Qualifying report

MotoGP Qatar GP: Bezzecchi storms to pole ahead of Marquez

Jorge Martin struggled to 11th place with his broken wrist

Aprilia's Marco Bezzecchi laid down a marker in qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, shattering the MotoGP lap record to win a pole duel with Ducati's Marc Marquez.

Bezzecchi's team-mate Jorge Martin, who is also Marc's nearest championship challenger, had a disappointing session, however, and will only line up 11th on the grid.

With the four Yamahas missing after their withdrawal from this event, it was a much quieter circuit than usual in Q1. Around the long Lusail lap, it would take a real stroke of bad luck for a rider to hit a yellow flag. There were in any case no incidents to disrupt the session, making it as pure a contest as one could wish for in temperatures of 34 degrees.

Making a rare appearance in Q1 following his disastrous Friday, Pedro Acosta hit the ground running after seemingly finding something in the preceding Free Practice 2 session. He hit the top of the timesheets immediately, leading Fermin Aldeguer by over three tenths of a second after the first round of hot laps.

The two Murcians swapped positions in the final phase of the session, however, with Aldeguer getting his time down to a 1m50.876s. He was already parked in the box by the time Acosta had whittled his down to a 1m51.087s. As it happened, Acosta's earlier time would have been enough to keep him ahead of Franco Morbidelli and the rest of those hoping to make it into Q2.

The busier track in Q2 immediately produced what Q1 hadn't - a crash and a yellow flag. It was South Africa's Brad Binder who dropped his bike, his second spill of the weekend.

Marc Marquez, Ducati Team

Photo by: Mahmud Hams / AFP via Getty Images

Marquez dodged the yellow to register a record lap of 1m50.361s, but some of his competitors hit the danger area and had to wait a lap before trying to respond. It was Bezzecchi who really caught the eye when he did so, yanking the bar a few notches higher with a 1m50.065s, pulling out almost three tenths on Marquez.

As the riders returned to the pits for one last soft rear tyre, the only other man within half a second of Bezzecchi was Trackhouse Aprilia's Raul Fernandez.

That set up a grandstand battle in the final minutes of the session, with Marquez and Bezzecchi giving it their all. Marquez improved his time to a 1m50.294s, a cracking lap in itself but still no threat to Bezzecchi. The factory Ducati rider was happy enough with his effort, however, and called off his challenge confident that he would probably remain in the middle of the front row.

That's exactly how it played out. Bezzecchi shaved a further fraction of time off with his final effort, but there was no real need as Marquez would remain his nearest challenger. Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) grabbed third on the grid on one of his favourite circuits.

The two Trackhouse Aprilias will sandwich Francesco Bagnaia's factory Ducati on row two, with Fernandez fourth and Ai Ogura sixth.

Johann Zarco leads row three ahead of Acosta and Aldeguer, the two Q1 graduates thus swapping positions once again.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images

Martin, reportedly feeling his injuries more today than on Friday, could only manage 11th spot. He looked incensed with Acosta after an incident towards the end of Martin's last flying lap, in which Martin clearly felt distracted by his countryman.

Enea Bastianini will start 10th and Binder 12th. Acosta thus also kept his record of always outscoring his team-mate Binder alive.

MotoGP Qatar GP - Qualifying results

Q2

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	7	1'50.028		176.027
2	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	6	+0.266 1'50.294	0.266	175.603
3	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	7	+0.299 1'50.327	0.033	175.550
4	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	7	+0.429 1'50.457	0.130	175.344
5	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	7	+0.564 1'50.592	0.135	175.130
6	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	7	+0.568 1'50.596	0.004	175.123
7	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	6	+0.707 1'50.735	0.139	174.904
8	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	6	+0.844 1'50.872	0.137	174.687
9	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	7	+0.862 1'50.890	0.018	174.659
10	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	7	+0.973 1'51.001	0.111	174.484
11	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	7	+1.036 1'51.064	0.063	174.385
12	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	4	+1.876 1'51.904	0.840	173.076
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