MotoGP Spanish GP: Bagnaia smashes Jerez lap record to beat Quartararo for pole

Having traded top spot in FP3 this morning and running 1-2 in FP4, the expected pole battle between Bagnaia and reigning world champion Quartararo raged early on in qualifying.

Suzuki’s Joan Mir set the early benchmark with a 1m37.616s, which he improved to a 1m37.369s as a handful of riders had laps scrubbed for going through a yellow flag zone at Turn 1 for Jorge Martin’s early crash.

With just under nine minutes to go of the 15-minute Q2 shootout, Bagnaia went fastest with a 1m36.863s – only to be immediately deposed by Quartararo with a 1m36.760s.

Such was the pace of both riders, third-placed Aleix Espargaro was almost four tenths off the top two.

On his second time attack run, Bagnaia dug deep to produce a mighty, lap record-smashing 1m36.170s which put him seven tenths clear of Quartararo with just under three minutes remaining.

Quartararo reduced that deficit with his next effort, but was still over four tenths off Bagnaia and had no response for the Ducati rider as the chequered flag came out.

Matching Bagnaia on the first sector on his final lap, Quartararo continued to bleed time over the rest of the tour and had to concede his 100% Jerez MotoGP pole record by 0.453s.

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro rounded out the front row for the second-successive weekend, pushing Jack Miller on the sister factory team Ducati back to fourth.

Marc Marquez produced a 1m37.145s lap good enough for a damage-limiting fifth on his troubled Honda, with Pramac’s Johann Zarco coming from Q1 to qualify sixth.

Takaaki Nakagami was seventh on his LCR Honda ahead of VR46 Ducati rookie Marco Bezzecchi – who came through Q1 with Johann Zarco – and Suzuki’s Mir,