Marco Bezzecchi beats Marc Marquez to Aragon MotoGP pole with historic lap
Marco Bezzecchi set an historic 1m44s lap to snatch Aragon Grand Prix pole
Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi posted a new lap record to beat Marc Marquez to MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix pole in a thrilling qualifying.
Reigning world champion Marc Marquez hadn’t been beaten to Aragon pole as a Ducati rider ahead of the 2026 event.
But Marco Bezzecchi piled the pressure on him from the off on Saturday morning in qualifying, with the Italian producing the first-ever 1m44s lap of the Aragon track.
He would post two 1m44s, ending up on a 1m44.962s to beat Marc Marquez to pole by just 0.089s.
The top two were over two tenths clear of third-placed Alex Marquez, while championship leader Jorge Martin salvaged fifth in a scrappy session.
Alex Marquez set the initial benchmark at 1m45.9s on his first flying lap, but Marc Marquez blasted this away with a 1m45.136s, to go well underneath the new lap record set on Friday.
This put him almost half a second clear of the field, but Bezzecchi soon began to light up the timing screens.
His first flying lap was a historic first 1m44s of the Aragon circuit, with Bezzecchi taking over top spot with a 1m44.984s.
On his final effort, Bezzecchi bested this to a 1m44.962s.
Bezzecchi’s speed forced Marquez to push hard on his last two attempts, but on both he made critical errors.
He ran wide at Turn 1 on the first lap of his second run, though managed to produce a 1m45.051s to cement second and get to within 0.089s of Bezzecchi.
Just 0.013s down on Bezzecchi’s time through sector two of his last lap, Marquez nearly crashed at Turn 14, ending his pole hopes.
Alex Marquez held onto third, 0.299s off Bezzecchi’s lap, while Raul Fernandez was fourth on the Trackhouse Aprilia, 0.413s off the pace.
Martin was fifth, but was nearly half a second down on team-mate Bezzecchi, while Pedro Acosta was sixth for KTM despite a late crash at Turn 9.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was somewhat anonymous in seventh on the VR46 Ducati, while Pecco Bagnaia was eighth on the factory team Ducati after topping Q1.
Johann Zarco was an impressive ninth on his LCR Honda, as he bested team-mate Diogo Moreira in 10th.
Fermin Aldeguer could only manage 11th on his Gresini Ducati, with VR46’s Franco Morbidelli rounding out the top 12.
Jack Miller led the Yamaha charge in 13th, narrowly missing a Q2 place, as Brad Binder (KTM) and Honda’s Joan Mir shadowed him.
Enea Bastianini was 16th on the Tech3 KTM from Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, while Honda’s Luca Marini, Yamaha’s Alex Rins, Tech3’s Pol Espargaro, Pramac’s Toprak Razgatlioglu and Trackhouse stand-in Lorenzo Savadori completed the field.
