2025 Argentina MotoGP: Marc Marquez blasts lap record for pole, Johann Zarco third
Marquez takes second pole of 2025 season
Marc Marquez set a new lap record to take pole for the 2025 MotoGP Argentina Grand Prix, as Johann Zarco scored a first front row for Honda since the 2023 Italian GP.
Championship leader Marquez came into Saturday’s pole shootout favourite to top the Q2 session after ending Friday fastest of all with a new lap record.
He bettered this on Saturday morning with a 1m36.917s to beat Alex Marquez by 0.246 seconds for his second pole of the season.
Completing the front row was LCR’s Zarco, who has been fast all weekend and continued that pace in Q2 with a 1m37.205s lap.
It marks Honda’s first front row in two years, with its last at Mugello in 2023 when Marc Marquez was second.
Pecco Bagnaia was fourth on the sister factory team Ducati following a tough Friday, while Pedro Acosta led the KTM charge in fifth.
A tight Q2 session began with Marc Marquez setting the pace on his factory team Ducati, the eight-time world champion dipping underneath his own lap record with a 1m37.142s.
He bettered this on his second lap to a 1m37.023s, with Alex Marquez shadowing him on the timesheets.
After his first run, Bagnaia was only eighth and almost six tenths behind team-mate Marc Marquez.
Several riders lit up the timing screens with session-best sectors in the closing stages of the 15-minute Q2, but couldn’t quite get close enough to dethroning Marquez from top spot.
On his final flying lap, the factory Ducati rider produced a 1m36.917s to cement pole position.
Alex Marquez held onto second with a 1m37.163s, while Zarco was 0.288s off the pace in third.
Bagnaia jumped up to fourth in the latter stages of the session with a 1m37.268s, with Acosta 0.006s behind him in fifth.
Fabio Di Giannantonio rounded out the second row on the VR46 Ducati, with Fabio Quartararo seventh on the first of the factory Yamahas.
Franco Morbidelli came through Q1 with Joan Mir and qualified eighth on the second of the VR46 Ducatis, while Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi faded to ninth having been inside the top four at one point.
Honda’s Mir was 10th, with KTM’s Brad Binder and the sister works Yamaha of Alex Rins in 12th.
Pramac Yamaha rider and 2018 Argentina poleman Jack Miller narrowly missed out on a Q2 place in the first part of qualifying and will start 13th ahead of Gresini rookie Fermin Aldeguer and Trackhouse Racing’s Ai Ogura.
Ogura crashed in Q1 late on, as did fellow rookie Somkiat Chantra (LCR).
