Pecco Bagnaia repeats pole position at the Emilia Romagna GP at Misano. The Italian rider smashed his previous time from two weeks ago at this track to break the track record and snatch pole position from Jorge Martín in the closing stages of Q2. Martinator was unable to beat his title rival and will start second. Enea Bastianini is third, while Marc Márquez will start from seventh after crashing early in the session.
Pecco Bagnaia started leading in Q2, followed by Jorge Martín and Marc Márquez. The top three in the World Championship and the three favourites for pole were leading after their first lap. But then an unexpected guest appeared at the party, Pedro Acosta. El Tiburón de Mazarrón had just set the fastest time in the morning practice before qualifying.
Acosta came out behind Marquez and not only did he not escape, but he stuck to him like a limpet and was almost an extension of the Ducati. So much so that the Gasgas rider broke Jorge Martin’s record and took first place. The surprise came in Misano. But the joy did not last long for the rookie because Martinator came like lightning from behind and destroyed his time. The World Championship leader stopped the clock at 1:30.245, a very good time.
Just after Marc Márquez’s crash. The man from Ilerda crashed again in Q2 at Misano, as happened two weeks ago. This time the crash happened less than 10 minutes before the end of the session, but it affected him a lot. It was the second of the day because he had already suffered one at the end of the morning free practice. The 93 took to the track with the second bike to do a final flying lap. But he was unable to improve and will start from the third row, even if he gained two positions compared to the previous Grand Prix.
With Marquez out of the fight, the battle was between the two fastest on the grid, Martín and Bagnaia. Pecco managed to improve the Pramac rider’s record and dropped to 1:30.031 to take another pole of the season. Jorge was hampered by Morbidelli in this last attempt and will start second. Rookie Acosta also had a good time. The young Murcian rider confirmed his good feelings and will start fifth.
Alex Marquez will start last
Álex Márquez was the star of the surprise of the day. It was not his weekend and, to make matters worse, he suffered a crash at the start of Q1 that hampered him for the rest of the session. The 73 raced for the second moto after the crash and managed to get back on track, but he was unable to improve his time and finished eleventh in this qualifying, so he will start last. Because Álex Rins will be absent for this Grand Prix due to injury.
He was one of the candidates to go to Q2, but unfortunately he was not even close to doing so at any time. His first lap was not good and he immediately crashed. This crash hurt the Spaniard a lot. Those who succeeded were Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira. Joan Mir’s Honda got closer, even finding himself in the first two positions that gave access to the battle for pole with two minutes to go in the session.
But Rául Fernández took him out of that second place and he couldn’t come back. Finally, the Japanese bikes will start fifteenth (Marini) and sixteenth (Mir). It was a very close battle, but in the end it was Binder’s KTM and Oliveira’s Aprilia, who next year will be a Pramac rider, who qualified for Q2.
