MotoGP Italian GP: Martin takes pole, Marc Marquez…

MotoGP Italian GP: Martin takes pole, Marc Marquez fourth after crash

Martin, who leads the championship by 39 points coming into the Mugello round, scored his third pole of the year with a new lap record of 1m44.504s set on his first flying lap.

The Spaniard, who looks set to step up to the factory Ducati team in 2025, beat reigning champion and last year’s Italian GP winner Bagnaia.

The Italian was just 0.043 seconds behind Martin, though will have to drop three grid spots for the grand prix after impeding Alex Marquez in practice on Friday afternoon.

Maverick Vinales completed the top three on his factory Aprilia, while Marc Marquez scored his best qualifying result since he was on pole at Jerez despite crashing late on in Q2.

The lap record was already beaten in the Q1 session by Pramac Ducati rider Franco Morbidelli, who topped that 15-minute segment with a 1m44.726s.

Team-mate Martin, on his first flying lap, lit up the timing screens at the start of Q2 and produced a 1m44.504s.

But Martin would never better this across the rest of the session and came under fire as the session wound down.

Bagnaia came close and was up on Martin through the first three sectors of his best lap, but lost out in the final split and came up just short with a 1m44.547s.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing, Maverick Vinales, Aprilia Racing Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

The factory Ducati rider will start second for Saturday’s sprint race, but for the grand prix he will be demoted to fifth.

Bagnaia was seething in parc ferme about this punishment, calling it a “clown penalty”.

“It’s one of the greatest thing I could do today, starting on the front row, because this clown penalty is something useless,” he said.

“But in any case, today it will be important to start well, to do the maximum. We know that our pace is very, very fast. So, I know if I can be leading in the first laps we can have a good advantage.”

Aprilia’s Vinales put together a good final lap, but also lost out in the final sector and had to settle for third.

Gresini Ducati’s Marc Marquez looked like he was on course to beat Martin’s time with just under three minutes to go in Q2, but crashed going into Turn 10.

Despite this, Marquez held onto fourth in his first Q2 appearance since the Spanish GP and will be promoted to the front row for the grand prix courtesy of Bagnaia’s podium.

Enea Bastianini was fifth on the sister factory team Ducati ahead of Q1 pacesetter Morbidelli, while Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta headed row three in seventh on the sole KTM in Q2.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Alex Marquez was eighth on his Gresini Ducati, with Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Yamaha’s Alex Rins completing the top 10, while Trackhouse Aprilia duo Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez capped off row four.

KTM’s Brad Binder couldn’t lift himself out of Q1 and will start 13th, while Fabio Quartararo couldn’t scale the same heights as his Yamaha team-mate Rins down in 15th.

Joan Mir was the fastest Honda in 17th.

MotoGP Italian GP - Q2 results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	7	1'44.504		180.682
2	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	8	+0.043 1'44.547	0.043	180.607
3	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	6	+0.183 1'44.687	0.140	180.366
4	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	5	+0.280 1'44.784	0.097	180.199
5	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	8	+0.376 1'44.880	0.096	180.034
6	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	7	+0.392 1'44.896	0.016	180.006
7	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	8	+0.524 1'45.028	0.132	179.780
8	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	8	+0.704 1'45.208	0.180	179.473
9	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	7	+0.732 1'45.236	0.028	179.425
10	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	8	+0.792 1'45.296	0.060	179.323
11	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	8	+0.873 1'45.377	0.081	179.185
12	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	6	+0.954 1'45.458	0.081	179.047
View full results

MotoGP Italian GP - Q1 results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Speed Trap
1	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	6	1'44.726		180.299	352
2	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	6	+0.142 1'44.868	0.142	180.054	351
3	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	8	+0.268 1'44.994	0.126	179.838	358
4	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	8	+0.281 1'45.007	0.013	179.816	352
5	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	6	+0.350 1'45.076	0.069	179.698	356
6	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	8	+0.492 1'45.218	0.142	179.455	356
7	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	8	+1.002 1'45.728	0.510	178.590	358
8	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	8	+1.087 1'45.813	0.085	178.446	358
9	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	8	+1.098 1'45.824	0.011	178.428	361
10	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	8	+1.167 1'45.893	0.069	178.312	360
11	P. Espargaro Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	44	KTM	6	+1.217 1'45.943	0.050	178.227	364
12	L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team	32	Aprilia	7	+1.474 1'46.200	0.257	177.796	349
13	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	8	+1.539 1'46.265	0.065	177.687	355
14	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	7	+1.972 1'46.698	0.433	176.966	357
View full results

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