Marco Bezzecchi stunned the field to take pole for the Austrian MotoGP round, as championship leader Marc Marquez crashed out of contention.
Bezzecchi earned his first pole since the 2023 Indian GP by the smallest of margins, beating Alex Marquez to the position by just 0.016s.
The Italian took charge of the session despite being forced to progress through Q2, though was challenged by strong lap times set by Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia.
The times set by the trio of riders demoted Marc Marquez to the second row of the grid, and the Spaniard was unable to improve on his time after crashing at the chicane with just minutes remaining.
A crash for Raul Fernandez with a minute remaining meant that the rest of the field could not challenge the Aprilia man, who took the manufacturer’s first pole of the season.
The younger Marquez brother missed out on the top spot by 0.016s as he qualified in second place.
Bagnaia was a further tenth behind as he completed the front row of the grid, ahead of team-mate Marquez.
Enea Bastianini completed the top five after a strong showing throughout qualifying, while Fermin Aldeguer was sixth over the line.
Pedro Acosta attempted a late challenge for pole position, but lost the front at the final corner, with his lap time only good enough for seventh, while Franco Morbidelli was eighth.
Fernandez was ninth despite his crash in the closing stages of qualifying, while Joan Mir rounded out the top 10.
Brad Binder earned 11th, with Johann Zarco completing the fourth row of the grid in 12th.
Luca Marini narrowly missed out on a Q2 spot and qualified in 13th ahead of reigning World Champion Jorge Martin in 14th.
Fabio Di Giannantonio struggled throughout qualifying and could only muster 15th, with Fabio Quartararo leading factory Yamaha team-mate Alex Rins to 16th and 17th respectively.
Miguel Oliveira completed qualifying in 18th, while Ai Ogura headed the final row of the grid by taking 19th.
Jack Miller’s best time was only good enough for 20th, as Maverick Vinales struggled with shoulder pain on his return to action and completed the standings in 21st.
Discussion about this post