MotoGP Malaysian GP: Martin smashes pole record as title challengers struggle

Bagnaia was forced to go through Q1 after crashing while following Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in the latter stages of FP3 this morning.

The Ducati rider eased through the first part of qualifying with Marc Marquez in tow, ensuring all four title challengers contested the pole shootout session.

But drama ensued across the 15-minute Q2, as both Bagnaia and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro suffered crashes, while Quartararo registered his worst qualifying result of the season.

Pramac’s Martin set the tone with his first flying lap as he set a new lap record of 1m58.021s as he made his bid for a second-successive pole in 2022.

At the end of his first run, Bagnaia – who ran a used rear tyre as a result of using up an extra soft to get out of Q1 – was sixth behind Espargaro, while Quartararo languished down in 11th.

At the start of the second run, Bagnaia had Marc Marquez for company as the Honda rider tried to latch on to the back of the Ducati rider for a tow.

Pushing into Turn 4, Bagnaia crashed just as he’d clicked through the first sector with the fastest split of the session at that point.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Quartararo passed the crash site after the yellow flags had been withdrawn, but was forced to abort his final flying lap when he suffered a front-end moment going through Turn 8 – where he crashed in FP4, picking up a minor finger injury on his left hand.

The Yamaha rider was unable to get around for one final attempt, leaving him 1.4s off the pace down in 12th ahead of Sunday’s potential title-decider.

Just moments after Quartararo had his moment, Aprilia’s Espargaro crashed at the same corner as he looked on course to demote Bagnaia.

While all of this went on, Martin muscled his Pramac Ducati around to a 1m57.790s on his last lap to secure a stunning pole by 0.456 seconds from Gresini’s Enea Bastianini, who starts as the top title challenger in second.

Marquez completed his lap despite losing his reference from Bagnaia, and somehow managed to get his badly behaving Honda around to a 1m58.454s to qualify third.

Marc Bezzecchi heads row two on his VR46 Ducati ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins and the sister VR46 bike of Luca Marini.

Franco Morbidelli - who must serve two long lap penalties in the race for impeding in FP3 - made a crucial move up to seventh on his factory Yamaha ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales to demote Bagnaia down to ninth ahead of Aleix Espargaro.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Despite his woes, Quartararo only has the sister Suzuki of Joan Mir between him and his two chief title rivals.

Brad Binder will start 13th on his KTM, while Ducati’s Jack Miller was unable to get out of Q1 after suffering a late crash at Turn 2.

He dropped to 14th as a result ahead of RNF Racing’s Cal Crutchlow and Gresini rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, with Pol Espargaro (Honda) 17th ahead of an under the radar Johann Zarco (Pramac).

Miguel Oliveira struggled to 19th on his KTM from Tech3’s Remy Gardner after a crash, with Alex Marquez also taking a tumble in Q1 in 21st on his LCR Honda.

The field was completed by Tech3 KTM’s Raul Fernandez, LCR Honda stand-in Tetsuta Nagashima and RNF’s Darryn Binder.

Full Malaysian GP qualifying results:

Cla	Rider		Bike	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Jorge Martin		Ducati	1'57.790
2	Enea Bastianini		Ducati	1'58.246	0.456	0.456
3	Marc Marquez		Honda	1'58.454	0.664	0.208
4	Marco Bezzecchi		Ducati	1'58.490	0.700	0.036
5	Alex Rins		Suzuki	1'58.575	0.785	0.085
6	Luca Marini		Ducati	1'58.579	0.789	0.004
7	Franco Morbidelli		Yamaha	1'58.654	0.864	0.075
8	Maverick Viñales		Aprilia	1'58.766	0.976	0.112
9	Francesco Bagnaia		Ducati	1'58.862	1.072	0.096
10	Aleix Espargaro		Aprilia	1'58.935	1.145	0.073
11	Joan Mir		Suzuki	1'59.145	1.355	0.210
12	Fabio Quartararo		Yamaha	1'59.215	1.425	0.070
View full results