Martin crash costs Bagnaia pole, Espargaro starts first

Even the Abu Dhabi Auto Racing League

Aleix Espargaro took pole position in his MotoGP race in Barcelona, ​​with Pico Bagnaia denied victory in the qualifying session in which Jorge Martin crashed.

Catalunya Grand Prix winner Espargaro announced earlier at the weekend that he would step away from competing in the MotoGP world championship full-time at the end of the year, and followed that up by setting a lap record on Friday which he has now surpassed on Saturday. .

But first place and the record could go to Bagnaia and his Ducati bike, whose time of 1:38.128 minutes was better than Espargaro's time of 1:38.190 minutes, but was erased by yellow flags.

This was due to incidents involving Bagnaia's former team Pramac Ducati, and more specifically his title rival Jorge Martin and his good friend Franco Morbidelli.

Martin sat in third place after the initial runs in Q3, but was involved in a crash after entering turn two – with Morbidelli running right behind him and getting off his bike moments later.

KTM's Brad Bender had originally completed the front row behind Espargaro and Bagnaia, making it three different manufacturers in the top three.

But Raul Fernandez's deleted lap was replayed after the session, resulting in the Spaniard and his 2023-spec Aprilia being elevated to the front row instead – giving him and the Trackhouse Aprilia team their first ever front row start.

Tech3 Gas Team rookie Pedro Acosta followed Bender through the preliminary round to record what would end up being the fifth-best time at the checkered flag, followed by Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) and Martin.

Di Giannantonio had led Q1 (leading alongside Fernandes) with what was then a new lap record, and would have finished second on the grid here had he matched his Q1 lap in Q2.

Alex Rins finished eighth with the Yamaha team, nine places ahead of his teammate Fabio Quartararo on the starting grid.

Jack Miller (KTM), Morbidelli, Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) completed the standings in Q1, with Viñales running a distant second behind team-mate Espargaro throughout the weekend, setting a time eight tenths slower in Q2.

Marc Marquez, who had an accident during qualifying, had his brother and Gresini teammate Alex in front of him as a reference for the entire qualifying session, but he was unable to find enough time to escape from Q1 for the second week in a row.

Furthermore, he was overtaken by Alex in the first encounter of the season, with the younger Marquez grabbing the 13-speed from Marc in his final attempt in the first section, after Marc slipped.

They will be joined by Miguel Oliveira on row five as the lowest-placed Aprilias, while Marco Pizzici will head up row six – more than four tenths behind VR46 teammate Di Giannantonio in Q1.

Heading up the qualifying battle for Honda once again is Johann Zarco, who remains unbeaten against his fellow RC213V riders within a single lap this season despite crashing in pre-qualifying practice and then again in Q1.