Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi took pole position for the San Marino Grand Prix at his home Misano circuit on Saturday while MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez will start on the second row after going only fourth-fastest in qualifying.
The front row will have three different manufacturers, with Bezzecchi joined by Gresini Racing’s Alex Marquez on a Ducati machine and Yamaha’s Fabio Quaratararo, who had held provisional pole after coming through the Q1 session.
However, the Aprilias of Bezzechi and Jorge Martin worked in tandem once again, as they did in Friday’s practice, with the latter giving the home favourite a slipstream that allowed him to set the fastest lap, clocking one minute 30.134 seconds.
“It’s fantastic. I made a very good lap, a very good morning overall. I’m very happy about my performance,” Italian Bezzecchi said.
“The team obviously did a wonderful job and the bike was very good. I enjoyed riding it… Now we have to concentrate for the race (sprint) this afternoon and especially tomorrow.”
Marc will have VR46 Racing’s Franco Morbidelli and Honda’s Luca Marini on the second row while Fabio Di Giannantonio was seventh fastest.
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, who has struggled this season and sits 250 points behind teammate Marc, was only eighth fastest while KTM’s Pedro Acosta crashed when he attempted to set a fastest lap and will start ninth on the grid.
Alex is 182 points behind Marc and needs 34 points this weekend to deny his brother a shot at the title in the next round in Japan and the Gresini rider set the early pace to take provisional pole before Bezzecchi snatched it away from him.
“We know that here to be in front row is super important for the first lap, for the start, for the first three corners that always are tricky,” Alex said.
“But anyway, I didn’t expect to be in front row today. I was struggling quite a lot this morning… But I’m super happy and we’re looking forward to the sprint race.”
