2025 Malaysian MotoGP: Francesco Bagnaia denies Alex Marquez Sepang pole
Qualifying for the 2025 Malaysian MotoGP saw Francesco Bagnaia take pole position and some paddock drama for Fermin Aldeguer.
Francesco Bagnaia secured his third pole position of the 2025 season in qualifying at the Malaysian MotoGP, and doing it for the second time this year after coming through Q1.
After a frantic end to Practice on Friday, when intermittent rain in the final 20 minutes of the session disrupted the time attacks of most riders to some extent, there were several of the strongest riders in the first session.
These included Luca Marini, who topped FP2, as well as Indonesia winner Fermin Aldeguer, Motegi winner Francesco Bagnaia, Australia winner Raul Fernandez, and the recently in-form Marco Bezzecchi.
Of course, only two could go through, and it was Aldeguer and Bagnaia who did so. Marini was the only rider, ultimately, with the speed to threaten either of them, but he had to roll out of his final lap due to yellow flags for a crash for Aldeguer at turn four.
Aldeguer then also crashed in the back of the pits when he got back there, but fortunately no one was harmed.
In Q2, Bagnaia did only one run due to a lack of soft compound rear tyres, which also have a strong possibility to be used in the grand prix, as well as the Sprint and qualifying.
He did a decent job with that one tyre, setting provisional pole on his first lap, beating Fabio Quartararo's early benchmark from his first run.
Alex Marquez was the rider who got closest to Bagnaia's 1:57.001 in the second runs for the rest of the Q2 field, but he missed out by 0.016 seconds.
Fabio Quartararo had his own attempt, but lost out in the final sector and could only manage fourth.
Bagnaia, then, took pole for the Malaysian MotoGP, his second pole in four races, but also his first top-10 qualifying since that previous pole in Motegi.
Alex Marquez took second place, ahead of Franco Morbidelli in third, meaning that after not having a bike on the front row for the first time in 99 races at Phillip Island Ducati returned to locking out the front row in Sepang.
Quartararo stayed fourth on his final run, unable to improve on his first, while in fifth place was Pedro Acosta despite a crash at turn one on the first lap of his final run. Fermin Aldeguer completed the top-six.
Joan Mir was the best Honda rider in seventh place; Fabio Di Giannantonio sits in an RC213V sandwich on the third row, having qualified eighth ahead of Johann Zarco in ninth.
Alex Rins rounded out the qualifying top-10, ahead of Jack Miller and Pol Espargaro on the fourth row.
Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi could be considered podium contenders based on their respective pace, Marini even a victory threat; but they will start 13th and 14th, respectively, after failing to advance from Q1.
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