Enea Bastianini claims pole as Marc Marquez and Brad Binder crash

Enea Bastianini will start the Portuguese MotoGP from pole after narrowly getting the better of Maverick Vinales and Jorge Martin in Q2.

Enea Bastianini, MotoGP, Portuguese MotoGP, 23 March
Enea Bastianini, MotoGP, Portuguese MotoGP, 23 March

There was drama at the beginning of Q2 as six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez suffered a very fast fall at the final corner.

Following Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller, Marquez was set to go quicker than the two riders ahead of him before losing the front.

Brad Binder was next to go down as another major contender for pole lost the front-end of his machine.

At the top of the leaderboard, Francesco Bagnaia set the first sub 1m 38s lap of the weekend to take provisional pole.

After returning to pit lane and making a helmet change, Marc Marquez was ready to go out for his second and final run.

With the shootout for pole in full flow, Enea Bastianini went quickest ahead of Jorge Martin.

Marc Marquez managed to improve on his final lap but it wasn’t enough to trouble the front two rows.

A big mover late on was Maverick Vinales as the Aprilia rider split Bastianini and Martin with second on the grid, moving Bagnaia down to fourth.

Qualifying 1 sees two Spaniards advance!

As Q1 got underway, Alex Marquez was the rider with the pace as he set a 1:38.422s, however, the Gresini rider was quickly bumped down to second by rookie Pedro Acosta.

Just 0.019s separated Acosta and Marquez before the latter pumped in a 1:38.340s to move back atop the leaderboard.

Not to be denied, Acosta lost time in the final sector but it wasn’t enough to stop him from going back into top spot by 0.012s.

The first rider set to miss out, Aleix Espargaro was third as the second and final runs began.

Despite the best efforts of Espargaro, Miguel Oliveira and Fabio Di Giannantonio, Marquez and Acosta finished 1-2 as they advanced to Q2.

Following his personal best time, Acosta had a small moment as he ran off circuit and through the gravel.

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