’s Maverick Viñales starts from eight with Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) in ninth. Honda Repsol’s Luca Marini was the fastest Honda rider in 15th, edging out his team-mate Joan Mir by 0.029 seconds.

Spain’s Alex Rins has withdrawn from the Emilia Romagna after he struggled to breathe on Friday afternoon. He was declared unfit to race by MotoGP’s medical director due to flu. 

After Saturday’s qualifying session, Bagnaia told Reuters he expected qualifying to be difficult because of the high temperature. “It was more or less the situation because it was difficult to push like we wanted in the left corners.”

‘We stand in the best position possible’

“But I’m very happy because being in both positions is the most important thing and we stand in the best position possible to try to win this afternoon (in the sprint).”

The Emilia Romagna GP is the second of two consecutive Misano rounds, having been added to the calendar in place of the cancelled India/Kazakhstan events.

OFM Sport/Ilse Smalberger dg