Marco Bezzecchi took Aprilia's second pole position of the 2025 MotoGP season by prevailing in a frantic battle in San Marino Grand Prix qualifying.
Bezzecchi looked to have the pace for pole for much of the session but laboured to nail a lap, before finally doing so in the closing moments - his 1m30.134s aided by a brief tow from team-mate Jorge Martin when Martin wasn't on a fast lap.
Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) had held provisional pole before Bezzecchi's lap and will start second, while a heroic Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) effort came up just short of pole in third.
Quartararo dominated Q1 and was finding even more laptime in the pole shoot-out, but lost a crucial tenth of a second relative to Bezzecchi in the final sector.
Championship leader Marc Marquez was fourth, having towed his brother along for most of what turned out to be the latter's best lap of the session.
Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) will line up in fifth behind factory Ducati rider Marquez, while Luca Marini - Honda's sole representative in Q2 - grabbed sixth place at the very final moment.
Marini's team-mate Joan Mir had likewise booked his spot in Q2 on Friday but sat out the session as a consequence of neck pain and stiffness following a Friday crash - and will also not race in the sprint. His participation in the main race is still up in the air.
Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) and Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) completed a top eight split by just 0.280s, Bagnaia just 0.06s back from team-mate Marquez - which was enough for a difference of four places.
Pedro Acosta had sat third in the order when he fell at Turn 14 trying to follow the elder Marquez. He was relegated to ninth by the end of the session, ahead only of Fermin Aldeguer (who advanced from Q1 with Quartararo) and Martin.
Provisional San Marino GP grid
1 Bezzecchi 2 A Marquez 3 Quartararo
4 M Marquez 5 Morbidelli 6 Marini
7 Di Giannantonio 8 Bagnaia 9 Acosta
10 Aldeguer 11 Martin 12 Mir
13 Oliveira 14 R Fernandez 15 Ogura
16 Binder 17 Vinales 18 Rins
19 Zarco 20 Bastianini 21 Miller
22 A Fernandez 23 Chantra
Miguel Oliveira was fastest of those eliminated in Q1, though 0.46s down on Quartararo's Q1-topping effort.
He will be joined on the fifth row by Trackhouse Aprilia duo Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura, who set identical personal-best times - with Fernandez lining up ahead by virtue of a better second-best effort.
Acosta's KTM stablemates were all left stranded in Q1, with Enea Bastianini's hopes of advancing compromised by an outlap Turn 15 crash at the start of his second run.
💔 @Bestia23's weekend has just gone from bad to worse
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 13, 2025
He'll be 17th on the grid at best 😱#SanMarinoGP 🇸🇲 pic.twitter.com/wIiUvgfr87
The new V4 Yamaha took 22nd on the grid with tester Augusto Fernandez, who was slower than he had been on Friday - presumably not helped by his second Turn 2 crash of the weekend in pre-qualifying practice.
