Enea Bastianini has earned his second pole position in Moto GP at the Portuguese Grand Prix, the Ducati rider set to lead the field for the first time since Austria 2022.
With Bastianini having posted a lap time of 1:37.706s, Maverick Vinales was on a mission in the closing exchanges to snatch pole position from the Italian’s grasp.
However, the Spaniard lost time in the final sector of the Portimao lap and wound up 0.082 seconds adrift of the benchmark pace, but he retained second nonetheless.
Jorge Martin rounds out the front row of the grid for the races with a third-place qualification, with 0.106s ending up covering the top three riders ahead of the Sprint.
Francesco Bagnaia was unable to improve on his provisional pole time, but he will still line up in a promising fourth as he bids to further extend his championship lead.
KTM endured a mixed qualifying session, with Jack Miller qualifying fifth in the end despite being positioned as high as second at one point behind Bagnaia’s Ducati.
Meanwhile, KTM stable-mate Brad Binder had a crash in Turn 5 at the start of the session, therefore having restricted lap times and placing himself 10th on the grid.
After struggling in Qatar and languishing down in 14th, VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi starts in sixth and is right in the mix to get his championship off and running.
Rookie Pedro Acosta leads the way on the third row with a more than respectable seventh-place qualification, especially when he had to navigate through the Q1 stage.
However, Marc Marquez couldn’t get any further than eighth place. The Spaniard had an early crash in Turn 15 while on a quick lap and had to move onto the spare bike.
Brother Alex Marquez was the sole rider in Q2 not to set a lap time despite progressing with Acosta from Q1.
The Yamaha riders were ninth and 11th, with Fabio Quartararo leading Alex Rins, who was 0.796s off the leading pace to provide encouragement for the Japanese marque.
Aleix Espargaro’s disappointing weekend continued as he couldn’t get out of Q1 and became the biggest name to miss out, leaving him with substantial work to do.
The other two Aprilla riders for the Trackhouse outfit placed themselves 15th and 16th, with hometown hero Miguel Oliveira ahead.
Elsewhere, Fabio DiGiannantonio is in the middle of the Aprilla sandwich, where all four riders were separated by under 0.200s in a hard-fought and compact Q2 session.
Franco Morbidelli failed to replicate his positive pace in practice as he qualified 17th, but the Italian appears to be getting to grips following his absence from testing.
With the final KTM in Augusto Fernandez starting 18th, it was a horrid result for both Honda teams as all four riders will occupy the back of the grid, led by Johann Zarco.
