MotoGP

Bagnaia snipes Le Mans MotoGP pole from comeback star Marquez

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
3 min read

MotoGP championship leader Pecco Bagnaia denied the returning Marc Marquez French Grand Prix pole in a Le Mans qualifying thriller.

Bagnaia was 0.058s clear of Marquez, who was the sole Honda rider in Q2, making his MotoGP return after a three-round absence with a fractured hand.

Aprilia rider Maverick Vinales sat on provisional pole after the opening runs in the pole shoot-out, heading Marquez by 0.084s.

Yet when Vinales headed out of the pits for his second run, his RS-GP suddenly lost drive, Vinales desperately trying to get it working on the spot before giving up and heading back down pitlane, getting a surprise helping hand from Moto3 rider Riccardo Rossi.

Whatever the issue was would not be rectified in time, Aprilia forced to swap the soft tyres to Vinales’ other bike – and though he did get out for one flying lap, he was not able string it together, with the rubber presumably lacking sufficient temperature.

By that time, Marquez had already surpassed Vinales, with a storming lap in the tow of Jorge Martin’s Ducati. But a stunner comeback pole for the Honda man, running the Kalex-built chassis that’s making its grand prix weekend debut at Le Mans, was prevented at the last moment by Bagnaia.

The championship leader’s 1m30.705s was half a tenth better than Marquez’s effort. Fellow Valentino Rossi protege Luca Marini, who had advanced from Q1, followed Bagnaia on that lap and was himself helped to a front-row start.

Jack Miller took fourth place as the lead KTM, ahead of Martin and Vinales, followed by an all-Ducati third row of Marco Bezzecchi (VR46), Alex Marquez (Gresini) and Johann Zarco (Pramac).

Brad Binder was 10th in the other works KTM, with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro consigned to 11th by a fast crash at Turn 1.

Tech3 Gas Gas rookie Augusto Fernandez had come into the session with a previous best qualifying effort of 17th but managed to score 12th place.

He had gone through Q1 to record his Tech3 team’s first Q2 appearance since 2021, but couldn’t quite match his Q1 effort in Q2.

Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo led the proceedings in Q1 after the opening runs, enjoying a four-tenth buffer that suggested easy passage to Q2.

That, however, proved deceptive, and with Quartararo only able to match his previous time to the thousandth on his second run, he was first pushed down to second by Fernandez and then denied Q2 passage by a last-second Marini improvement.

A big gain at the chequered flag by LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami was still only good enough for 14th, with Gresini Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio joining Quartararo and Nakagami on the fifth row.

The second Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli ended up 17th, half a second down on Quartararo and in the middle of row six – between the works Honda of Joan Mir and the LCR Honda of Alex Rins.

The battle of the stand-ins was won by Ducati substitute rider Danilo Petrucci, who in 19th was three tenths quicker than Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori and 1.5s quicker than Gas Gas’s Jonas Folger.

Qualifying Results

Pos Name Team Bike Group 1 Group 2
1 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 1m30.705s
2 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 1m30.763s
3 Luca Marini Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 1m31.268s 1m30.842s
4 Jack Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1m30.984s
5 Jorge Martin Prima Pramac Racing Ducati 1m31.023s
6 Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Aprilia 1m31.12s
7 Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 1m31.173s
8 Alex Marquez Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 1m31.275s
9 Johann Zarco Prima Pramac Racing Ducati 1m31.298s
10 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 1m31.445s
11 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Aprilia 1m31.523s
12 Augusto Fernandez GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 KTM 1m31.343s 1m31.596s
13 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1m31.366s
14 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 1m31.545s
15 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 1m31.718s
16 Joan Mir Repsol Honda Team Honda 1m31.81s
17 Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1m31.886s
18 Alex Rins LCR Honda CASTROL Honda 1m31.959s
19 Danilo Petrucci Ducati Team Ducati 1m32.092s
20 Lorenzo Savadori CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Aprilia 1m32.41s
21 Jonas Folger GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 KTM 1m33.605s
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More Networks