Marco Bezzecchi stormed to his fourth pole position of the season after a late crescendo to the Portimao MotoGP qualifying session.
Bezzecchi took the advantage in the final five minutes of the qualifying session and his 1:37.556s lap time was untouchable after some late chaos involving Alex Marquez.
Pre-qualifying favourite Marquez headed to the top of the timesheets after his second flying run in qualifying, with the track conditions continuing to evolve after early morning rain.
As the field filtered back out for their second runs, Bezzecchi headed to the top of the timesheets, putting a half-second advantage between himself and Marquez.
Pedro Acosta closed the gap between the Italian and the rest of the riders, but the Spaniard was still unable to get on terms with the Aprilia and slotted into second.
Marquez crashed with two minutes to go, ending his bid for pole position, and potentially hampered the rest of the field on their final laps.
While most of the riders had one more chance to improve, none were able to get close to Bezzecchi’s time as the Italian claimed pole position.
Pedro Acosta earned his first front row start since the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix by taking second, while Fabio Quartararo completed the top three.
Francesco Bagnaia improved on his final run to head the second row of the grid, with Marquez ending the session in fifth after his late error.
Johann Zarco was the top Honda in sixth, narrowly ahead of the factory bike of Joan Mir in seventh.
Jack Miller also found more time on his final run to take eighth, with the Australian two-tenths clear of Fabio Di Giannantonio in ninth.
Pol Espargaro completed the top 10, as Fermin Aldeguer qualified in 11th ahead of fellow rookie Ai Ogura in 12th.
Luca Marini narrowly missed out on a Q2 spot and qualified in 13th, with Brad Binder joining the Italian on the fifth row of the grid.
Franco Morbidelli avoided a penalty after a collision with Miguel Oliveira in Q1, as the VR46 rider took 15th position.
Enea Bastianini qualified 16th to head the sixth row, with Alex Rins in 17th and Nicolo Bulega in 18th on his MotoGP debut.
Oliveira was hampered after his incident with Morbidelli and starts his home race from 19th, with Lorenzo Savadori joining him on the final row. Somkiat Chantra completed the standings in 21st.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez withdrew from the weekend after suffering a heavy crash in FP1 on Friday morning.
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