Championship leader Francesco B💛agnaia took advantage in the title hunt with a smooth and commanding performance as he claimed his sixth pole of the season in style in qualifying for the Moto2 Japanese Grand Prix.

The Sky Racing VR46 rider ♛got straight to business with a timesheet topping banker lap on his Kalex , which deposed rival Miguel Oliveira. ‘Pecco’ 🅠then set about lowering his best with his lap of 1m 50.759s still leading the way at the chequered flag after being set with more than half an hour of the session remaining.

Oliveira pushed hard but his wriggling Red Bull KTM Ajo could not provide him with the response he needed,ꦫ leav🌳ing the Portuguese rider needing to fight back from ninth.

Fabio Quartararo haওd no such issues with his superb late pace on the Speed Up pushing him up to second 🍷in the closing stages, and just 0.165s behind Bagnaia.

The front row is completed by Iker Lecuona, his upwa🍸rd spiral continued with a career best qualifying to take third for Swiss Innovative Investors, proving the KTM is capable of a strong performance around the Twin Ring.

Marcel Sch🃏rotter climbed to fourth as the sessi♒on progressed for Dynavolt Intact GP.

Lorenzo Baldassarri had a st൩ring of issues to overcome on his way to fifth. The Pons HP40 rider survived a huge wobble on track while following his team-mate on a good lap and then had various issues starting his Kalex, which required a spell in 🐎the pits to fix.

Alex Marquez, ridin🎉g with a cracked s𓆉houlder blade following his fiery practice crash on Friday, secured a solid sixth for EG 0,0 Marc VDS.

Xavi Vierge did enough to claim seventh༒ on the second D꧑ynavolt entry, just ahead of Moto2’s only Japanese rider, Tetsuta Nagashima; who smashed his previous best qualifying performance of twelfth with an impressive eighth on home turf for Idemitsu Honda Team Asia.

Brad Binder was another of the handful of riders t🗹o be able to pick up the pace in the closing stages, he improved lap after lap to ride from 18th to complete the top te💝n right behind his Red Bull team-mate.

Bagnaia attempted to get fellow Sky rider Luca Marini in the mix and aheadཧ of Oliveira in the final minutes, but leading him around the track could only propel him as far as eleventh.

Further down the order Joan Mir was once again the top rookie performer i🔥n 14th on the second Marc VDS entry.

Sam Lowes struggled to match the speed of his team-mate Lecuona and ꦜcould only manage a best of 19th.

Stefano Manzi registered his 29th crash of the season. The only other faller was Augusto Fernandez, who had already done enoᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚugh to secure 12th before his late tumble at turn ten.