Bagnaia maintains good form to take pole in Jerez

In qualifying for the 2022 Spanish MotoGP, Ducati MotoGP rider Francesco Bagnaia broke Fabio Quartararo’s pole streak in Jerez.

Francesco Bagnaia topped the timesheets on his way to his maiden MotoGP pole of 2022, destroying the two-wheeled lap record at the Spanish circuit in the process.

Bagnaia continued to display good speed after leading both the FP3 and FP4 sessions on Saturday, finishing second quickest by the end of Q2’s first runs, just behind Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

Quartararo had taken pole in each of his previous four premier-class races at Jerez, but he couldn’t match Bagnaia’s 1m36.170s, which is now the new Jerez lap record.

Quartararo and Bagnaia, 2021 title rivals, established themselves as the fastest riders right away in Q2, lapping 0.073s apart and roughly four-tenths faster than everyone else after combining to lock down the top two slots in both third and fourth practice.

Despite this, Bagnaia’s first flying lap following a mid-session pitstop put him nearly six tenths ahead of Quartararo, who could only close the distance to 0.453s.

However, he was still able to finish second, with Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia finishing third, three tenths behind Quartararo.

Jack Miller placed fourth on the grid after running behind Ducati teammate Bagnaia on the Italian’s record lap, while Marc Marquez finished fifth after following Bagnaia and then Quartararo.

Johann Zarco (Pramac) and Marco Bezzecchi (VR46), the two Ducati riders who advanced from Q1, finished sixth and eighth, separated by Takaaki Nakagami of LCR Honda. In Q1, just after setting his best time, Bezzecchi suffered a minor crash.

The crashes for Joan Mir (Suzuki), Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati), and Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) happened in Q2, however they all finished ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, who was the last of those in Q2.

Pol Espargaro missed out on the pole by 0.003s, the Honda driver being overtaken by Bezzecchi by the tiniest of gaps before being dropped to third in Q1 by a last-gasp Zarco upgrade.

Espargaro will start from fifth row alongside his Spanish countryman Alex Rins (Suzuki), who is currently tied for first place in the championship standings with Quartararo, and the leading KTM of Brad Binder, who had a faster laptime deleted due to track limits but would have finished in the same position regardless.

Franco Morbidelli, finished 16th, followed by a pair of rookies separated by 0.007s – Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati) and Remy Gardner (Tech3 KTM), with Gardner crashing late in the practise at Turn 1.

Miguel Oliveira finished last among the KTMs, with Tech3’s Raul Fernandez unable to compete due to injury. Oliveira’s Q1 was hampered by a mechanical setback, which prevented him from completing one of his two planned runs. He will start 21st, one position ahead of LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez.

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