Francesco Bagnaia soared to a first ever MotoGP pole at Losail for the Qatar Grand Prix, the Italian banging in a new lap record by over half-a-second in the process.
Bagnaia came out the gates hot in the early phase of the pole shootout as he recorded the new lap record for the Losail International Circuit with a 1:53.273, heading the previous benchmark achieved by Marc Marquez in 2019 by 0.107, though he was swiftly relegated to fourth by Ducati team-mate Jack Miller and both factory Yamaha’s.
The ’18 Moto2 world champion refused to lay down and take it though as he geared up for his final set of push laps as the session came to a close, ultimately screaming to a 1:52.772 on his way to a first ever pole in what is his debut weekend for the factory Ducati outfit.
Fabio Quartararo was the man closest to usurping Bagnaia’s stunning gambit, though the Frenchman was a relatively distant 0.266 in-arrears after missing the opportunity to set a final lap due to mistiming his run to the line before the chequered flag was displayed.
Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales had to make do with the final spot on the front row in third, while Valentino Rossi made best use of a handy slipstream from the rapid Bagnaia to head up the front row on the veteren’s debut for the Petronas SRT Yamaha squad.
Miller failed to improve on his final endeavour and slipped to fifth as a result just ahead of Johann Zarco’s Pramac-run Ducati, with FP3 pace-setter Franco Morbidelli only able to manage seventh in the final reckoning.
Aleix Espargaro elected to post his best efforts without a tow, thus leaving him eighth on the grid ahead of Alex Rins on the first of the Suzuki’s.
Team-mate Joan Mir had to first tackle Q1 after missing the cut to receive an automatic Q2 berth in Friday evening’s FP2 session, the reigning MotoGP world champion marginally finding passage to the shootout after pipping Enea Bastianini by fractions.
Mir led the way early in Q1, though by just under a tenth over Pramac rookie Jorge Martin with the LCR Honda of Takaaki Nakagami third.
Bastianini fired in a 1:53.733 on his last gasp tour to move to the head of the timing sheets, though was relegated to second just moments later as Mir squeaked ahead by just 0.005.
Nakagami was the surprise man of the session after struggling throughout the Qatar GP weekend so far, the Japanese racer smashing in a 1:53.577 on his way to topping Q1 ahead of Mir.
The LCR man could only manage 11th in the shootout, albeit a position ahead of factory Honda counterpart Pol Espargaro. KTM’s horror weekend in the middle-east continued in qualifying as all four RC16’s failed to breach the top 10, Miguel Oliveria its highest classified runner down in 15th, while Brad Binder and Danilo Petrucci could capture just 19th and 20th on the grid on their Austrian machines.
| Pos. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time | Gap / Prev |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Francesco BAGNAIA | ITA | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati | 355.2 | 1’52.772 | |
| 2 | Fabio QUARTARARO | FRA | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 350.6 | 1’53.038 | 0.266 / 0.266 |
| 3 | Maverick VIÑALES | SPA | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | 348.3 | 1’53.088 | 0.316 / 0.050 |
| 4 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Petronas Yamaha SRT | Yamaha | 348.3 | 1’53.114 | 0.342 / 0.026 |
| 5 | Jack MILLER | AUS | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati | 357.6 | 1’53.215 | 0.443 / 0.101 |
| 6 | Johann ZARCO | FRA | Pramac Racing | Ducati | 356.4 | 1’53.286 | 0.514 / 0.071 |
| 7 | Franco MORBIDELLI | ITA | Petronas Yamaha SRT | Yamaha | 345.0 | 1’53.313 | 0.541 / 0.027 |
| 8 | Aleix ESPARGARO | SPA | Aprilia Racing Team Gresini | Aprilia | 348.3 | 1’53.315 | 0.543 / 0.002 |
| 9 | Alex RINS | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 347.2 | 1’53.490 | 0.718 / 0.175 |
| 10 | Joan MIR | SPA | Team SUZUKI ECSTAR | Suzuki | 349.5 | 1’53.682 | 0.910 / 0.192 |
| 11 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | JPN | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | Honda | 347.2 | 1’53.721 | 0.949 / 0.039 |
| 12 | Pol ESPARGARO | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 352.9 | 1’53.930 | 1.158 / 0.209 |
