Bagnaia smashes COTA lap record for pole

Front row in the opening two rounds, factory Ducati rider Bagnaia had so far come up short in the battle for MotoGP pole in 2023.

But a final flying lap of 2m01.892s, the first ever sub 2m02s lap of the Circuit of the Americas, secured Bagnaia top spot on the grid for this afternoon’s sprint race and Sunday’s grand prix.

It came after Bagnaia aborted his penultimate effort as tried to shake off trailing traffic in the form of Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez.

Bagnaia set the early pace in the pole shootout session at COTA with a 2m02.576s from Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales and the VR46 Ducati of championship leader Marco Bezzecchi – who had to come through Q1.

An improvement to a 2m02.242s on his second flying lap of the session cemented top spot for Bagnaia, but only because he had a fastest second-best lap.

Alex Marquez set an identical time to Bagnaia to sit second, and would ultimately lead to the gamesmanship at the start of both riders’ second runs as the former followed the provisional poleman out of pitlane.

Bagnaia would back out of the first flying lap on his second run having failed to find time through the first two sectors, which released Marquez.

But Marquez would crash on his final attempt, denying him a chance to fight for back-to-back poles and leaving him at the front of the second row in fourth.

Bagnaia was able to regroup for his final lap and fired in a sensational 2m01.892s to secure the 12th pole of his MotoGP career.

He heads LCR Honda’s Alex Rins, who stunned on the troubled RC213V to secure his first front row of the season.

Rins briefly held pole position when he completed his final lap, but the 2019 COTA race winner’s 2m02.052s ultimately kept him 0.160s outside of a maiden qualifying victory.

Luca Marini completed the front row on his VR46 Ducati from Marquez and Bezzecchi, with Aleix Espargaro securing sixth on his final lap on the factory Aprilia.

That came at the expense of a struggling Fabio Quartararo on the factory Yamaha, who will head row three in seventh from Vinales and Pramac’s Johann Zarco, who topped Q1.

KTM’s Jack Miller crashed twice in Q2 to bring his fall tally at COTA this weekend to five and will start 10th ahead of team-mate Brad Binder, with two crashes leaving last year’s Americas GP poleman Jorge Martin in 12th.

Luca Marini, VR46 Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

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