Marc Marquez produced a stellar lap to claim his first pole position of the 2026 season in the Spanish MotoGP qualifying session at Jerez.
Marquez picked up his first pole position since the 2025 Hungarian GP after setting a lap time of 1:48.087s on used tyres.
The Spanish rider has hoped to go unchallenged during the Q2, and immediately laid down a marker to head to the top of the timetable.
However, the LCR Honda of Johann Zarco caused a potential upset by heading into top spot as the session reached its halfway point.
In typical Marquez-like fashion, the nine-time World Champion responded and was undeterred by a couple of errors on his best lap – returning to pole position.
Marquez remained there for the rest of the session and clinched his first pole of the season by 0.140s.
Zarco took second place after a couple of mistakes on his final lap cost him, while Fabio Di Giannantonio completed the front row.
Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi took fourth at the flag, ahead of Alex Marquez in fifth and Pedro Acosta in sixth.
Jorge Martin qualified seventh despite a late crash – but was awarded a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race after impeding Alex Marquez in practice.
Enea Bastianini finished in eighth position, as Raul Fernandez set a time good enough for ninth and Francesco Bagnaia completed the top 10.
Ai Ogura’s best lap time saw him finish 11th, while Fermin Aldeguer suffered a crash and ended up 12th.
Brad Binder narrowly missed out on a Q2 spot and took 13th, edging ahead of the factory Honda pair headed by Joan Mir in 14th.
Luca Marini suffered a rare crash to line up behind his team-mate in 15th, whilst wildcard entry Augusto Fernandez finished as top Yamaha in 16th.
Fabio Quartararo was forced into a late save at Turn 6, but his laptime was only enough for 17th ahead of early crasher Franco Morbidelli in 18th.
Toprak Razgatlioglu’s first experience of qualifying at Jerez on a MotoGP bike saw him finish 19th and ahead of Aprilia wildcard Lorenzo Savadori.
Alex Rins completed the session in 21st, while Jack Miller crashed at the final corner and failed to set a competitive time in 22nd.
Diogo Moreira suffered a technical problem and was unable to set a lap time in qualifying, which saw him round out the standings in 23rd.
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