Pecco Bagnaia snatches pole from Marc Marquez in tight French MotoGP qualifying
Pecco Bagnaia took a first pole of the season in a Ducati 1-2
Pecco Bagnaia took a first pole of the 2026 MotoGP season after beating Ducati team-mate Marc Marquez by just 0.012s at the French Grand Prix.
The double world champion has looked strong all weekend, carrying better confidence on his Ducati GP26 since the Jerez test a few weeks ago.
Despite setting no time during his first run, Pecco Bagnaia lit up the timing screens in the closing stages of Q2 and produced a 1m29.634s to go fastest of all in the session.
It marks his first pole since the 2025 Malaysian Grand Prix, nearly 200 days ago.
Bagnaia beat Ducati team-mate Marc Marquez, who overturned a difficult Friday to set a new lap record in Q1 and miss out on pole by just 0.012s.
Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi completed the top three on the leading Aprilia, with just 0.023s covering the front row.
VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio set the initial pace in Q2 with a 1m29.876s, before Bezzecchi edged clear with a 1m29.825s.
Marquez would challenge for pole with a 1m29.646s with just under four minutes to go, but would ultimately be denied by Bagnaia’s 1m29.634s.
That lap, however, was some way off the 1m29.288s record that Marquez set to lead Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo out of his first Q1 appearance since Indonesia last year.
Di Giannantonio threatened Bagnaia’s pole time at the start of his final flying lap, but came up short and could only manage fourth with a 1m29.699s.
The VR46 rider was unhappy coming across a slowing Bagnaia on his final flying lap, though the stewards decided no action was necessary after an investigation.
Pedro Acosta was fifth on the only KTM in the top 10, while Quartararo was just 0.197s away from pole on his factory Yamaha.
Joan Mir led the Honda charge in seventh, while Jorge Martin was eighth on the second of the factory Aprilias.
Ai Ogura shadowed him in ninth on the Trackhouse Aprilia, while Alex Marquez was left in 10th after a late crash on his Gresini Ducati.
Friday pacesetter Johann Zarco was a disappointing 11th on the LCR Honda, while Alex Rins was almost a second away from pole in 12th on the second of the factory Yamahas.
Trackhouse Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez narrowly missed out on a Q2 spot in Q1 and will start 13th ahead of Tech3 KTM’s Enea Bastianini, who crashed.
Honda’s Luca Marini was 15th ahead of VR46’s Franco Morbidelli and Pramac Yamaha’s Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Diogo Moreira will start 18th on the second LCR Honda, while the grid was completed by Pramac’s Jack Miller, Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer, KTM’s Brad Binder and Tech3’s Jonas Folger.
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