2025 Catalan MotoGP: Alex Marquez ends pole drought, Pecco Bagnaia 21st

Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez posted a new lap record to claim his first pole of the 2025 MotoGP season at the Catalan Grand Prix, while Pecco Bagnaia was 21st.

Looking strong across Friday on the 2024-spec Ducati, Alex Marquez came out swinging in the Q2 session at Barcelona on Saturday morning in his bid for pole.

Not topping a qualifying since the 2023 Argentina Grand Prix, Alex Marquez fought off stiff competition from Marc Marquez, Fabio Quartararo and Pedro Acosta to post a new lap record of 1m37.536s for pole.

He beat Q1 pacesetter Fabio Quartararo by 0.267s on the factory Yamaha, while Marc Marquez completed the front row with a 1m37.945s.

While there was joy for Ducati in Q2, there was despair for Pecco Bagnaia as he tumbled out of Q1 with his worst qualifying of the year.

Struggling all weekend on his factory GP25, last year’s Barcelona polesitter could do no better than 21st, marking his lowest grid slot since Portugal 2022 when he didn’t take part in the session due to a crash.

A new lap record had been posted already by Yamaha’s Quartararo in the Q1 session as he led VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio into the pole shootout.

Pedro Acosta set the initial pace in Q2 on the factory KTM with a 1m38.147s, before Alex Marquez edged ahead with a 1m37.984s.

Quartararo then hit the top of the timesheets with a 1m37.968s, before Alex Marquez posted a 1m37.914s to end the first runs in Q2.

The Gresini rider became the reference for the field for the final runs, with Marc Marquez hooking onto the back of him with just a few minutes to go.

Alex Marquez produced a lap record 1m37.536s with this pressure, which dragged Marc Marquez up to second initially.

Quartararo was able to split the Ducati pair with a 1m37.803s, while Marc Marquez took third with a 1m37.945s.

The championship leader was on course to challenge for pole on his last flying lap, but suffered a big front-end moment going into Turn 5 and had to abandon that effort.

Franco Morbidelli will start fourth on the first of the VR46 Ducatis, with Pedro Acosta fifth on the leading KTM ahead of Di Giannantonio.

Johann Zarco was seventh on the LCR Honda ahead of Trackhouse Aprilia’s Ai Ogura and Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini.

Luca Marini was 10th on the factory team Honda, while Friday pacesetter Brad Binder was only 11th after an issue on his number one KTM forced him to complete Q2 on his second machine.

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi rounded out the top 12 in a low-key session for the Italian.

Fermin Aldeguer narrowly missed out on a place in Q2 and will start 13th on his Gresini Ducati ahead of Pramac’s Jack Miller and Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez.

Reigning world champion Jorge Martin’s qualifying struggles continued as he could do no more than 18th on the factory Aprilia, with his former title foe Pecco Bagnaia a few places back in 21st.

Full 2025 MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix qualifying results