GasGas KTM’s Pedro Acosta earned his debut MotoGP pole position in a dramatic qualifying session at the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi.
The newly crowned Rookie of the Year set a time of 1:43.018 to out qualify Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia by 0.243s for his first pole position in the premier class, as Marc Marquez saw his new lap record deleted for a track limits violation.
Light rain started to come down early in the qualifying session, making every run vital for the riders.
The opening moments of Q2 saw the pitlane exit turn into a race, which was ultimately won by Bagnaia ahead of Marquez, as the duo raced on their outlaps ahead of the rest of the field.
Marquez took the initiative and made the clean air count by setting a banker lap of 1:44.136, ahead of Acosta and Martin.
Martin looked to be hampered behind Gresini’s Alex Marquez, and made contact while trying to overtake his fellow Spaniard.
The story of qualifying appeared to be the discomfort of the double reigning champion Bagnaia, who was overtaken by the rest of the field in their opening laps and pitted while waiting for the conditions to dry.
On the second laps, the momentum fell elsewhere as it was Acosta who took the reins ahead of Bastianini and the VR46 pair of Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio.
Martin crashed with just under two minutes left and would finish the session no higher than ninth as the championship had yet another twist.
It looked as if Marquez had done enough to take pole with a sub-1 minute 43 lap time, but at the conclusion of the session the Gresini rider saw his lap deleted due to track limits.
Acosta will start from pole ahead of Bagnaia in second as Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales rounds off the front row.
Enea Bastianini will head the second row of the grid, ahead of Brad Binder and Franco Morbidelli.
The GP23s locked out the remainder of the top 10, with the VR46 pair of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi leading the Gresini duo of Marc and Alex Marquez.
Championship leader Martin will start 11th following his late qualifying crash, ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who was impressive in 12th.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez narrowly missed out on a Q2 spot and will start both races from 13th, ahead of KTM’s Jack Miller in 14th and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro in 15th.
Johann Zarco had an impressive session on his second bike but could only muster 16th for LCR Honda, ahead of Joan Mir on the Repsol machinery.
GasGas KTM’s Augusto Fernandez will start the races 18th after narrowly outqualifying Yamaha’s Alex Rins in 19th.
Luca Marini could only finish 20th for Repsol Honda and local hero Takaaki Nakagami will start his home race from 21st.
Lorenzo Savadori, who is standing in at Trackhouse for Miguel Oliveira, will start the races from 22nd as Yamaha wildcard Remy Gardner completed the grid in 23rd.
