New Misano lap record from Bezzecchi as he beats Marquez to pole
MotoGP title hopeful Marco Bezzecchi dominated qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano, seeing off his main rival this weekend Marc Marquez.
A first-ever 1m29s MotoGP lap of Misano - replacing Pecco Bagnaia's 2024 time as the new record, and set in the wheeltracks of Aprilia team-mate and points leader Jorge Martin - propelled Bezzecchi to a huge lead early on in Q2, and meant he didn't have to risk on the second run.
Though the gap was whittled down by the end, nobody got close to Bezzecchi's 1m29.982s.
Marquez bounced back from a mistake early on his second run to deliver the second-fastest lap of the session, two tenths down on Bezzecchi, with Fermin Aldeguer a surprise third for Gresini Ducati.
Aldeguer worked his way through Q1 on his year-old Ducati and found another two tenths between sessions to score his second front row of the year.
Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) crashed late on but still took fourth, ahead of Martin - whose last-lap attempt went awry at Tramonto - and Honda standout Luca Marini.
Pedro Acosta again led the KTM contingent in seventh, ahead of Di Giannantonio's team-mate Franco Morbidelli, who will serve a long-lap penalty on Sunday for having impeded Enea Bastianini on Friday.
Two Q2 crashes meant a frustrated Alex Marquez could do no better than ninth, but he still outpaced Raul Fernandez (who would have been fifth had he matched his Q1 time), Johann Zarco and Pol Espargaro.
Fabio Quartararo led the Yamaha contingent by six tenths but just didn't have the sectors three-and-four performance to challenge for the top two in Q1, ending up a quarter of a second back in 13th.
He was followed in the order by Bagnaia, who never looked like a big threat for Q2 - even before he scuffed up four successive laps on his second run in Q1.
Qualifying times
1 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) 1m29.982s
2 Marc Marquez (Ducati) +0.198s
3 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +0.368s
4 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +0.404s
5 Jorge Martin (Aprilia) +0.587s
6 Luca Marini (Honda) +0.627s
7 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +0.658s
8 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +0.661s
9 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +0.714s
10 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +0.871s
11 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +0.905s
12 Pol Espargaro (Tech3 KTM) +1.198s
13 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +0.222s to Q2
14 Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) +0.339s
15 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +0.389s
16 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +0.536s
17 Joan Mir (Honda) +0.572s
18 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +0.836s
19 Brad Binder (KTM) +0.975s
20 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +1.016s
21 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha) +1.687s
