Bagnaia fights off Aprilia trio for Barcelona MotoGP pole

MotoGP championship leader Pecco Bagnaia fought off a trio of Aprilias to claim pole position for the Catalan Grand Prix at Barcelona.

Drops of rain had arrived at the track right for the start of the qualifying session, but never became anything more, with rain flags displayed at points in the first segment before being withdrawn for good for the second.

Bagnaia was only fourth after the opening runs in Q2, but uncorked a 1m38.639s – half a tenth of a second up on the previous lap record logged by Aleix Espargaro on Friday – to deny what had looked like such a likely Aprilia pole.

Espargaro himself went a tenth slower at the chequered flag to snatch second place from the year-old Aprilia of RNF rider Miguel Oliveira – who had crashed quite heavily in the pre-qualifying practice session, but then dominated Q1 and perhaps would’ve been even higher on the grid had he not had to overtake Marc Marquez on his fastest Q2 lap.

Maverick Vinales made it three Aprilias in the top four, heading the second row, which he will share with Pramac Ducati duo Jorge Martin and Johann Zarco.

Zarco was just 0.219s off pole in sixth place, and almost two tenths up on seventh, while Martin should’ve likely been higher up the grid but for coming up on Marquez in the final sector – before then running into the gravel while continuing to shadow the Honda at Turn 1 the next lap.

Gresini Ducati pair Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Giannantonio were just 0.001s apart in seventh and eighth, the latter recording by far his best qualifying result of the season.

Brad Binder was the lead KTM in ninth, followed by Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati), Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and the elder Marquez.

Bastianini, however, will start Sunday’s race 14th rather than 11th, having incurred a penalty for impeding on Friday.

KTM rider Jack Miller ended up with only his second Q1 elimination of the season, paying the price for the elder Marquez choosing him as the rider to follow all throughout the first segment.

Miller looked to be pulling away slightly from Marquez on his fastest lap, only for the six-time champion to close in through the final sector – and that was the difference between Marquez advancing and Miller ending up 13th (which will be 12th on the Sunday grid).

Fellow KTM RC16 rider Pol Espargaro, representing Tech3 Gas Gas, was a tenth behind Miller, while Raul Fernandez was 15th as the fourth Aprilia, 0.571s off team-mate Oliveira in Q1.

Ousted Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli narrowly outpaced team-mate Fabio Quartararo for 16th, in a session punctuated by Quartararo having a zero-speed crash in the gravel after running wide at Turn 1.

😮 @FabioQ20's second run is going to be a little delayed!

El Diablo ran deep into Turn 1 and tipped over! 💥#CatalanGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/jcvq5nuL0B

— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 2, 2023

Ducati’s sole representative in Q1, Luca Marini, struggled much more than expected, and was six tenths off advancing.

Behind him was Tech3 Gas Gas rookie Augusto Fernandez and the three non-Marquez Hondas, all well over a second behind their stablemate.

Qualifying Results