Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro pulled off a remarkable lap time in the final seconds of MotoGP qualifying to snatch pole position from factory Ducati’s grasp at the British Grand Prix.
The 2023 British GP race winner compiled a lap record time of 1.57.309s, 0.208s quicker on his Aprilia than factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia in second with Enea Bastiainini rounding off the front row positions.
Pramac’s Jorge Martin finished proceedings in fourth, a performance that didn’t match his strong pace from the three practice sessions that saw him finish in the top spot on each occasion.
The Gresini Ducati brothers of Alex and Marc Marquez finished fifth and seventh, respectively, with KTM’s Brad Binder pulling a lap time out of nowhere to take sixth as lead KTM rider, 0.641s off of the ultimate pace.
A late crash from Maverick Vinales ruled out a final push to challenge his Aprilia team-mate for pole, but the 2016 British GP winner still wound up with the eighth-best effort.
Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta’s session finished in ninth place and a second adrift of the leader Espargaro, despite struggling to get to grips with the bike over the course of the practice sessions.
The VR46 duo of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi sandwiched Jack Miller on his KTM to occupy the final three spots in Q2.
The biggest shock from Q1 saw Franco Morbidelli unable to progress through on his GP24 and the Italian will have plenty of work to do in the Sprint and Grand Prix from 13th on the grid.
The Trackhouse pairing of Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira will occupy 14th and 15th on the grid, despite showing strong form earlier in the Q1 session.
Johann Zarco produced a rapid lap to qualify 16th on his LCR Honda but only came 0.3s away from a Q2 place, which shows the small steps the Japanese marque has made over the summer break.
With Acosta making it through to Q2, his Tech3 GasGas team-mate Augusto Fernandez will start both races from 17th following a late lap, putting himself ahead of 2021 champion and factory Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo.
The Repsol Honda duo of Luca Marini and Joan Mir followed in 19th and 20th, with LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami a further three and a half tenths back in 21st.
Once again bringing up the rear of the field was Yamaha’s wildcard rider Remy Gardner.
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