Everything that happened in sketchy Jerez MotoGP qualifying
Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez saw off LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco in a close Spanish Grand Prix pole battle at Jerez.
After a dry Friday practice in which Marquez - and everyone else - appeared well adrift of brother Alex, qualifying on a drying track tipped the balance of power, and caused many a mistake.
The pole shoot-out, delayed by five minutes due to track contamination from Franco Morbidelli's smoking VR46 Ducati in Q1, played out between Marquez and Zarco, coming down to laps in the final minutes.
A last-gasp push from Zarco, who had advanced from Q1 comfortably with Pedro Acosta, came up short in the final corner - with 0.140s the pole margin in the end as Marquez took his first pole since the August 2025 Hungary round.
VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio salvaged a front row start despite being a second off pole - followed by Marco Bezzecchi, Alex Marquez and Acosta.
The younger Marquez had gone down on his first Q2 run while following his brother, but rescued the session with a second run.
Bezzecchi's Aprilia team-mate Jorge Martin was not afforded the time to do the same, crashing with a handful of minutes left and relegated from fourth to seventh in the order.
That will become 10th on the Sunday grid due to Martin's penalty for impeding Alex Marquez on Friday - but he will keep seventh on the sprint grid.
Enea Bastianini, Raul Fernandez, Pecco Bagnaia, Ai Ogura and Fermin Aldeguer rounded out the Q2 order - Aldeguer compromised by an early Q2 crash to a greater extent than Gresini team-mate Marquez.
Provisional Spanish GP grid
1 M Marquez 2 Zarco 3 Di Giannantonio
4 Bezzecchi 5 A Marquez 6 Acosta
7 Bastianini 8 R Fernandez 9 Bagnaia
10 Martin 11 Ogura 12 Aldeguer
13 Binder 14 Mir 15 Marini
16 A Fernandez 17 Quartararo 18 Morbidelli
19 Razgatlioglu 20 Savadori 21 Rins
22 Miller 23 Moreira
Brad Binder was the best of the rest in Q1, albeit nearly a second off advancing, followed by Honda works duo Joan Mir and Luca Marini - who proved no match for stablemate Zarco in the conditions.
Mir is potentially facing a sanction, too, having ridden a damaged bike - with bodywork opened up on the right side and shedding corner after corner - back to the pits after a crash despite seemingly being signalled to pull over.
The pre-qualifying practice session had shown some promise for Yamaha, but things were pretty bleak in the end - with tester Augusto Fernandez leading the Yamaha camp in 16th, 1.7s off the pace.
Pramac riders Toprak Razgatlioglu and Jack Miller both looked capable of a challenge but Razgatlioglu - who had had an incredible save in morning practice, dropping the bike on its side through the Lorenzo corner but bouncing it back upright off his knee - was only 19th and Miller was compromised by a Q1 crash.
The Australian fell at the aforementioned Lorenzo corner, then could only rejoin the session on his second bike - which wasn't working right.
But a nominal laptime over 10 seconds off the pace did put him clear of rookie Diogo Moreira, the LCR rider crashing after having a lap good enough for 15th erased by yellow flags - then running out of time to rejoin the session.
