Bagnaia claims fourth MotoGP pole in a row, Quartararo only 15th

Francesco Bagnaia will start the Emilia-Romagna MotoGP from pole position after claiming his fourth in succession, while title rival Fabio Quartararo only managed 13th. 

Q2 began with Marc Marquez producing a miraculous save after nearly high siding on the exit of turn two.

While Marquez set about doing a second build-up lap, Jorge Martin crashed at turn eight.

Marquez managed to go fourth quickest on his first ‘real’ flying lap, but no one could do anything about Bagnaia’s stunning pace. 

The Italian was over 1.2 seconds clear of both Tech 3 KTM riders during the early stages, that was until team-mate Jack Miller went second - two tenths down. 

Marquez then put his Repsol Honda provisionally on the front row with third, before being bettered by team-mate Pol Espargaro. 

Marquez, Danilo Petrucci and Lecuona all crashed in quick succession, while MotoGP rookie Luca Marini set a stunning lap to go third - less than a tenth down on Bagnaia in what is his first premier class front row..

Johann Zarco also crashed late on after braking for turn 14 on the wet curbs. P. Espargaro, Miguel Oliveira and Franco Morbidelli will make up the second row.

Qualifying One

Quartararo and Bagnaia were involved in the same Q1 session for the first time this year - also Quartararo’s first Q1 appearance all year, a session that also included last year’s world champion Joan Mir and Iker Lecuona who topped FP4.

Lecuona and Bagnaia initially went first and second, however, Quartararo’s first flying lap saw him better the Tech 3 KTM rider by just over a tenth. 

Bagnaia then went half a second quicker than the Yamaha rider, while Alex Marquez slotted into third.

Lecuona and Bagnaia then exchanged top spot once again, before Quartararo went P2 - +0.185s down on the Ducati rider. 

A flurry of crashes then began as Brad Binder went down moments before Michele Pirro and Joan Mir.

At the front, Bagnaia remained in complete control, while Marquez - who was following the Italian, managed to split the two title contenders. 

Quartararo momentarily went second on his penultimate lap, but the Yamaha rider was then bettered by Alex Rins, Marquez, Lecuona and Takaaki Nakagami.

Quartararo improved again on his very next lap, however, it was not enough to get through as Bagnaia and Lecuona were the two to do so. Like Pirro, Enea Bastianini suffered a third fall of the day late on.

Things got even worse for Quartararo as his best lap - the final time he set, was then deleted due to completing it under waved yellow flags. That dropped him from 13th to 15th, but the lap was later reinstated.... And then removed again!