2024 Solidarity Barcelona MotoGP: Bagnaia takes pole for title showdown, Martin fourth
Bagnaia takes crucial final pole of 2024
Francesco Bagnaia took pole for the 2024 MotoGP title decider at the Solidarity Grand Prix of Barcelona, with championship leader Jorge Martin fourth.
This weekend’s final round of the season sees Martin come into it 24 points clear of Bagnaia in the standings and could wrap up the title in Saturday afternoon’s sprint.
He needs to outscore Bagnaia by two points, but that task has become harder after the latter scorched to pole on his factory team Ducati ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and Gresini’s Marc Marquez.
Martin, who said on Friday he didn’t feel confident on his Pramac-run GP24, heads row two in fourth ahead of team-mate Franco Morbidelli.
At the start of the 15-minute Q2 session at Barcelona, Martin was around a tenth up on Bagnaia through the first sector before backing out of that first flying lap.
Reigning world champion Bagnaia set the initial pace at 1m39.583s, with Marquez shadowing him by 0.037s in second.
Bagnaia improved again on his second flying lap to clock a 1m38.835s, while Martin’s first effort put him onto the provisional front row in third.
For his final run, Bagnaia emerged from pitlane with Marquez in tow again and Morbidelli.
Bagnaia was able to find more time in the closing stages of Q2, producing a 1m38.641s to claim the final pole of the year and the most crucial.
A late push from Aprilia’s Espargaro on his MotoGP farewell saw him leap up to second, 0.055s from pole, while Marquez held onto third on his Gresini-run GP23.
Martin’s penultimate flying lap saw him run through the chicane at Turn 1, leaving him with time for just one more attempt.
He could do no more than fourth, with Morbidelli 0.037s behind him. Tech3 GASGAS rookie Pedro Acosta completed the second row in sixth.
Maverick Vinales threatened Martin’s fourth spot on his final lap, but the Aprilia rider missed out in seventh ahead of Ducati’s Enea Bastianini.
VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi was ninth, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo 10th having come through Q1 alongside Morbidelli.
Alex Marquez was 11th after crashing his Gresini Ducati early on, while LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco was 12th.
Joan Mir narrowly missed out on making it two Hondas in Q2, the factory rider 0.028s outside of the top two in the first 15-minute session.
Miguel Oliveira will start 14th on his final outing with Trackhouse Aprilia and his first since fracturing his wrist in practice for the Indonesian GP.
He beat Yamaha’s Alex Rins, with Luca Marini 16th on the sister factory team Honda ahead of Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse) and KTM duo Brad Binder and Jack Miller.
Miller crashed in the closing stages of Q1 at Turn 5. Takaaki Nakagami was 20th for LCR Honda for his MotoGP farewell, with Augusto Fernandez (Tech3), Michele Pirro (VR46) and Stefan Bradl (HRC test team) completing the field.
