Acosta gets first MotoGP pole, disaster for Martin and Marquez

MotoGP rookie sensation Pedro Acosta took his first pole position in a dramatic qualifying session for the Japanese Grand Prix in which Marc Marquez had pole taken away and a crash left championship leader Jorge Martin only 11th on the grid.

With anticipated rain at Motegi only producing brief light drizzle, Marquez appeared to have mastered the slightly tricky conditions beautifully with a record 1m42.868s lap that put him four tenths of a second clear of the field at that point.

But it was then deleted for a brush of the track limits sensors on the exit of the Turn 4 left-hander, demoting Marquez to ninth amid huge frustration in the Gresini garage.

That’s still better than Martin will start for this weekend’s races. He lost his Pramac Ducati into the Turn 9 left-hander in the closing minutes and consigned himself to 11th.

His championship rival Pecco Bagnaia was promoted to second by Marquez’s lap loss. Bagnaia looked like he might have the pace to dominate the session when he placed a close provisional second to Acosta early on despite a huge snap under braking, but he couldn’t match Marquez and Acosta thereafter and made a small error on his last run.

That ensured Tech3 GasGas rider Acosta took not only his first ever MotoGP pole but his first for the KTM brands since Miguel Oliveira’s Portimao pole at the end of 2020.

STARTING GRID

1 Pedro Acosta (Tech3 GasGas)
2 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati)
3 Maverick Vinales (Aprilia)
4 Enea Bastianini (Ducati)
5 Brad Binder (KTM)
6 Franco Morbidelli (Pramac Ducati)
7 Fabio di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati)
8 Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati)
9 Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati)
10 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati)
11 Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati)
12 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha)
13 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia)
14 Jack Miller (KTM)
15 Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia)
16 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda)
17 Joan Mir (Honda)
18 Augusto Fernandez (Tech3 GasGas)
19 Alex Rins (Yamaha)
20 Luca Marini (Honda)
21 Taka Nakagami (LCR Honda)
22 Lorenzo Savadori (Trackhouse Aprilia)
23 Remy Gardner (Yamaha)

Maverick Vinales ended up on the front row in an excellent performance for Aprilia, ahead of Bagnaia’s Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini and the best works KTM in the hands of Brad Binder.

Martin’s Pramac team-mate Franco Morbidelli had to come through Q1 and initially looked like he might spectacularly fail to when initial rain in the first session suggested it would all be decided by riders’ first flying laps - at which point Morbidelli’s 2024 Ducati was heading for 19th on the grid.

With the rain clearly though, Morbidelli ultimately cruised through Q1 and took sixth when it counted in Q2.

Fabio Quartararo starred by coming through Q1 with Morbidelli despite Yamaha looking well off the pace on Friday. But he couldn’t do any better than 12th in Q2.

Raul Fernandez and Jack Miller looked like they’d be the Q1 graduates when it rained, then were pushed back to 13th and 14th on the grid when the track dried.

LCR’s Johann Zarco had a massive crash at the end of the practice session ahead of qualifying, yet still qualified as top Honda in 16th.

His team-mate Taka Nakagami looked on Friday like he might be an automatic Q2 qualifier in his final start at home as full-time MotoGP rider before narrowly missing the cut.

Then his actual qualifying session proved disappointing as he only managed 21st on the grid ahead of Trackhouse Aprilia’s Oliveira stand-in Lorenzo Savadori and Yamaha wildcard Remy Gardner.