Gresini rider Alex Marquez secured his first pole position this season with a blisteringly quick lap in the Catalonian MotoGP qualifying session in front of his home crowd.
Marquez, deemed the favourite for the victory, secured his maiden pole position in glorious fashion, setting the fastest time of 1:37.536s.
Halfway through the Q2 session, Alex Marquez topped the timesheets with a 1:37.914s ahead of Fabio Quartararo, who was fastest in Q1.
Marquez battled for pole with Quartararo and Pedro Acosta, who was slowly gaining speed on Marquez.
Acosta put his KTM on provisional pole with two minutes to go in the session, lapping 0.003s quicker than the Gresini rider.
However, Marquez came back with a bang, gaining half a second on Acosta’s time in the final sector with the fastest lap of 1:37.536s.
The final battle came down to the two Marquez brothers, who waited until the final two seconds to embark on their last laps.
It was Alex Marquez who came out of that battle on top with his brother wobbling on his final lap to secure a third-placed slot on the starting grid.
Quartararo secured second place on the front row, just 0.267s behind the speedy Gresini rider who earned Gresini’s first pole of the season.
VR46 riders Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio were fourth and sixth fastest, respectively, with Pedro Acosta sandwiched between the two.
Acosta had one of his lap times deleted due to exceeding track limits, and settled for fifth place instead.
Johann Zarco came home in seventh place ahead of rookie Ai Ogura who secured an eighth-place starting position for Trackhouse.
KTM rider Enea Bastianini was ninth fastest ahead of Luca Marini, who managed to beat out Brad Binder by just 0.006s.
Aprilia’s struggles continued with Marrco Bezzecchi down in 12th place, and his teammate Jorge Martin qualifying in 18th place.
Rookie Fermin Aldeguer managed a 13th-place position, qualifying in front of Jack Miller, Raul Fernandez, and Miguel Oliveira.
Despite being quickest in the final practice session this morning, Joan Mir qualified in 17th place for Honda.
Francesco Bagnaia put in his worst qualifying performance since Portugal 2022, continuing his struggles with the GP25 through to qualifying.
The two-time world champion qualified in 21st place after failing to improve on his time of 1:38.580s, while his teammate sits on the front row.
Maverick Vinales and Lorenzo Savadori occupy the 22nd and 23rd slots on the starting grid, ahead of rookie Somkiat Chantra who qualified last.
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