Aleix Espargaro continued to dominate the Catalan Grand Prix weekend as he flew to a second pole of the year by just 0.031s over Francesco Bagnaia.
The Spaniard led FP2, FP3 as well as FP4 ahead of qualifying and thus looked to be the favourite to start from the point at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya, though he could managed only third in the opening runs of the pole shootout behind Fabio Quartararo and Bagnaia – albeit just 0.012s from the top.
He had his work cut out though as Bagnaia banged in a stunning 1:38:787s effort to top the standings as the final runs got underway, a time just fractionally slower than Espargaro’s FP3 leading time in cooler, faster conditions.
The Argentinean GP victor managed to string together a blistering tour of his own though to post an all-new lap record of the venue – a 1:38.742s – to take away the top spot from the Italian, though the Ducati pilot still had one attempt up his sleeve.
He was lapping fractionally under Espargaro’s benchmark after three sectors, though in the end lost out on pole by just 0.031s – leaving the Aprilia rider to celebrate his third career MotoGP pole position.
Quartararo was unable to improve on his opening effort in the end, though this was still enough to hold onto the final front-row spot ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Johann Zarco, while Mugello pole-man Fabio Di Gianantonio once again starred over a single lap to score the accolade for highest rookie in fifth.
Jorge Martin was sixth on the sister Pramac machine ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins, while Maverick Vinales escaped Q1 en-route to eighth.
Luca Marini was ninth on his VR46-run Desmosedici while Pol Espargaro completed the top ten for Honda, the Spaniard just clear of factory Ducati man Jack Miller and the second Q1-graduate of Takaaki Nakagami.
Marco Bezzecchi ended up missing the Q2 cut-off by just 0.017s and will therefore start 13th, while Gresini’s Enea Bastianini and KTM’s Brad Binder lapped just fractionally away from Q2 speed behind the Italian.
Joan Mir’s tough weekend continued as he managed a lowly 17th on the second Suzuki GSX-RR ahead of Franco Morbidelli.
Alex Marquez was forced to sit out qualifying after being forced to head to the medical centre following a high-speed crash at the final bend in the closing stages of the preceding FP4 test.
