Bagnaia strikes back in dramatic Czech GP qualifying, Marquez crashes
MotoGP

Bagnaia strikes back in dramatic Czech GP qualifying, Marquez crashes

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
3 min read

Pecco Bagnaia took pole position for the Czech Grand Prix's return to MotoGP, as Marc Marquez crashed out at the final moment.

Bagnaia looked in strife going through Q1 but ran off-sequence to power into the pole shootout, then repeated the strategy to bag his first pole of the season.

So formidable had Marquez looked this weekend - with dry running limited and the 'fresh' track favouring him - that nine of his Q2 rivals lined up behind him in a train during the first exit, with only Joan Mir cut somewhat adrift from the group and Fabio Quartararo choosing to run totally solo.

But Bagnaia abandoned the attempt to run in the pack, coming into the pits to instead run on a clear track a few minutes later - and it enabled him to move two tenths clear of Marquez.

He then slotted in right behind his team-mate as Marquez was winding up for a lap, leading to the slightly farcical situation in which Bagnaia and Alex Marquez were jockeying for track position behind the championship leader.

Marc's first flying lap was scratched off immediately due to yellow flags at Turn 1, brought out by Marco Bezzecchi's third crash of the weekend as he and his Aprilia arrived at the airfence at very slow speed after trundling through the gravel.

There was enough time left for another go at that point, and Marc was immediately on course for provisional pole - while Bagnaia ran much slower behind him, compromising Alex in the process.

Arriving into to the final two corners, the elder Marquez then went down at Turn 13, going into the gravel at speed, unhurt.

He described it as a crash of "distraction". LCR Honda's Johann Zarco had crashed in effectively the same place mere moments prior, and was lucky that his crash trajectory was different to that of Marquez's, but the championship leader is in no danger of a penalty for crashing under yellows because his onboard suggests the yellow flag was not yet deployed at the moment he was arriving at Turn 13.

It means he is due to start second, with Quartararo completing the front row on the Yamaha.

Bezzecchi will line up fourth despite his crash, followed by Honda's Joan Mir and Trackhouse Aprilia's Raul Fernandez - both with standout qualifying efforts, with Fernandez having come through Q1 with Bagnaia.

Pedro Acosta was held up by the Bagnaia/Marquez situation late on and ended up settling for seventh, ahead of Alex Marquez and Zarco.

Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) also crashed in the final moments and ended up 10th, with Enea Bastianini and returnee Jorge Martin completing the Q2 order.

Provisional Czech GP grid

1 Bagnaia 2 M Marquez 3 Quartararo
4 Bezzecchi 5 Mir 6 R Fernandez
7 Acosta 8 A Marquez 9 Zarco
10 Miller 11 Bastianini 12 Martin
13 Di Giannantonio 14 Espargaro 15 Rins
16 Marini 17 Oliveira 18 Aldeguer
19 Binder 20 Nakagami 21 Ogura
22 A Fernandez

VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio headed Q1 after the initial runs, but was usurped by Bagnaia and Fernandez - with his own improvement of nearly three tenths only enough for 13th on the grid.

He is joined on the fifth row by KTM tester Pol Espargaro, riding in relief of Maverick Vinales for Tech3 this weekend, and Yamaha's Alex Rins.

There were no huge surprises in Q1 aside from Di Giannantonio's exit, though another thing of note was Brad Binder's indifferent form continuing.

Binder, who won the most recent Czech GP as a rookie in 2020, was hardly in the mix on Friday in any of the various conditions and never really asserted himself as a Q2 threat in the dry here. His best lap was chalked off for track limits - but this was anyway only the difference between 16th and 19th on the grid.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More Networks