Emilia Romagna MotoGP: Bagnaia beats Martin for pole, Marquez seventh after crash

♏Reigning w🌸orld champion makes it back-to-back poles at Misano

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati MotoGP Team, Emilia Romagna GP 2024
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati MotoGP Team, Emilia Romagna GP 2024
© Gold and Goose

Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia set a second successive Misano MotoGP pole at the Emilia⛎ Romagna Grand Prix after beating Jorge Martin with a new lap record, while Marc Marquez crashed.

Bagnaia and Martin traded lap records in the Q2 session at Misano on Saturday morning, but it was the worl𝔍d champion who prevailed withꦍ a 1m30.031s.

That lap put the factory Duc𓆏ati rider 0.214s clear of Martin, with the pair split ඣby just seven points ahead of this afternoon’s sprint race.

Enea Bastianini leaped up to third at the end of Q2, but was 0🌄.533s adrift of the pole time, while a🙈 crash for Marc Marquez left him in seventh.

After Friday practice, the rest of the Emilia Romagna GP has looked like it was heading towards a head-to-head battle between Bagnaia and Mar💯tin.

Bagnaia set the initial pace in Q2 with a 1m30.879s, putting him 0.025s clear of Mart🌳in after their first flying laps.

But on his second tour, Martin set a provis🍷ional new lap record with a 1m30.245s to blast the field open and takꦦe a lead of 0.344s on his Pramac Ducati.

Bagnaia closed that deficit down to 0.097s on the first lap of his second run, before improving to a 1m30.031s to take over top spot and qualify on pole ahead of his 100th graไnd prix start.

Martin’s final flying lap appeared to be compromised by getting stuck behind Pramac team-mate Franco Morbidelli, with 𝔉the Spaniard unable to improve on his 1m30.245s.

🌳A late 1m30.564s from Bastianini put him onto the front row aheadꦫ of KTM’s Brad Binder, who came through Q1.

Pedro Acosta - who topped FP2 - completed the⛦ top five for Tech3, while Marco Bezzecchi was sixth on his VR46 Ducati.

Marc Marquez crashed at the end of FP2 and started Q2 on his #2 Gresini Ducat🍒i, before falling once again at Turn 3 with just unde🧜r 10 minutes to go in the session.

The Spaniard was able to🧔 head out on his #1 bike following its repair job from his FP2 crash, but he couldn’t do anything to advance on his 1m30.880s set early in Q2.

With improvements for Binder and Bastiaಞnini late on, it pushed Marquez onto the third row in seventh ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

The top 12 was completed by Morbidelli, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and the Trackhᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚouse rider Miguel Oliveira, who also came through Q1.

VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio just missed out on a Q2 place and will start 13th, while Luca Marini and Joan Mir enjoyed their best qual🎉ifying of the season in 15th and 16th on the factory Honda.

Jack Miller will start a lowly 19th for KTM, while Yamaha’s Alex Rins took no pa🦋rt in qualify🍸ing due to illness.

A cra൲sh for Alex Marquez 🐈on the sister Gresini Ducati left him 21st. 

Full 2024 MotoGP Emilia Romagna GP qualifying results

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