Francesco Bagnaia batted off the advances of Aprilia to storm to a sixth pole position of 2023 in Barcelona, the Italian recording a new lap record to boot.
Bagnaia made sure to be in the conversation with the so-far dominant looking Aprilia’s of Aleix Espargaro, Maverick Vinales and Miguel Oliveira as he ended the first runs of the pole shootout in fourth as Vinales led the way on a 1:39.099s, though Brad Binder looked strong too for KTM in second.
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia though came out ready to fight on his final set of tyres as he fired in a pair of times ultimately fast enough to head to the top of the times, his first effort of 1:38.639s – a new two-wheeled lap record of the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya – leaving him well clear of the pack.
Espargaro though looked to have a little more in the tank just as he did towards the end of the second practice session on Friday afternoon, the Aprilia ace around half-a-tenth-of-a-second up on Bagnaia half-way around his final tour.
He couldn’t hang onto his time advantage however and ultimately slipped to 0.104s adrift of Bagnaia as the series leader secured pole, Espargaro forced to make do with second on the grid as a result.
It was still a strong showing from Aprilia though as Oliveira claimed third for the RNF squad despite having had to fight through Q1 to claim a passage in Q2, while Vinales was fourth just a fraction further back – the RS-GP trio covered by just 0.029s.
Jorge Martin followed in fifth for Pramac Ducati despite being held up by Honda’s Marc Marquez on his last attempt, the Spaniard narrowly heading team-mate Johann Zarco and Gresini Ducati pairing Alex Marquez and Fabio Di Gianantonio.
Brad Binder ended up slipping all the way to ninth despite his promising early session pace, the South African just clear of VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi who continued to lack speed at the Spanish venue.
Enea Bastianini will start both the sprint race and grand prix from 11th on the grid, while Marc Marquez failed to take much profit from securing the final pole shootout spot and will start 12th for both encounters as by far the best-placed Honda rider.
Jack Miller ultimately was the orchestrator of his own demise having unintentionally dragged Marquez around on his best lap, the six-time premier class champion just pipping him to second overall in Q1 and leaving the Aussie out in 13th.
He at least managed to get the better of fellow RC16 rider Pol Espargaro for GasGas, while a decent early showing from Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo led to nothing as he managed a disastrous 17th just behind team-mate Franco Morbidelli, the Frenchman having dominated this event just over a year ago.
Luca Marini also had an uncharacteristically tough Saturday morning en-route to 18th on the sister VR46 Ducati entry, the Italian leading only GasGas rookie Augusto Fernandez and the struggling Honda trio of Joan Mir, Takaaki Nakagami and Iker Lecuona who completed the field.
