Marco Bezzecchi hails “fantastic” Misano pole, Alex “proper job”, Quartararo surprise

Marco Bezzecchi thrilled the home Misano fans by snatching his second Aprilia MotoGP pole position of the season.

The Italian came out swinging on Saturday by topping final practice, then was a pole contender throughout Qualifying 2.

Bezzecchi overturned Alex Marquez’s advantage by 0.088s on his penultimate lap of the 15-minute shootout.

“It's fantastic!” smiled Bezzecchi. “I made a very good lap, a very good morning overall. Very happy about my performance. Also, the team obviously made a wonderful job and the bike was very good.

“The fans are getting more and more every day so I’m happy to make a good show for them. Now we have to concentrate for the race this afternoon and especially tomorrow.”

Barcelona winner Alex Marquez was faster than Bezzecchi in the middle part of the lap, but lost time in the first and last sectors.

“We know that to be on the front row here is super important for the start, first corners and first laps,” said the Gresini Ducati rider.

“I didn't expect to be in front today. I was struggling quite a lot this morning, not in the first run, but in the second. But we put everything more or less together.

“It's true that we missed something on T4 to be on pole. But anyway, I'm super happy, we did a proper job, and we're looking forward for the sprint race.”

Fabio Quartararo, who had written off his chances after Friday's struggles, produced the biggest surprise of qualifying.

However, he set a scorching pace to lead Qualifying 1, then took his M1 to within 0.1s of Bezzecchi’s pole time in Q2.

“I prefer to say no [it’s not possible] and then do it!” Quartararo replied, when reminded of his Friday comments.

“But to be honest, I think it was one of the toughest weekends we've had during this season, but we managed to make it very well. We worked really good with the team yesterday to try to avoid the issues that we had.

“I always put a lot of energy on one lap. I know it's my strongest point. But today I didn't expect to make P3, and especially this lap time. I made a few mistakes, but thanks to the team that really made a great job, my crew chief, my engineers. 

"Let's see what we can do in the race.”

Title leader Marc Marquez, fastest on Friday, could only qualify fourth. He needs just three points this weekend to secure a first mathematical title chance in Japan.