Marco Bezzecchi beats Marc Marquez to Misano MotoGP pole
Marco Bezzecchi smashed the lap record at Misano to claim pole
Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi smashed the lap record at Misano to beat Marc Marquez to pole for the MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix.
With all of Friday’s running setting up a tense qualifying duel between Marco Bezzecchi and Marc Marquez, it was the former who got the upper hand in Q2.
The Aprilia rider posted the first-ever sub-1m30s lap of Misano with a new record of 1m29.982s to secure a second successive pole position.
Marquez was his nearest challenger, but made several mistakes in Q2 as he pushed to claim second, while Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer completed the front row.
Alex Marquez, on the sister Gresini Ducati, set the early pace in Q2 with a 1m30.733s, though he would crash just moments later while on a second push lap.
At the same time, Marc Marquez was forced to abandon his first flying lap after experiencing a massive headshake going through the fast Curvone section.
On his second flying lap, Marc Marquez guided his factory Ducati to top spot with a 1m30.504s.
But this wouldn’t stand for long as the benchmark, as Bezzecchi lit up the timing screens on his factory Aprilia.
Six tenths up on the field going through the third sector, Bezzecchi hooked the lap together to produce a 1m29.982s and shoot to the top of the standings.
The Italian would ultimately not be able to beat this, while Marquez was forced to dig deep to get anywhere near this time.
Making another mistake at the start of his second run, Marquez produced a 1m30.180s on his final effort to move up to second, albeit 0.198s from Bezzecchi’s lap.
A late 1m30.350s from Aldeguer, who came through Q1, jumped up to third late on, pushing VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio down to fourth after the Italian crashed at Turn 4 late on.
Championship leader Jorge Martin was fifth on the sister factory Aprilia, while Luca Marini was sixth on the leading Honda.
Pedro Acosta was seventh for KTM ahead of VR46’s Franco Morbidelli and Alex Marquez, who crashed for a second time at the end of Q2.
Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez was 10th after advancing from Q1, while LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco and Tech3 stand-in Pol Espargaro completed the top 12.
Fabio Quartararo was the leading Yamaha in 13th, with the 2021 world champion beating a struggling Pecco Bagnaia on the second of the factory Ducatis.
Diogo Moreira was 15th on the second of the LCR Hondas, with Enea Bastianini (Tech3), Joan Mir (Honda), Jack Miller (Pramac), Brad Binder (KTM), Aex Rins (Yamaha) and Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac) rounding out the field.
